Buffalo Bill Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 Today is the turn of my dark horses for Euro 2008: Croatia. Lead by the tournament's most rock-n-roll manager, Croatia have the look of a well oiled Champions League team in the way their players know each other's game inside out. Italy, France, Holland, Portugal and Germany are more fancied, but if anyone is going to spring a shock, I reckon it's Slaven Bilic's lot. Austria v Croatia Kick off 17:00hrs. Buffalo Bill . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaun.lawson Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 Today is the turn of my dark horses for Euro 2008: Croatia. Lead by the tournament's most rock-n-roll manager, Croatia have the look of a well oiled Champions League team in the way their players know each other's game inside out. Italy, France, Holland, Portugal and Germany are more fancied, but if anyone is going to spring a shock, I reckon it's Slaven Bilic's lot. Austria v Croatia Kick off 17:00hrs. Buffalo Bill . They're certainly the best of the bunch outside the Big Six (the sides you mentioned plus France); but can they do it without Eduardo? They've struggled desperately for goals in friendlies since his injury - and the way Bilic keeps going on about it can't have done much for the psychological state of his players either. In all likelihood, it'll be quarter-finals and no further - but with their tenacity and pride, and Modric weaving magic, you never know. I'd love to see it happen too: Bilic is just class! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamboAl Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 Today is the turn of my dark horses for Euro 2008: Croatia. Lead by the tournament's most rock-n-roll manager, Croatia have the look of a well oiled Champions League team in the way their players know each other's game inside out. Italy, France, Holland, Portugal and Germany are more fancied, but if anyone is going to spring a shock, I reckon it's Slaven Bilic's lot. Austria v Croatia Kick off 17:00hrs. Buffalo Bill . On the one hand I'd really like to see this. They are a good well-organised team who play some decent fast football at times. On the other hand it would be (perversely) good to see Ingurland's conquerors go at the first hurdle to deflate the English media's arrogance a little. I would not wish Ingurland to have been beaten by the eventual champions as it will give them some reason to believe they were unlucky in the draw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gigolo-Aunt Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 Looking forward to watching Croatia as well as Romania. If Croatia have any thoughts on gettig through this group they MUST take 3 points from most peoples weak team on the Champioships. Home nation so it might just not be the easiest of games - do expect them to win it though. Eduardo is a huge loss for them, but it never happend in the last week or so - Croatia will have been planning for and playing the best system/player to play in his absence. A big believer that in football, when a player drops out of the team - its always a chance for another player to make a name for himself. As we know, past W'Cups and Euros give players a platform to take their career to the next level, Two games of football a day - cant beat it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drylaw Hearts Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 Looking forward to watching Croatia as well as Romania. If Croatia have any thoughts on gettig through this group they MUST take 3 points from most peoples weak team on the Champioships. Home nation so it might just not be the easiest of games - do expect them to win it though. Eduardo is a huge loss for them, but it never happend in the last week or so - Croatia will have been planning for and playing the best system/player to play in his absence. A big believer that in football, when a player drops out of the team - its always a chance for another player to make a name for himself. As we know, past W'Cups and Euros give players a platform to take their career to the next level, Two games of football a day - cant beat it. Three games a day surely beats it ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gigolo-Aunt Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 Three games a day surely beats it ? 3 games and a free nudey picture of Drew Barrymore would certainly top it, mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The xx Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 Great midfield with players like Kranjcar and Modric but I agree with previous posters that they lack quality strikers. Also, their form has been patchy this year: drawing with Scotland and Hungary and getting stuffed by the Dutch. I heard yesterday that out of the top 8 (in terms of odds) they are the only non-Western country. (Pointless bit of info sorry) Anyway, my guess is that they'll finish second in the group and go out to Portugal in the quarter-final. Portugal v Spain final!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosanostra Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 Looking forward to seeing Croatia and Germany today, should be interesting to say the least. Bilic is a seriously cool cat. His interview on Football Focus was outstanding yesterday. When discussing England's failure to qualify, he started every sentence with the words "You Failed....". Was pretty funny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drylaw Hearts Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 3 games and a free nudey picture of Drew Barrymore would certainly top it, mate. You will have to settle for 2 games and a semi-nude Drew Barrymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tazio Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 Well cheers BB, now you jinxed my sweepstake team:mad: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gigolo-Aunt Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 You will have to settle for 2 games and a semi-nude Drew Barrymore. Oh Drew, who can tame you! Back on topic a bit... Rememeber as a kid watcing Italia 90 - Croatia had not yet split from Yugoslavia which was one of the best sides I had seen in my life at that point. 9 FW Darko Pancev 07 Sep 1965 Red Star Belgrade 10 MD Dragan Stojkovic 03 Mar 1965 Red Star Belgrade 14 FW Alen Boksic 21 Jan 1970 Hajduk Split 15 MD Robert Prosinecki 12 Jan 1969 Red Star Belgrade 17 DF Robert Jarni 26 Oct 1968 Hajduk Split 19 FW Dejan Savicevic 15 Sep 1966 Red Star Belgrade 20 FW Davor Suker 01 Jan 1968 Dinamo Zagreb Not sure how much some of the younger ones above played in the tournament, but thats some crop of players coming through. Such a shame that they could not compete at Euro92. Often said that they would have had a great chance of winning it. Also in that squad is a former Kilmarnock goalkeeper. 22 GK Dragoje Lekovic 21 Nov 1967 Buduenos Titograd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaun.lawson Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 Oh Drew, who can tame you! Back on topic a bit... Rememeber as a kid watcing Italia 90 - Croatia had not yet split from Yugoslavia which was one of the best sides I had seen in my life at that point. 9 FW Darko Pancev 07 Sep 1965 Red Star Belgrade 10 MD Dragan Stojkovic 03 Mar 1965 Red Star Belgrade 14 FW Alen Boksic 21 Jan 1970 Hajduk Split 15 MD Robert Prosinecki 12 Jan 1969 Red Star Belgrade 17 DF Robert Jarni 26 Oct 1968 Hajduk Split 19 FW Dejan Savicevic 15 Sep 1966 Red Star Belgrade 20 FW Davor Suker 01 Jan 1968 Dinamo Zagreb Not sure how much some of the younger ones above played in the tournament, but thats some crop of players coming through. Such a shame that they could not compete at Euro92. Often said that they would have had a great chance of winning it. Also in that squad is a former Kilmarnock goalkeeper. 22 GK Dragoje Lekovic 21 Nov 1967 Buduenos Titograd I agree wholeheartedly. After Argentina jammily knocked them out on pens, I expected them to be the best team in Europe by 1992 - and tipped them to win Euro 92. Then something rather more important than football intervened - so we'll never know. But that was a very special side, and given most major nations have won a major tournament at some point, there's every reason to suppose that year would've been Yugoslavia's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosanostra Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 Prosinecki was a brilliant player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.N.T.H. Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 Croatia may well go far in the competition. Read an article in the paper yesterday about Bilic's backroom team being Prosinecki and Nicola Jurcevik; guys that have played for Croatia in the not too distant past. This is apparently the catalyst for the amazing team spirit that they have. The hotel they were staying in received reports of smoking in the room, and when they went up, the sub-goalkeeper and a few of the boys - including Prosinecki - were passing cigars around. Krancjar and Modric will run the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rudi must stay Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 Today is the turn of my dark horses for Euro 2008: Croatia. Lead by the tournament's most rock-n-roll manager, Croatia have the look of a well oiled Champions League team in the way their players know each other's game inside out. Italy, France, Holland, Portugal and Germany are more fancied, but if anyone is going to spring a shock, I reckon it's Slaven Bilic's lot. Austria v Croatia Kick off 17:00hrs. Buffalo Bill . they are a decent team i just don't see them getting that many goals with Eduardo injured, he seemed to be the main threat for them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bighusref Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 I would like to see Croatia do well, however I think the belief that they will do well has a lot to do with the fact they knocked out England. Since knocking out England they have received a huge amount of press here (here meaning Britain) much of it sounding like "They knocked us out so they MUST be good". I like Bilic and would be delighted to see them do well, I simply do not think they are as good as they are reported. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.