Match 20: Croatia vs Czech Republic - 5PM (BST) BBC1 - live from Hampden Park

[CFuller]

Croatian change.

Former-Everton-player-Nikola Vlasic comes on for Andrej Kramaric-once-of-Leicester.

[Pukey]

7 minutes ago, Haguey said:

I want Dion to be good because he clearly cares, but he's just not is he.

He's a likeable guy, but he's a pretty rubbish pundit. At least he's not physically painful to listen to like someone like Keown though at least I guess.

5 minutes ago, Baptista_8 said:

I'll never get how some ex pros manage to offer so little insight. They've played the game at the very highest level, and you'd have thought they'd have had some in depth tactical talks from managers over the years, yet they don't say anything the average fan could.

Explaining things is a very different skill to being able to listen and execute tactical instructions of course, and then there's some laziness as well from most pundits and they do no research beyond a look on Wikipedia before the game, then they'll just do the basics during the match and say "so and so's played well" and "he did a goal!" I think there's some who are just a bit dense as well. It's endlessly frustrating hearing pundits just repeating cliches. I don't think it will be a lot better in other countries but I do wish we had more interesting analysis.

[EnterUsernameHere]

Decent game now.

[GunmaN1905]

Just now, Pukey said:

I don't think it will be a lot better in other countries but I do wish we had more interesting analysis.

It's way worse, believe me.

We have a guy who's like an encyclopedia of knowledge, but not for past 20 years.

Whenever Holland plays he'll talk about 70s and 80s, when Hungary plays it's all about Puskas and co.

[Darius1998]

Some managers give great insight when they are on as pundits. Eddie Howe was on a few times last season and he was fantastic, same with Roberto Martinez a few years ago.

Then again, there's Tim Sherwood to balance them out.

[Haguey]

Italian punditry looks spicy, Cassano acting the bellend like an Italian Chris Sutton.

[Haguey]

Just now, Darius1998 said:

Some managers give great insight when they are on as pundits. Eddie Howe was on a few times last season and he was fantastic, same with Roberto Martinez a few years ago.

Then again, there's Tim Sherwood to balance them out.

I was surprised that other people had forgot how good a pundit Lampard was. Might not ever be a great manager but he talks and explains very well.

[Baptista_8]

When Kovacic actually starts taking some responsibility, he's good

[GunmaN1905]

1 minute ago, Haguey said:

Italian punditry looks spicy, Cassano acting the bellend like an Italian Chris Sutton.

If anything, they're entertaining.

Vieri, Cassano, Ventola and Adani have this huge popular twitch channel, podcast style.

Cassano just keeps spewing nonsens and arguing. Before the tournament he was convincing everyone how Verratti is a bad player for Italy and that it's better he's injured.

[Baptista_8]

Just now, GunmaN1905 said:

If anything, they're entertaining.

Vieri, Cassano, Ventola and Adani have this huge popular twitch channel, podcast style.

Cassano just keeps spewing nonsens and arguing. Before the tournament he was convincing everyone how Verratti is a bad player for Italy and that it's better he's injured.

Pep was on one wasn't he? I wish I could understand what they're saying

[GunmaN1905]

Just now, Baptista_8 said:

Pep was on one wasn't he? I wish I could understand what they're saying

Yeah, Cassano was trying to spread his knowledge even on Pep.

[Haguey]

1 minute ago, GunmaN1905 said:

Cassano just keeps spewing nonsens and arguing. Before the tournament he was convincing everyone how Verratti is a bad player for Italy and that it's better he's injured.

Sounds exactly like Sutton tbh, being contrarian just to be an arse

[The Amazing Dale Watkins]

Tbf, it also depends a lot on the audience. US pundits are total cringe when commentating big events where average Joe is watching, but are much more insightful commentating foreign league games where they know the audience consists of hardcore football nerds whom you don't have to explain the offside rule for the umpteenth time.

[The_jagster]

Czech Republic do not look dangerous on the break at all so far, just seem really slow.

[Baptista_8]

1 minute ago, GunmaN1905 said:

Yeah, Cassano was trying to spread his knowledge even on Pep.

Love that 

[Freakiie]

Well the Dutch have van Basten, who at this point is basically just a grumpy old guy and then van der Vaart and Affelay, who for the most part simply state the obvious.

Would need to get my arse down to the telly to watch the Germans, which is obviously too much effort, but they generally had pundits that actually had tactical insight which was quite refreshing. No idea who they got now though, so perhaps it's just as horrible as everything else.

[GunmaN1905]

Really need Vlašić to score that, my fantasy team this round has been an absolute disaster.

[Baptista_8]

Perisic probably even had enough time to control it and get a snap shot away then.

[VamPook]

This Kral guy been quite bad

Like watching the worse of Fellaini+Luiz

[craigcwwe]

Got this down for a 1-1 scoreline on the predictions thread. 

[GunmaN1905]

England's first game looking less and less impressive.

This is absolutely dire.

Czechs a limited, but well coached and organized team.
Croatia with way more quality, but some flaws that are made even worse because of a placeholder, puppet coach.

[Pukey]

1 minute ago, GunmaN1905 said:

England's first game looking less and less impressive.

This is absolutely dire.

Czechs a limited, but well coached and organized team.
Croatia with way more quality, but some flaws that are made even worse because of a placeholder, puppet coach.

Was thinking that myself  

[Pukey]

Some of Croatia's set pieces have been brainless.

[MIR17]

I like Dion Dublin a lot.

I've never been too fussed about in depth analysis during a game, I feel that's something you have to do after a game once all the stats come in anyway.

 

I'd much rather the really likeable, affable pundits of Dion Dublin, Ian Wright or Michael Richards during a game.

[EnterUsernameHere]

4 minutes ago, GunmaN1905 said:

England's first game looking less and less impressive.

This is absolutely dire.

Czechs a limited, but well coached and organized team.
Croatia with way more quality, but some flaws that are made even worse because of a placeholder, puppet coach.

It wasn't really impressive anyway. Was always a job done, move on and forget performance.

[Freakiie]

Just now, Pukey said:

Some of Croatia's set pieces have been brainless.

Most of these short routines seem pretty brainless to be honest. Play it short, play it short 5 more times and then nothing actually happened at all.

[GunmaN1905]

Modrić looks absolutely spent.

Can't put a 36 year old player on DM when it's the second game in 4 days.

[DJ]

10 minutes ago, Freakiie said:

Well the Dutch have van Basten, who at this point is basically just a grumpy old guy and then van der Vaart and Affelay, who for the most part simply state the obvious.

Would need to get my arse down to the telly to watch the Germans, which is obviously too much effort, but they generally had pundits that actually had tactical insight which was quite refreshing. No idea who they got now though, so perhaps it's just as horrible as everything else.

Per Mertesacker mainly. He's OK, but quite flat. I think that for a forum of football nerds like we are, pundits would have to be very very good in order not to be seen as spouting boring general things though. TV is made for the average tournament fans. The type who judge a match and the players by the score only. Lose and you're useless, win and you're superior to everyone.

[EnterUsernameHere]

1 minute ago, MIR17 said:

I like Dion Dublin a lot.

I've never been too fussed about in depth analysis during a game, I feel that's something you have to do after a game once all the stats come in anyway.

 

I'd much rather the really likeable, affable pundits of Dion Dublin, Ian Wright or Michael Richards during a game.

Micah Richards is a bit much for me, more of a small doses guy. Agree though, much rather an enthusiastic idiot who's enjoying it than a bore who knows his stuff.

[The Amazing Dale Watkins]

Perisic chesting the ball to his keeper from 8 yards out through traffic. That's pretty confident.

[CFuller]

2 minutes ago, MIR17 said:

I like Dion Dublin a lot.

I've never been too fussed about in depth analysis during a game, I feel that's something you have to do after a game once all the stats come in anyway.

 

I'd much rather the really likeable, affable pundits of Dion Dublin, Ian Wright or Michael Richards during a game.

[Pukey]

1 minute ago, Freakiie said:

Most of these short routines seem pretty brainless to be honest. Play it short, play it short 5 more times and then nothing actually happened at all.

I don't mind short routines if there's an actual plan behind them, but some of these ones have been "play it short...ok what do we do now?" If you have no idea what to do, just play the free kick/corner into the box ffs  

[GunmaN1905]

What an awful game, send both teams home.

 

[Darius1998]

What was that?! 

Edited June 18, 2021 by Darius1998

[EnterUsernameHere]

Not that anything would have happened, but why blow up early?

[pearcey_90]

Referee has to be somewhere? Blew up well early  

[georginho_juventusygr]

I fell asleep. 

[Freakiie]

6 minutes ago, DJ said:

Per Mertesacker mainly. He's OK, but quite flat. I think that for a forum of football nerds like we are, pundits would have to be very very good in order not to be seen as spouting boring general things though. TV is made for the average tournament fans. The type who judge a match and the players by the score only. Lose and you're useless, win and you're superior to everyone.

Well some of the pundits like Kahn in the past managed to give insight beyond "well team A scored more than team B and therefore won", while keeping it understandable for the average fan and in depth enough to make us football geeks go "that's an interesting take actually".

[craigcwwe]

Fair result.

[Astafjevs]

Job done for Croatia in many ways. They'd back themselves to beat Scotland. 4 points, through in 3rd or 2nd. Easy

[kpain16]

We're such a pathetic team. Absolutely no game plan whatsoever. Completely wasted group of actually good players.

[Tikka Mezzala]

That'll do nicely for the Czechs. 

[ArsenalFan7]

That was the worst refereeing performance of the tournament. Of course it’s a Spaniard that blows up before the final whistle when the Croats were attacking but in general Del Cerro proved he’s not a great referee.

[VamPook]

Quote

𝐃𝐞𝐣𝐚𝐧 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐮𝐢𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞-𝐤𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐲

Why the hell is Dejan Lovren taking a free kick for Croatia at Euro 2020?

That’s the question asked by many on social media when the former Liverpool defender talked Ballon d’Or winner Luka Modric out of taking a direct free kick in Friday’s 1-1 draw with the Czech Republic.

Here at The Athletic, we felt it was only fair to investigate further into the reasoning behind Lovren the free kick taker.

We understand that it was a spur of the moment decision made by the Croatia players surrounding the ball. Modric, the country’s captain and voted UEFA’s Star of the Match in Glasgow, confirmed this was the case in the post-match press conference.

One source close to the Croatia squad has revealed Lovren has been taking plenty of free kicks in training — and has been scoring them convincingly. This is likely the reason Modric gave up the ball at Hampden Park.

“Everybody was shocked in Croatia,” says Croatian football expert Viki Ivanovic, who is in Glasgow for Tuesday’s group finale against Scotland. “The game was pretty chaotic. The Croatia team itself is pretty chaotic and this was the cherry on top. We didn’t know he had even practised free kicks in training. Apparently, he told Luka Modric that he felt very good to shoot and Modric said, ‘OK. Shoot’.

“It was surprising for everybody, and in particular the way he took the shot. It was very technical how he hit it at full strength, similar to say Roberto Carlos’s style. All Croatian news reporters asked about it after the game, and even the coach (Zlatko Dalic) said he was surprised. But after he heard the players had made the decision on the pitch, he said, ‘OK’.”

“Luka Modric is the guy,” Ivanovic tells The Athletic when asked who usually takes free kicks for Croatia. “Josip Brekalo and Mateo Kovacic can both shoot. Andrej Kramaric, who has had an excellent season with Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga, can shoot too. We all thought Kramaric would take it, or maybe Luka. Dejan was probably one of the last picks in everybody’s mind!

“I don’t remember him ever taking free kicks for Croatia. The last defender to take free kicks was Darijo Srna (who last played for Croatia in 2016), he was excellent and scored so many goals for the national team. I don’t think Lovren will take any more free kicks. It will not be any kind of punishment; I just don’t think he is the guy for free kicks. But one free kick is really not that big of a deal. The Croatia national team has a lot bigger problems in this European Championship than that.”

The feeling in Croatia, then, is that Lovren will no longer be on free-kick taking duties for his national side hereafter. But when he returns to Zenit Saint Petersburg, the sight of him standing over a free kick would not astonish anyone when given his exploits in recent months.

“He has taken a few free kicks in the past season,” Russia-based sports reporter Alexey Yaroshevsky tells The Athletic. “The usual free-kick taker at Zenit is Yaroslav Rakitskyi. He is the other centre-back and has a cannonball of a shot. Two of the free kicks Lovren took last season were when Rakitskyi was out. Another time, he had to ask Rakitskyi if he could take it. Lovren has scored a couple of goals for Zenit, but those were not free kicks. He scored a header from a corner once and there was another goal which was just spectacular.”

Like a lot of us, Yaroshevsky watched with surprise as Lovren stepped up at Hampden Park. 

“The free kick thing is crazy. I have never considered him to be a free-kick taker,” he says, echoing the thoughts of Croatian colleague Ivanovic. “At Zenit, they don’t have a lot of specialists in that area. (Brazilian winger) Malcom will take them sometimes, (Artem) Dzyuba sometimes, Rakitskyi, who as I have said has a very strong shot, and (Magomed) Ozdoyev, who is a midfielder.”

Yaroshevksy thinks one reason Lovren has been going for goal is to tick something off his footballing bucket list.

“I think getting a top-bin finish from a free kick is good for any footballer of any position,” he adds. “I think Lovren is just trying to get something new on his CV because I don’t think he has ever scored a free kick in his career. It looks like that. It just feels like it is something that he is determined to achieve eventually.”

He is certainly not a player lacking in confidence, as Yaroshevsky is quick to point out.

“The one department where Lovren has zero problems is his confidence. You remember all the comments about being one of the best defenders in the world and all stuff like that? He has been saying the same kind of stuff in Russia,” he explains. 

“The supporters at Zenit would love to see him score from a free kick, though. There is no animosity with him here. He is loved and a good figure for the club.  

“Zenit mostly try to cross and deliver from free kicks; they don’t really have someone who can smash it in from 40 yards. So he is stepping up. Maybe he is trying to get there. I don’t think they scored a direct free-kick goal last season. That has been their tactical approach to free kicks and maybe Lovren is trying to change that.”

Lovren has taken six free-kick shots for Zenit since joining from Liverpool last summer — scoring none.

One attempt came in a 3-1 November defeat by Lazio in the Champions League, which was blazed well over fellow Anfield old boy Pepe Reina’s crossbar. Lazio striker Ciro Immobile had dropped down to the ground as the “draught excluder”, in case Lovren tried his luck with a shot underneath the leaping players in the wall.

Taking free kicks at Zenit, and more recently Croatia, is not just a bold, new venture for Lovren.

The 31-year-old does have a history, albeit not much of one, in the dead-ball department.

During his only season with Southampton, he took two free-kick shots. The first came in December 2013, in a 3-1 defeat away at Chelsea. Lovren opted for a long, straight run up and went for power but the ball rebounded off the two-man wall.

Six months later, in his penultimate appearance before moving to Liverpool, Lovren made a short two-step run-up and had Swansea goalkeeper Michel Vorm worried for a moment as his shot (pictured above) dipped just over the bar, kissing the net as it went out of bounds. Fortunately for him, Southampton won 1-0 anyway.

Lovren also had a crack once for Liverpool, in a 3-1 defeat against West Ham United a month into his Anfield career. Again, he attempted the long and straight style run-up as set-piece specialist Philippe Coutinho watched on. He was unable to trouble now-Liverpool keeper Adrian at Upton Park as his shot smashed into team-mate Lucas Leiva.

It is unlikely Lovren will be on free-kick duty for Croatia in their crucial battle with Scotland as they go for the win that could mean qualification for the knockout stages despite taking a single point from their first two Group D matches.

However, seeing Lovren step over the ball in the future would no longer come as a surprise to anyone. Seeing him score one? Well, that would no longer come as a shock either, given Lovren seems so intent on realising this dream.