Mixing It Against Poland

June 14th, 2008 | by: Mario |

And that’s probably an understatement. As things stand (that’s according to the latest reports coming in from our camp), we will introduce no less than 8 new players against Poland on Monday.

There’s no doubt these stand-in players are quality and will be 100% motivated to do well in this match, but the fact there’s as many as 8 of them signals that we have little or no ambition to get a result on this particular occasion. Fair play? What’s that again? Again, as we’ve theoretically sealed the 1st place, there’s absolutely no need to risk second yellows (Srna, Modric, Kovac, Simunic) or of course further challenge lady luck with potential injuries to these players. This “day off” will do a world of good to our players by helping them to recuperate fitness amid this match-packed and exhausting tournament.

Starting lineup should therefore look something like this: Pletikosa – Šimić, Vejić, Knežević, Pranjić – J. Leko, Vukojević, Pokrivač, Rakitić – Petrić, Klasnić. This is of course still a subject of discussion as there’s almost 48 hours till the match kicks off.

One thing that’s interesting here, is that we had almost the exact situation back on EURO 1996 in England. We had won our first 2 matches and then fielded a reserve squad in our last match, which we lost by a margin of 3 goals (0:3).

Despite qualifying, not much sympathy was shown to our coach (Miroslav “Ciro” Blazevic, pictured) as a lot of criticism was directed at him for taking this approach. But more importantly, and that’s the difference between then and today, by “forfeiting” our last match we gave away the group’s top spot and qualified only as runners up. This time around, there’s absolutely nothing to lose or gain except perhaps the affection of our group rivals Germany and Austria.

But fair play aside, I’m sure everyone would agree that in these kind of conditions, it’s every man, or rather every nation for itself.

And as always, you can follow the game’s live blog right here.

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Comments

By jero | June 14th, 2008 at 9:36 pm

I hope kalinic gets a good 30 minutes as well.What a very defensive looking team though.Only 3 real attack minded players in Rakitic, Petric and Klasnic.I would prefer to see Rakitic in the hole but he needs more time on the left I guess.Maybe later Pranjic will move forward if we go a goal down.It’s at this time I wish Sharbini was in the 23, he would tear them up through the middle.Can’t see Pokrivac, Vuko and Leko causing havoc to be honest.I’m not overly excited by this team, on paper anyway, but agree it has to be used for this match.I hope they gel.They should because they played together as the reserve team for 2 weeks now and should know eachother pretty well.Interesting team.I have no idea how the betting will be for this game as it will be based on Croatia playing their best time so could be some cash to be won here because Poland must win and we need nothing but gametime for the reserves.

By Milan | June 14th, 2008 at 11:55 pm

I don’t like the defense at all, I feel Poland will score goals and as Jero said we have only 3 real attacking players. Even though its good to rest players we still need to keep the momentum going all the way to the quarters.

By jero | June 15th, 2008 at 6:18 pm

I’m suprised at the lack of attacking players left after the first choice players.There’s really noboby who can break a match open, they’re all defensive midfielders so this really is the best team we can put out.Bit plain looking.

By Denis S | June 16th, 2008 at 12:36 am

this will be good for croatia, all the players that will play against poland are hungry, its their only chance to show how off their skills to the world and bilic. Croatia will win this one big TIME! I cant wait to see this match.

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