News, Videos, Opinion, Fan Blogs, Fixtures & Results for die-hard Croatian fans
Croatia international Ivan Rakitic has indicated that he has no plans of parting ways with Barcelona during this summer’s transfer window. The midfielder has been heavily tipped to make a move to Inter Milan ahead of next season but the 31-year-old has stressed that he is committed to the cause at the Catalan giants.
The Prime Minister of Croatia Andrej Plenkovichas begged the football fans of the national team to be of best behaviourswhen they play Ukraine in a crucial World Cup qualifying game.
Croatia fans caused trouble when the national team played Turkey and Iceland in games last year. There are also claims of racism and various forms of disorder. These earned them a stadium ban from FIFA. A hospitable setting during the game against Ukraine is important for them to be allowed in subsequent games as this is the first time they are allowed into a home game since the ban.
The Prime Minister asked that State resources be employed to ensure a trouble-free match.
“We must all take responsibility so that everything passes in order,” Plenkovic said. Read more “PRIME MINISTER ASKS FANS TO BEHAVE IN WC QUALIFIER”
Real Madrid play maker Luka Modric has been named the captain of Croatia, following the retirement of veteran Darijo Srna.
Modric would lead the team when they take on Turkey on September 5. The 30-year old was in action when Croatia played at the Euro 2016. He does not lack admirers, but he said he would prefer to end his career with his current club. The former Tottenham Hotspur player moved to the Santiago Bernabeu in 2012. He has won two Champions League titles, but was yet to win the domestic trophy.
“I am not interested in anyone but real. I am too happy at Real. Probably there are some others asking about me, but I don’t want to know, I don’t care. My mission is at Real as long as Real want me,” Modric told Sportske Novosti.
Barcelona has exerted their dominance in Spain, winning the La Liga regularly, though Atletico Madrid lifted the title in the 2013/14 season. Last term, Real Madrid finished second, a point below Barcelona. Modric said it was time they changed that, hinting at the possible priority of the team this season. Read more “MODRIC APPOINTED NEW CROATIA CAPTAIN”
Anti-corruption police team in Croatia has charged the club officials with tax evasion according to latest reports.
Croatia’s anti-corruption police claimed they had charged three current and former senior officials from football team Dinamo Zagreb with tax evasion and siphoning off profits from player transfers.
The accused were all briefly arrested last year during investigations into the same charges and all denied any wrong-doing at the time. None were immediately available for comments. Zdravko Mamic resigned his position in Dinamo in February this year saying he wanted to secure a stable future for the club. He again insisted he was not guilty of the charges before him. Read more “DINAMO ZAGREB CHARGED WITH TAX EVASION BY ANTI-CORRUPTION POLICE IN CROATIA”
Croatia was denied by a late goal from Hungary’s player BalazsDzsudzsak in their game held at Groupama Arena in Budapest.
Both teams who are qualified for the Euros Finals wanted to test their preparation in this friendly match, and it was an evenly matched contest.
It was Croatia who scored first thanks to a goal from Juventus striker Mario Mandzukic. He benefited from great build-up play inspired by Ivan Perisic in the 29th minute. It was a well-deserved lead with Croatia having a created several occasions since the beginning of the match.
However, the goal seems to spark Hungary to life with Dzsudzsak missing the target with a fierce shot seven minutes later. It should have been an equalizer if the Hungarian player has taken more time to aim his shot.
After the break, Hungary was more offensively minded and began to put Croatia under pressure. However, the Croatian defense held on with their goalkeeper making some interesting saves.
But the Hungarians will be rewarded in the 79th minute after earning a free-kick. It was BalazsDzsudzsak who will make amends for his early miss. He will curl a fantastic free-kick in the top corner to give his side a well-deserved equalizer. There will be no further goals in the match with both teams pleased with the score line. Read more “Croatia denied by a late BalazsDzsudzsak goal”
The 20 year old Italian defender Alessio Romagnoli has already completed his transfer from As.Roma over to Ac.Milan for a transfer fee of €25 million and the vice-president of Ac.Milan Adriano Galliani has announced that the summer transfer activities of the club is over.
Ac.Milan’s Adriano Galliani said: “I think that our transfer market ends here, even though interesting options can always occur. We don’t need a midfielder or more options in any other position; we’re well covered in all areas. I don’t think PSG will let Ibra leave, but if they do then we will try to sign him.”
This summer transfer window of Ac.Milan has seen the Italian club signing a few high profile players including: Carlos Bacca, Luis Adriano, Andrea Bertolacci and more recently Alessio Romagnoli.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic was a player who was rumored of being signed by Ac.Milan but from the looks of it, the transfer will not happen as Ibrahimovic recently said that he is happy in Paris Saint-German and wants to continue performing with the French club for at least another season. Read more “Alessio Romagnoli is the latest and final arrival of Ac.Milan”
A small group of Hajduk Split hooligans caused damage after attacking a delegation of the Croatian football Federation.
This attack has raised questions about the safety of footballers visiting the country. National team manager Niko Kovac has condemned the attacks saying that this places a lot of negativity upon Croatian football as a whole. Since qualifying for the Euro 2008 by beating England, Croatia have been on a high. This has gone down of late due to infighting and poor form shown by the national team itself. Even though none were injured in the attack, it has raised the possibility of future delegations being cancelled.
Kovac says the attackers should have a moral responsibility to help the country as a whole. He has refused to take the limelight for criticising the incident in a public manner. Croatia have been enjoying a good run of form of late on the pitch. Apart from the friendly defeat against Argentina, they have had excellent results particularly in the 1-1 draw with Italy back in November. Their team continued to build on the strong performance in the qualifying by getting a thumping 5-1 success over Norway to go top of their group. Croatia now have 13 points and a two-point advantage over second placed Italy. Read more “Hajduk Split hooligans caused damage after attacking a delegation”
Croatia is going through a fine form as they are located in the very top of group H with 9 points being collected after the 3 matches that have been played so far in their 2016 Euro’s qualifying matches.
Italy and Croatia are the current table-toppers of their group with both nations still haven’t suffered a loss yet. Having gone through such a positive streak with their fine start of their campaign, everyone in the squad is happy by what they have accomplished but NikicaJelavic was not content with what was going on in the squad.
A few weeks ago, NikicaJelavic announced his retirement from playing in the international stage with Croatia as the 29 year old forward of Hull City and Croatia was mostly just sitting on the bench for his country and the player just couldn’t take it anymore as he decided to step down and not play any further matches with Croatia.
“I have to admit that Jelavic surprised me and that I am sorry that he is leaving the team, but I have to accept his decision. I want to thank him for all that he did for the Croatian national team. I can only wish him all the best in his life and in his future career,” Croatia’s coach NikoKovac was quoted as saying on the Croatian Football Federation official website.
NikoKovac was appointed as the coach of Croatia on October 16 of 2013 and ever since his appointment as the new manager of the Croatian national side, the playing time of NikicaJelavic has seriously suffered with the player of Hull City not playing a very influential role for his country.
The upcoming 2016 Euro’s qualifying match of Croatia is scheduled to be played against Italy on November 16 with the table-toppers of Group H battling against each other.
Croatia Football Online video Score: 4 / 5
Croatia Football Video clip Ranking: four / five