Ugh, it’s good! Croatia once again showed the characteristics of a big, competitive team that wins the games it has to win. And kudos to the boys and the coach Zlatko Dalić on the victory in a difficult, very unpleasant match that was not at all easy to win. Congratulations to our players on the important victory, on the once again demonstrated winning character, and I have no doubt that they will be able to cheer us up against Ghana as well.
I said in the announcement of the game that we will be the ones who will be asked about the final result. However, I have to give credit to the Panamanian players who played very well, with the idea of trying to get a result through the game. They are a good team, they caused us a lot of problems, especially in the first half by attacking us from our left side. They were dangerous in those breakthroughs and crosses from the flank, and at the same time they were very solid in defense in the 5-4-1 system. Panama sent us a good warning, confirming just how unpleasant teams that don’t look particularly dangerous at first can be.
I have to apologize to the readers in one way, because I accepted the role of game analyst for our national team, and I don’t have an exact insight into what is happening with our players at the World Cup, I don’t know exactly what their condition is and how any of them react in training. Therefore, I can only write based on what I saw at the match.
And I saw that we had a lot of problems. The result is great, but our game was not at the desired level. In the first half, Panama was the one that imposed itself more on the field, we did not succeed in dictating our style of play. The flow of the ball was too slow, which is why we failed to isolate our players on the flanks so that they would be able to make a surplus. We only had our first shot at the end of the half, which best illustrates our attacking sterility. You cannot break an opponent who knows how to defend disciplined without a fast game in which you will isolate the flanks for “one-on-one” or “one-on-two” situations.
The main problem was the sluggishness of our players, all of them – except Baturin – were somehow difficult, slow in reaction, slow in receiving the ball, and when you are slow in receiving, you can hardly make a better attacking move, passing the ball is also slow.
We didn’t even have our recognizable geometry in the game on the field, which made our job even more difficult. Probably, this lack of necessary game geometry was also the result of a slow reaction. The lack of cooperation of our players on the flanks was particularly noticeable. Realistically, neither Guardiol nor Stanisic they are not classic defenders and you can feel it when there is no necessary rhythm in the game. We scored as soon as they did Marco Pasalic and Stanisic for the first time in the match, they managed to work together the way a winger and a fullback must work together.
I have to praise coach Dalić’s reaction at halftime of the match. He boldly decided to introduce i Budimir and Kramarićwhich turned out to be a turning point. I was surprised how we did not manage to control the game even after our lead and then Dalić again made great moves by introducing Petra and Port of Sučićwho brought us more calmness and control in the midfield.
Ante Budimir was the hero of the match and reminded us once again how grateful we must be to those “grateful” players who are always there to support the national team, to absolutely submit to the interests of the team and to “die” in every situation without any calculations. Without such players, you can’t do anything in a big tournament, and with their approach, they always end up giving maybe even more than they should realistically give.
Thumbs up once more and great Livakovicwho again brought us a lot, great defense when we needed it the most, and the safety of all our players who know very well that they have such a goalkeeper behind them. I mentioned that Baturina was our only player in the field who had a “syringe” in his legs, the only one who was light and penetrating, and that in both directions. It was seen that it was full of “dynamite”. The expert staff should definitely figure out why the other players were visibly “difficult” before the game with Ghana.
Once again, we have seen that a healthy player does not mean being a ready player. However, every minute Modric, Kovačić and Guardiol play in this tournament is of great importance and benefit for them, because only through the minutes played they will come to start the upward trajectory of their form. We cannot do without them, and they will come into their own. And because of them, this victory is extremely important and crucial, it will also help them to find their rhythm.
I am additionally glad that I saw a happy Luka Modrić at the end of the match, because it would have been a huge, huge shame if he had not ended his 200th match for the national team with a victory.
Now we are waiting for Ghana, which will probably be an even tougher opponent than Panama. Ghana also defends well, and in the attack they have better quality individuals than Panama, even faster and more awkward, capable of causing chaos on the field at any given moment. There is not a lot of philosophizing, we will have to be even tougher, but also much faster in reaction, which will be of crucial importance.
Fortunately, we have three points, we have self-confidence, the knowledge that we “wrestled” victory with one more character, that both the staff and the players kept their composure and made winning moves in critical moments. We didn’t expect anything else from them…
