Croatia vs Brazil QF, 3PM GMT Education City Stadium

[Pukey]

13 minutes ago, jonahno6 said:

Never, ever, ever, ever have your best penalty taker going 5th. ESPECIALLY when you’re taking them 2nd, hate it so much. That 5th penalty is not guaranteed. Either go 1st or 4th. The coach should audibled to put Neymar on that 4th penalty because they HAVE to score. 
 

Awful coaching. And it happens over and over again. 

Pretty sure they can't call an audible, once the order is set you can't change? But I do agree, having your best on 5th is so utterly stupid. There's so many stats that show how wrong it is yet teams still do it.

[RTHerringbone]

Enjoyed that. Did Tite win a competition to coach Brazil? Totally outdone today.

[PMLF]

6 minutes ago, RTHerringbone said:

Enjoyed that. Did Tite win a competition to coach Brazil? Totally outdone today.

He was a very successful manager at club level, he is the one who beat Chelsea as Corinthians manager in the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup.

[Darius1998]

Quite ridiculous Brazil's best performance since 2002 involved getting obliterated by Germany at home.

Then followed it up by being swept away by the Netherlands in the third place play-off as well.

[VamPook]

 

[GunmaN1905]

26 minutes ago, Haguey said:

Croatia to football are what Finland are to F1.

Sport in Croatia needs deep studying.

We don't even have a decent stadium for football, let alone other sports.

Played basketball final against Dream Team in '92 final, some more medals until it went to crap. Got 7 NBA players now.

Two golds in handball on olympics, one world gold.

One of the best waterpolo nations with countless medals.

Multiple Grand Slam winners and a couple of Davis Cups.

The greatest woman skiier in history and we've got one hill in the country. Her brother also won world championship.

Vlašić's older sister won countless medals in high jump.

Currently have the greatest ever woman discus thrower.

Many olympics medals in other sports, I'm sure I forgot something.

Then you look at the state of the country, lack of interest for sport (spectator numbers) overall corruption etc and it's just...impossible.

[Confused Clarity]

28 minutes ago, PMLF said:

 

Option 3 clearly the best.

Option 5 would be a good base to go with for if you ever get 7. 😂

Of course with the three in the gaps between the bottom four.

But going to have to wait at least 8 years until then!

 

[Haguey]

5 minutes ago, GunmaN1905 said:

Vlašić's older sister won countless medals in high jump.

How have I never put this together, of course his sister is Blanka Vlasic 

[Heartwork]

Brazil, what a let down

[Astafjevs]

30 minutes ago, RTHerringbone said:

Enjoyed that. Did Tite win a competition to coach Brazil? Totally outdone today.

How was he outdone? I thought they played ok and were decent value for a 1-0 ET win. Wasn't an amazing performance but they were better than Croatia. But that's sport and sometimes it doesn't go your way, certainly didn't think he was outcoached when the opposition didn't offer anything for almost 120 mins of football.

[Heartwork]

48 minutes ago, bflaff said:

Croatia 

Didn't watch the game but please tell me they danced in front of the Brazil players after winning

[pearcey_90]

The equaliser came from them throwing men forward, but overall, it was a very pragmatic approach which has come undone. Can only blame himself. Just looked clueless with the ball for most of this World Cup. 

[GunmaN1905]

7 minutes ago, Astafjevs said:

How was he outdone? I thought they played ok and were decent value for a 1-0 ET win. Wasn't an amazing performance but they were better than Croatia. But that's sport and sometimes it doesn't go your way, certainly didn't think he was outcoached when the opposition didn't offer anything for almost 120 mins of football.

Playing OK isn't enough to win the trophy.

Sure, they created enough to win today, but with this setup he was sabotaging his own team.

It's been three times now that "it doesn't go his way". Belgium in 2018, then Copa final against Argentina which he lost at home and now this match.

They were lucky to not have any of Portugal/France/England trio on their side and still didn't even make the semi-final.

Setup from 80s that works only against teams which are completely incapable at challenging the midfield.

 

It was OK, but this team has way bigger potential and he failed to deliver.

It was clear as day that almost every team would defend deep because noone can cope with the pace they have up front.

And what does he do? Doesn't take a single forward who can keep the ball and is comfortable with his back to the goal. Sure, Richarlison tried to do it, but he's just not that kind of player.

Not taking Firmino is just unexplainable. This is the definition of a match for him. He didn't have to start, but he's surely better than having 8 different wingers or that guy from Brazilian league.

He throws four wingers in and has them parked in front of the box, with Casemiro being completely alone in midfield. If Croatia had two decent players with pace upfront alongside Perišić, we would've torn them apart. And it's not that he had this setup just because we didn't have pace, he would play the same against everyone.

Even if you look at the goal they conceded, sheer negligence. Those four up front aren't even trying to sprint back, they had a lot of time to catch up to the counter and with their fresh legs at least one could've been in the play to intercept the cross.

This is a textbook definition of why most NT coaches don't work in club football, they're not good enough.

 

Btw, @PMLF as I said you're not making the final without any Inter player.

The streak is alive.

 

I've got nothing against this Brazil team, but the only person I'm glad for being eliminated is Dani Alves.

Instead of having another useful right-back, he took the place and hoped to get carried to a medal, resulting in them playing with no right-back. Good riddance.

Edited December 9, 2022 by GunmaN1905

[PMLF]

2 minutes ago, GunmaN1905 said:

Btw, @PMLF as I said you're not making the final without any Inter player.

The streak is alive.

Should have called up Gabriel Brazão instead of Ederson.  

[Heartwork]

No doubt certain individuals will blame the FILTHY COMMIES in the team for losing

[PMLF]

Just now, Heartwork said:

No doubt certain individuals will blame the FILTHY COMMIES in the team for losing

Most of the squad support Bolsonaro though.

You can blame Tite and Richarlison for being left-leaning.

You can blame Neymar and most other players in the squad for being right-leaning.

So both sides have someone to blame.  

But the defeat has obviously nothing to do with their ideologies. 

[The_jagster]

16 minutes ago, Astafjevs said:

How was he outdone? I thought they played ok and were decent value for a 1-0 ET win. Wasn't an amazing performance but they were better than Croatia. But that's sport and sometimes it doesn't go your way, certainly didn't think he was outcoached when the opposition didn't offer anything for almost 120 mins of football.

0.68-2.72 xg, apart from a few early scares there was no danger at the back, they just didn't take their chances although I don't remember any really bad misses. Even the goal was a deflection.

[XuluBak]

Couldn't watch. Seems like someone got FMd though. 

[Ackter]

Qatar are definitly bribing people to make this an interesting tournament.

[Rebs]

Didn't see much of it apart from the goals at the end and pens...but from what I heard Croatia just dud them over basically and Brazil didn't turn up....is that basically what happened???

I kinda wanted a Brazil Argentina semi, but fair play to Croatia....biiiiig win for them.

[PaulHartman71]

I thought Brazil were very naive once they went ahead. They seemed to think they had it one and it kind of felt like Neymar and the other attacking players were more keen to add to their World Cup goals totals than actually see out the game. 

They did the same against Serbia in the first match.  Once they’d scored the 2nd they should’ve been a bit more conservative, not saying you go full Unai Emery but Tite was making like for like substitutions with all the attacking players until the final whistle other than Fred for Paqueta. The players that came on were all desperate for a goal but were bombing forward and taking risks to try and get past people and score etc when they should’ve been more patient and kept the ball to kill the game off. 

They’ve not been great at keeping the ball the whole tournament, I think even against South Korea it was very similar in terms of possession. Not sure if smashing them gave them too much confidence but they were frustrated by Serbia for an hour, Switzerland for 80 minutes and the rotated side lost to Cameroon. It was only against South Korea their very attacking formation actually paid off in terms of controlling and dominating the game IMO. 

I feel like going into the Croatia game against a Kovacic and Modric midfield with the team they did was naive. Sort of game that was crying out for Bruno Guimareas alongside Casemiro IMO. 

[PaulHartman71]

4 minutes ago, Rebs said:

Didn't see much of it apart from the goals at the end and pens...but from what I heard Croatia just dud them over basically and Brazil didn't turn up....is that basically what happened???

I kinda wanted a Brazil Argentina semi, but fair play to Croatia....biiiiig win for them.

They didn’t do them over, but Brazil weren’t clinical enough, Croatia defended well, won the midfield battle and generally frustrated Brazil like Cameroon, the Serbians in the first half and the Swiss for most the game. I think the South Korean win gave them a false sense of confidence and they just assumed they were in the Semi Final already. 

Even when they scored the goal instead of keeping the ball and protecting the lead with like 10 minutes left all 4 forwards were still up for every attack and not really tracking back that much. Brazil had the game won but they just didn’t seem to have anyone on the pitch or the dugout to remind the younger players and Neymar to manage the game out. 

Edited December 9, 2022 by PaulHartman71

[RTHerringbone]

1 hour ago, Astafjevs said:

How was he outdone? I thought they played ok and were decent value for a 1-0 ET win. Wasn't an amazing performance but they were better than Croatia. But that's sport and sometimes it doesn't go your way, certainly didn't think he was outcoached when the opposition didn't offer anything for almost 120 mins of football.

You could have guessed Croatia's midfield years ago. It was relatively easy for Croatia to execute their gameplan and it worked at least as well as Brazil's, but Croatia are through. To force the win Tite just made like for like subs. It was a really poor setup that just hoped that the star players would perform. 

[enigmatic]

2 hours ago, GunmaN1905 said:

Also, is this a bottling or?

My first thought on checking the full time score (shortly after switching off after the team completely in control of extra time scored the goal they needed to progress...)  was that the forum's own Croatian bottling enthusiast would be really, really enjoying himself  

[PMLF]

From Globo Esporte:

[GunmaN1905]

Dalić saying they had one meeting where they just talked about Brazil's diving and instructed players not to fall for it.

Also, Croatia ended the match with only three players who were at the last World Cup, so much for fading generation.

[kpain16]

Since a nation, out of 7 possible WCs we were at 6. Out of these 6, we went to the semis 3 times. What bloody fading generations. We almost reach the semis more than not.

Edited December 10, 2022 by kpain16

[skybluedave]

5 hours ago, Astafjevs said:

How was he outdone? I thought they played ok and were decent value for a 1-0 ET win. Wasn't an amazing performance but they were better than Croatia. But that's sport and sometimes it doesn't go your way, certainly didn't think he was outcoached when the opposition didn't offer anything for almost 120 mins of football.

He didn't play a midfield. If Croatia had a striker they'd have won in 90

[Astafjevs]

A striker to do what? Finish the chances they didn't create? Make it sound as if Croatia were unbelievably wasteful all game and just lacking that guy to put it in the back of the net. They barely got near the net for 115 mins

[skybluedave]

Not about finishing. An out ball would have helped. Something to stick up front. A Mandzukic would have made a hell of difference

End of day Brazil only have themselves to blame. Tite was incredibly naive. That midfield was amateur stuff, throughout the tournament 

[git2thachoppa]

And they say people in football are thick.

Coaching geniuses but don't understand simple probability or maths.

Put your mentally strongest of your best 3 on 3rd, your other best taker 1st, then suck it up buttercup and rank downwards and have faith in your players rather than trying to game the system.

[Bunkerossian]

6 hours ago, skybluedave said:

Not about finishing. An out ball would have helped. Something to stick up front. A Mandzukic would have made a hell of difference

End of day Brazil only have themselves to blame. Tite was incredibly naive. That midfield was amateur stuff, throughout the tournament 

I mean, it's easy to use a 4-1-1-4 formation against teams that don't defend well. They obviously thought we were worse at defending than Switzerland? Well, back to the waiting list for a 6th title for Brazil it is.

[The_jagster]

Well, they did create more chances compared to the Switzerland match, but Livakovic was solid and they didn't find the corner of the goal.

[Bigwig]

Gvardiol’s looked great. Are any big clubs eyeing him up?

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, Bigwig said:

Gvardiol’s looked great. Are any big clubs eyeing him up?

He just signed a new contract at Leipzig so the chances of it being done before summer 2024 are slim.

[craigcwwe]

1 hour ago, Bigwig said:

Gvardiol’s looked great. Are any big clubs eyeing him up?

Was close apparently in the summer to joining Chelsea for around £85m. 

Edited December 10, 2022 by craigcwwe

[Rebs]

Just now, craigcwwe said:

Was close apparently in the summer to joining Chelsea for around £85. 

I might buy him for that, what a bargain.

[craigcwwe]

10 minutes ago, Rebs said:

I might buy him for that, what a bargain.

[GunmaN1905]

10 minutes ago, craigcwwe said:

I think there's a 90m€ clause or so.

Real will do their thing, most likely. But it's not happening before summer.

Dinamo also has 20% of the transfer, so Leipzig won't sell for less than 90.

 

Btw, the man who can cover the most distance in world of football showing his secret recipe for post-match regeneration.

Edited December 10, 2022 by GunmaN1905

[skybluedave]

Why did Brazil have only 3 players back when Croatia scored. Was really weird. Was it after a set piece?

[Guest]

The clause only kicks in summer 2024 much like Upamecano and Bayern when they had to wait and extra season.