Topic: ⚽ UEFA Euro 2024 in Germany ⚽ - Qualifiers - page 362. (Read 46401 times)

It makes sense what you said
Speaking from the economic point of view and the interests of FIFA / UEFA, it is not in their interest for Croatia to be a champion for example
We fans really like to see teams that are not favorites, being champions or ending in a good position in championships
But FIFA would make much more money having a champion like Germany, Spain or England, than Croatia.


It's sad to hear this, I don't live in Europe, so there are things that we only learn about via TV or internet
If the conditions are not that good, the whole Croatian team deserves even more for having made it this far

In the last years the team that is most talked about, apart from the ones that are already world champions, is Belgium, but if you analyze the results, Croatia has been better.
And finally, I think Croatia has the best chance at the moment to be Nations League champion. The title is within reach, it is possible to beat Netherlands and it is also possible to beat Spain or Italy.

In the world of sports, it is typical for people to make forecasts based on general consensus or without doing much analysis. These forecasts are occasionally affected by the standing or track record of particular teams or players. But as you pointed out, just saying something repeatedly doesn't make it real!!
with the specific example you gave with the World Cup predictions in Qatar, it's important to note that sports forecasts are hypothetical and frequently dependent on individual judgment or analysis. Sports are exciting and unpredictable since the real results can sometimes differ from the expected ones!!!!It's always exciting to observe how things develop and to experience the shocks and upsets that take place in sports. Therefore, even if they can be fun to make and offer fodder for conversation, forecasts shouldn't be taken as gospel. Instead, they should be treated with caution.

This is not the place for politics, but I will just say that most of Western Europe was against Croatia being an independent country 30+ years ago and they showed it by doing nothing while the barbarians committed terrible crimes against the Croats - they even imposed an embargo on us the import of weapons so that we cannot defend ourselves. These two countries that you mentioned stood out in this regard, and in this we should look for part of the reason why Croatia, as a small nation, is still underestimated in sports circles.


The money that individual nations invest in football and everything that comes with it must somehow be justified, and if small countries disrupt the plans of big ones, then that is not good for "business". I have no doubt that at the next European championship we will talk about refereeing again, just as I have no doubt that they will try to do everything in their power to push the home team as close as possible to the final.

I can agree with this.
Many people do not really follow football too much and do not know much about the players and the strength of individual teams, so they simply play it safe without too much analysis and concrete facts and choose only big and well-known nations as favorites before the upcoming world competitions.
If something is repeated a hundred times, it will not become true just because of the constant repetition of the same thing.
Personally, I found it funny when I read sports predictions before the start of the World Cup in Qatar, when most of the forum members predicted that the current world vice-champion Croatia would not even make it to the knockout stage of the competition and that Croatia will be last in its group. Germany and Belgium were the favorites to win the world championship title in their opinion. So much for those baseless sports predictions 

It is very simple actually. A lot of people have difficulty in admitting that Croatia is in the same league as France and England. These same people would rate declining teams such as Germany, Danmark, Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden at the same level as France, but somehow they tend to underestimate smaller nations. Anyway, I hope that Euro 2024 will give a good level of clarity on the quality of teams within the UEFA confederation. If Germany is unable to perform, despite being the hosts, then a lot of questions will be raised.

I can only say that all these bookmakers can only continue to underestimate Croatia, because they have always done so regardless of the results that football team achieved. 2018 second in the world, 2022 third in the world, and in a month they will play the semi-finals of the Nations League  - the only problem is that there are a lot of people for whom such results do not fit into their "plans".

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That's what our coach says, and he is certainly the best coach after the great Ciro Blazevic, who won third place with Croatia at the 1998 world championship in France. However, I think that we don't respect ourselves enough, and others see that and that's why they behave that way. Everyone who comes to Croatia and sees our football stadiums is unpleasantly surprised by how bad it looks - and at the same time those who should build them are stealing billions and laughing in everyone's face.

I agree. At the last EURO, Croatia was unlucky in the first game of the knockout phase of the competition, losing to Spain after extra time.
However, we have won medals at two consecutive world championships, which only France has managed to do, and this is a confirmation of the quality of the Croatian national team, which continuously achieves great results at major competitions, and it can no longer be said that this is a matter of chance or luck.
In the last edition of the League of Nations, Croatia even beat France away from home and won first place in the group ahead of Denmark, France and Austria. Croatia even saved France from being relegated to the lower tier of the competition by beating Austria in the last round of the competition.
So, at the last 3 major competitions, Croatia achieved great results and showed that it has continuity and the necessary quality for the greatest achievements.
I think it's time to stop underestimating Croatia and to show respect for all that they have achieved recently.

Well.. if they are skilled enough to reach the final of FIFA World Cup in 2018, and semi-final of the 2022 edition, then repeating the same in Euro 2024 is not going to be something that is impossible. In general, most of the UEFA teams are undergoing a decline. Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Danmark are a few examples. Croatia is one of the few teams (along with France and England) who are moving in the other direction. But I would like to see how they sustain this growth in the long term, given the location of the country within Europe and the extremely small population size. 

I agree that Croatia aren't one of the teams to be underestimated at all. First of all it is true that they haven't been much successful in Euro tournaments recently. They couldn't even get past 1/8-finals twice in the most recent tournaments. However their performance in the recent two World Cups has been very impressive. First the finale and this time semi finals.

With the player pool they have it isn't impossible for them to have a good success in a Euro tournament also finally. There are really skilled Croatian players now and my expectation level from them has increased by their nice work in the latest World Cup.

They just need to break a leg finally by Euro 2024. They have the potential to play for the finale.

All those players for Crotia are a bit one sided, Gvardiol becoming the best defender in the world? Livakovic best goalkeeper? It has been talked about before, France is still by far better even for the long term, and yes Croatia is a good team but that doesn't mean they are the best team, they were finalist in the previous world cup and they were at semi finals this one, that is their level and that's a good one, there is nobody doubting them as a good team, they are good, but to think that they are the best would be a dream and not the reality.

Realize that they are missing a superstar that can change any game like Mbappe and you could figure out what's their problem is. Argentina barely won, but they did, and that's what matters in the end result.

I agree with Daniel91.

A lot of people have a habit of overlooking Croatia, partly because it is a small country and partly due to it's location (in the Balkans). The future looks bright, with younger players such as Stanisic and Guardiol already making an impact at international level. On the other hand, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium are still dependent on a few players who are well in to their 30s. The logic of saying that Croatia is primarily comprised of older players is due to the fact that their most famous players such as Ivan Perišić and Luka Modrić are near retirement. The younger players are not as famous as these two. But this conception will change in due course of time.

It seems to me that many people predict the success of national teams in major competitions based on the size of the country and past sporting success, rather than the current reality.
What have the Netherlands, Spain, Germany or Denmark achieved in the last 10 years in any competition? On what basis are they favorites compared to Croatia, which is the current participant in the final tournament of the League of Nations in June and the winner of two consecutive medals at the last 2 world cups in football?
When I read the sports predictions on this forum ahead of the World Cup in Qatar, some members even predicted that Croatia had no chance of qualifying for the knockout stage of the competition, and they considered Belgium and Canada to be favorites in the group. We know very well how it ended, from the group, Croatia and Morocco advanced to the knockout phase of the competition.
Such sports predictions, which are not based on concrete facts and reality but on the size and popularity of some country, should not be taken seriously.
As for the story of the age of the Croatian national team, just look at this list:
- Livakovic, 28 years old, according to many statistical indicators, the best goalkeeper at the world cup in Qatar
- Stanisic, defender in Bayern, 23 years old
- Guardiol, defender in Leipzig, 21 years old, will soon become the most expensive defender in the world
- Sosa, a defender in Stuttgart, 25 years old, the German Football Association wanted him to play for the German national team
- Lovro Majer, currently one of the best young midfielders in the world, 20 years old, Rennes
- Kovacic, 28 years old, Chelsea, one of the best midfielders in the world

I could continue the list with a few more very young and promising young Croatian players. Croatia, a team with old players? Think again, but let's talk based on facts, not opinions, please.

According to the odds in that list you have shared here Belgium can be given a chance for the championship in my opinion. 14.00 is quite an attracting odd to me.    They weren't good in the World Cup at all that's for certain. Because like I indicated before there were some personal problems between some players. But hopefully they will have got over this in the near future.

Maybe they have even done this because they have made a solid start to the qualifiers by a 3-0 win over Sweden. I really want to see Belgium having some good achievements while they have this great squad in their hands. This has been a wonderful generation for them which is full of skilled players like De Bruyne, Hazard and so on. They shouldn't waste this generation easily.

Yeah I agree the competition is much in Europe as we can take England as example they have the full potentials to have won maybe one or two trophies but yet they have failed to do that and the only time I saw them play a final they still manage to lose out to the Italian which have also been trophy less for some time now but they manage to secure one when they defeated England. The big teams in Europe are much and this calls higher competition among them leaving only the best to go home with the trophy. It will nice to actually see England win some titles again, what do you think?

I don't think that the political problems (collapse) of Yugoslavia make Croatia "a team without football historical traditions" or something like that. In fact, Europe is already a single space and often, due to randomness, a group of very strong football players can gather in some small country. Even though the country may be small, it is still within European football. China, Vietnam, etc. are huge countries in terms of population but things are not getting better (at least from what I know about them). Because these countries are on their own, or within the "community" of the same weak in the football sense countries.
Regarding age: my idea is (I exaggerate it as much as possible) that in 5 years Modric will play worse than any young player in the Netherlands. Just because he's ending his career. And this is true for many players from Croatia.


  No questions. All true.

Yes, destroyed. No need to be sarcastic here KTChampions! Argentina destroyed the Netherlands 2-2 in regular time. Then Argentina destroyed the Netherlands 0-0 in overtime. Finally, Argentina destroyedthe Netherlands 4-3 in the penalty shootout after being behind 1-2 when Fernandez even missed his penalty. That's a very obvious case to me. The Netherlands never, at any point in the game, had a chance to win it!

But it doesn't stop there!

In the final Argentina destroyed France 2-2 in regular time. Then Argentina destroyed France 1-1 in overtime before they destroyed France in the penalty shootout.

Any questions?

But to contribute to the EURO discussion here, asserting that France has no competition besides England is nonsense. Even if some of the teams are not as good as we usually expect them to be, there is still Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, but also Portugal, a team that I would not underestimate. France is by far the best team in terms of the individual quality of their players. But there were wonders in the past, for instance when Greece won and that left everyone in disbelief and consternation. But this is how these tournaments play out. When out of a sudden an underdog grows beyond their limits, it is sometimes hard to stop them the further they make it in a tournament as those limits become higher and higher.

France having the best chances to win it as per the odds is justified, but we won't see them making a clean sweep.

Without any doubt France is the strongest team within UEFA at this point. But it will be wrong to say that they will not face any competition from the other teams. And it is not just England. I personally believe that Spain and Italy can bring a few surprises this time. And in each edition of the Euro, there is always some smaller team like Iceland who make big upsets by defeating some of the more fancied teams. And also, a lot of the French players are injury prone. Let's see whether they will be able to field a full-strength side in 2024.

I still think that France will have a bit of hard time getting the win here. I mean they are the highest likely one but since they do not have any proper competition aside from maybe England, they are going to feel more relaxed. When a team is seen as the highest favorites, then it is going to end up with something that is more relax which will cause them to underestimate the teams that they will face, that is going to end up with a lot worse situation in the end.

I believe that we are going to reach to a point where France suddenly end with a loss unexpectedly with the situations. This is why I believe that we are going to see them maybe lose and that should be a terrible result in the end. I hope that they will play as well as they can, but I can't be sure about it.

All I am saying is that Netherlands in an over-rated team, while everyone underestimates the potential of Croatia. Netherlands have a long history in participating in FIFA and UEFA tournaments. That is taken in to account, when people estimate their chances. On the other hand, there was no Croatia before 1991 (when Yugoslavia was dissolved). They are a relatively new team, and a lot of people have difficulty in admitting that a country of 4 million people can compete at the same level as France or England, who have a population of more than 60 million. And now coming to the case of younger players, I can't see a lot of promising youngsters coming up through the ranks in Dutch football.

Some of the time this gradings goes otherwise, there are countries that I expected to be ahead of the other but surprisingly with their grading it happens that I see them lower, while in real time this countries has done super great in their various performances in the past and previous compitions. I do choose France ahead of any other country out there, they've been consistent in their performance both in the last world cup and the last Euro compition, I didn't see reason why they shouldn't top the list.