Topic: ⚽ UEFA Euro 2024 in Germany ⚽ - Qualifiers - page 360. (Read 46455 times)

I came here to say the same thing exactly. Brazil have technically one of the strongest player pools compared to the rest of the other countries. Brazil is like the heart of football above all else. We have seen so many talented players coming out of Brazil thanks to hardworking scouts of top teams in Europe. There have been even many Brazilian legends such as Pele.

It is like there is no time period in which we see majority of Brazilian players being unskilled. They had a great squad in the World Cup as well indeed but it is totally related to the management. They have been in search of a new manager after parting ways with Tite. Ancelotti has been rumoured with the job a lot recently. I hope this happens because he might be the one to make this team reach their potential.

Brazil has a great roster if you ask me, look at their roster during world cup as well, they were great but for some reason they fail to be a good team when they are put together. That's the job for the manager and if the manager can't make them all work together then they are going to end up losing and there is nothing you can do about it.

You just have to accept the fact that Brazil is bunch of individuals who are good by themselves in their clubs but when they get together they make up for a decent team at best. I still think they do have a good chance to win the next world cup, they always do, they are a good team, but I do not think that they will be the number one possibility, they will will in top 5 at the very best case if you ask me.

Their playoff performance was also below expectation. They started well, with a 2-0 win against Serbia (probably the second strongest team in Group G after Brazil). Then they had to work really hard for a win against Switzerland, and managed to get full 3 points only due to a goal from Casemiro at 83rd minute. And then came the shocker, when they lost 0-1 to Cameroon (Vincent Aboubakar scored the goal against Brazil in 92nd minute). Their only big win came against South Korea in the round of 16, when they won by 4-1. Overall, it was a disappointing performance from Brazil.

Everyone says that Croatia has Luka Modric but I think the UEFA Nations league will be his last competition in the national team. He is getting old and I'm sure it's hard for him to keep up with all the games. It will be interesting to see who will replace him in the Croatian team.


I agree that there is no need to overestimate Brazil, but you can't judge a team for their performance in one playoffs. Playoff games are always risky and it's pretty easy to lose a game even if you are playing better than your opponent. I'm not saying that Brazil was better than Croatia when they lost, but I agree with Docnaster that Brazil would have won at least 7 out of 10 games against Croatia. I guess that in Qatar it was one of the three games where Croatia wins.

No need to overestimate Brazil. When was the last time they won the world cup? And forget about their second XI, what happened to their first XI in Qatar 2022? Having talented players in your team is one thing and knowing how to use them as a team is another. Back in Qatar, they had a star-studded side comprised of players like Neymar, Richarlison and Thiago Silva. But what happened during the playoffs? They couldn't even qualify for the semi-finals. As long as Brazil can't play as a team, individual performances from the players won't do them much good.

Well I can't deny that Denmark always gives a lot to talk about, the teams that are from these countries have a very peculiar fútbol, but it's like you say, we can talk a lot about football, but until they beat Argentina, France, Brazil I think that the countries continue to have a football that is sorely lacking, I say these countries because I know that Croatia is capable of winning and it has, for a reason they got so far in Qatar, Croatian fútbol is also very good, main demonstration , your captain Luka Modric, one of the best fútbol players in the world, winner of the Golden Ball, is something impressive.

Croatia has great sqaud that's made up of world class players who in their prime can beat any side in the world. Their midfield maestro is one of the very few midfield players to have ever win the Balon D'or.
However Croatia is never a match to the Brazilian team when it comes to quality players. Brazil's second XI can comfortably beat any team in The word right now. Brazil is the most successful football nation and I think it'll be difficult for anyone to stand them on their day

I think the main point everyone forgetting about was the the initial "idea" of Croatia not being expected to be like that, was the fact that when you face player vs player on each position, Croatia is better than Brazil in maybe 2-3 positions and rest Brazilians are "better", but when you remove individualism and put the team forward, that's what made Croatia better.

Your right winger being better than their right winger is important, your left back being better than their left back is important too, but if they are not better together, then they are not better together and you lose. Croatia knows this all too well, maybe one by one individually their players may not be better than the teams they beat, but they are better as a team than the other team, that's the key.

I must admit that I'm not surprised with this decision. Because this season hasn't been a good one for Sterling at all. He has played in 37 matches in total so far but his contribution hasn't been that much positive. His times with Manchester City were really impressive you know. He was scoring many goals for his team and improving his chances to be a member of England national team in big tournaments also.

But this season is terrible for Chelsea and all the players have been affected with this negativity throughout the season. I was expecting these performances to cause some players to have difficulties in getting a spot in their national teams. And that hamstring injury also made things even worse for Sterling. 

England are still a team full of very good players though. There are Grealish, Rashford and Foden as left wingers already for example. I hope they can fill his absence with one of these players strongly.

It comes as no surprise that Sterling will not be playing in the upcoming matches against Malta and North Macedonia. The English team has a maximum of 6 points from the first two qualifying games and given Sterling's tumultuous season at Chelsea, it is reasonable for him to take a break and focus on his recovery. It is still very early in the qualifying campaign, but the English team is currently in first place in Group C, with 3 points ahead of the next closest teams, and they are in a very good position to qualify for Euro 2024.

Did anyone noticed the news about the squad announcement from England?

https://sportstar.thehindu.com/football/international-football/england-squad-for-euro-2024-qualifiers-gareth-southgate-european-championship-news/article66889097.ece

The announcement was made by Gareth Southgate on 24th May, and the surprise is that Raheem Sterling still continues to be excluded. Eberechi Eze of Crystal Palace has been called up, and he may make his debut against Malta on 16th June. England is in a comfortable position as of now, as they are on top of the points table after wins against Italy and Ukraine. The official explanation on exclusion of Sterling is that he is yet to recover from the hamstring injury that he suffered during the game against Manchester City on 9th January.

Even though Croatia has a team with above average player age but can still play well, maybe this is one of the strategies Croatia used when playing early in the match, the ones who dominate are senior players and young players who can be relied upon used as second half substitute players in the hope of carrying out maximum attacks because the opposing team has started to lose playing performance.
But in my opinion, Croatia is not a team that can be taken lightly because they have entered the final at the 2018 World Cup.
For UEFA Euro 2024 I'm sure Croatia can do well.

Ok, you're mostly right. Modric is the best footballer of this generation of Croatian footballers and it will be difficult to replace him.
I hope that in the next period Kovacic could finally become the leader of the new Croatian national team and lead it to new successes.
I think it is not fair or objective that forwards are always much more valued than defensive footballers and that defensive footballers practically have no chance of being declared the best in any election for the best footballer.
As far as Croatia is concerned, I believe that even after Modric's retirement, we will have a very young and high-quality national team that will show its strength already at the EURO next year, in the same way as after the retirement of the former stars, Prosinecki and Boban, new stars came and new quality footballers like Modric.
Throughout history, Croatia has always been a source of football talents and stars, and I would also like to mention the Croatian Drazen Jerkovic, who was the best scorer of the tournament at the World Cup in Chile in 1962, when Croatia was part of Yugoslavia, in the same way as the Croatian Suker was the best scorer of the 1998 World Cup in France. Therefore, there is no need to worry that Croatia will run out of new football talents and stars 
At the EURO next year, along with France, England, Belgium, Italy and Spain, I believe that Croatia also has a good chance for a great result.

As I said before, Modric is/was the only ballon d'or winner I can remember, and certainly the best for a long time, I literally said it was back in the day if it ever happened. that is as old as 20+ even some of them 30+ years ago. Not denying that he wasn't good, never watched him and this is the first time I am hearing about him, he might be better than Modric, I will give you that, but you have to accept that was long time ago.

My point was that their best player for the last 20+ or so years is about to retire, probably I assume, which is a bad thing for them. Is it good that he is retiring? No. About the other matter, you can have the greatest goalkeeper in the world, and the greatest defenders in history, if you can't score, it will end 0-0, so you need scorers, even if you concede 5 goals, if you score 6, you win. That's why strikers valued more than other positions.

I hope Croatia continues their success, I really would love to see nations with not big pockets to win, it's much more fun that way, it's boring to see super rich nations win, I loved it when Argentina won over France, so I do hope you are right and I am wrong.

Okay, you've made a few unverified claims, so let's talk about it.
Why do you think Modric is the best Croatian soccer player of all time? Do you have any official confirmation for that? Or is that just your personal opinion?
For me personally, in the period in which I follow football, from 1980 until today, the best and most talented Croatian football player in that period was Robert Prosinecki.
With the young national team of Yugoslavia he was the world champion, with the senior national team of Yugoslavia he unfortunately lost in the quarter-finals of the world cup in 1990 against Argentina with Maradona.
He was European club champion with Red Star in 1991, and being European champion with a club from the former Yugoslavia is a much bigger success than being European champion 5 times with Real.
With Croatia in 1998, he was third in the world after an unfortunate loss to France in the semi-finals.
In my opinion, that Croatian national team was the best in history.
Prosinecki is one of the few footballers in history who played for both Real and Barcelona, and his magnificent football career was prematurely stopped by numerous injuries.

As for the choice for the best football player in Europe, how objective is that choice and based on some objective indicators and facts? When was a defensive footballer or goalkeeper declared the best in Europe or the world? Almost never, because much more is written about and attention is paid to attackers like Ronaldo and Messi, and the perception is created that they are always the best and that everything depends on them, which is not realistic, but that is the public's perception, and journalists choose the best soccer player based on public perception, not objective facts.
Personally, I think that Ronaldo and Messi have definitely been declared the best footballers in Europe too many times, and that Benzema and Lewandowski also deserved that recognition at least once in this period.
Modrić was declared the best player in Europe when the public got fed up with Messi and Ronaldo and after a fantastic performance at the World Cup in Russia 2018.

Finally, why do you think that Croatia will no longer be good and achieve top results when Modrić retires?
Other great players who were among the best in the world played for Croatia, such as Prosinečki and Boban, so Croatia did not lose its quality after their departure and remained one of the best national teams in the world.
Just these days I read some announcements that the Croatian defender Gvardiol could become the most expensive defender in the history of football and move to Manchester City for 100 million euros.
So much for the future of Croatia without Modric  

You do realize that one of the old players is the captain of the team and the best player they have ever had on their entire history and I assume the only ballon d'or winner from their nation? Not sure if that is the case, if any other Croation won it before, and if so god knows when that was. But, we are all aware that as soon as Modric leaves, even though the team that is left is not terrible, it will not be as good as they were with Modric, that's a very important distinction.

Plus, we can't really say how good or bad they will be based on whatever we have seen previously, every single cup is a single thing we need to look at. Look at Italy, won euro and failed to qualify for world cup, it's just that simple and we need to consider that a team is as good as how good they are on that cup, not before, not after, just focus on a single tournament.

If you look at my posts here, you will see that I am an admirer of the Croatia team, and I think most people underestimate the team to this day.

What I think happens with most people who quote the age of the Croatian team, might be the fact that they have Modric as their main player, and consider that the Modric era is coming to an end.
Just like every team has someone who draws more attention, like Mbapeé, Neymar, Harry Kane etc, Croatia had / has, Modric.
Obviously they have other excellent players, and you don't get to the results they had with just 1 player.
Perisic is also another player with 34 years old, Brozovic and Kovacic with 28 are in the middle ground, neither too old, nor too young hehehe.

I believe when they talk about Croatia, they talk about it, but I don't agree with what they talk about, that Croatia is on downtrend.

I agree with you.
I suggest that we discuss the claim that the Croatian national team is old on the basis of concrete arguments and facts, not opinions. Let's take a look at all the main players of the Croatian national team who are expected to play in the Nations League and EURO qualifiers and check their age.
Livakovic, goalkeeper, 28 years old
Juranovic, defender, 27 years old
Gvardiol, defender, 21 years old
Sosa, defender, 25 years old
Stanisic, defender, 22 years old
Sutalo, defender, 23 years old
Modric, midfielder, 37 years old
Kovacic, midfielder, 28 years old
Brozovic, midfielder, 28 years old
Pasalic, midfielder, 28 years old
Majer, midfielder, 25 years old
Vlasic, midfielder, 25 years old
Perisic, striker, 34 years old
Kramaric, striker, 31 years old


These are the 14 main players of the Croatian national team that coach Dalic will use in the EURO qualifiers and in the League of Nations (it is possible that Modrić will retire after the League of Nations).
How many old players do you actually see here? Two or possibly three, and all the rest are young players who can play for the Croatian national football team for a very long time, the next 4 or even 8 years.
I think the time has come to stop repeating the false claims that the Croatian national football team is a very old team and that it is in decline. On the contrary, we have never had a team with more young, talented and quality footballers than now.

Average age can be quite misleading. Because you can have half a dozen 18 and 19 year old players in the bench and that will give an impression that the team is very young. There is no doubt that Croatia during Qatar 2022 had one of the most aged squads for any team. But to their advantage, they have a number of promising younger players emerging, who can replace these senior players. The situation with Croatia is different from what we have with Spain or Portugal, where the younger players are struggling to perform consistently.

I am not withdrawing from anything, but you should more precisely address the person in specific then. If you don't reply to a specific comment, but to the general discourse, then it is better to not quote someone. If you quote me but answer posts from 19 days or 12 ago, how do you expect me to relate to those posts when we are having a discussion right in this moment?

When I get quoted, I take the reply seriously and of course as intended to be related to what I have said. You won't see ne withdrawing from any discourse for no reason unless it is really utter nonsense that someone is writing.

There is some truth to the "this team is on a downtrend (due to age)" quote as Croatia was the 22nd oldest team out of 32 at the World Cup. I haven't checked whether some changes have already been made, but their average age is relatively high and new players will indeed have to be integrated soon. Not every player is as crazy as Modric and can keep that level even at the age of 37.