against austria we played with petric and olic, they both are strikers, later budan came in for petric

Would love to see what would have happened with Eduardo in their mist.

And I think that the other reader was pointing out only that you labeled 2. Croatia’s goal as luck, but you did not mention the one from the Germans at all. And this one seemed a lot more lucky – Podolski was just standing there when thee ball bounced directly in front of him and the goal. Or was that one a planned one?

we kicked some ass last night

and just to correct few things
first we didn’t beat russia in moscow or in zagreb, 1-1 and 0-0 i think
other thing is that we play with one attacker, it’s false, as far as i now this was first game under bilic with one striker, we just like to wait for chance (quick brakes, free kicks…), usually we would play with two strikers, one of them is always eduardo, other usually petric, but olic is a beast this year
this is why we have problems when we “have” to win a game(like against austria or away game vs macedonia-we played 2-2, we had luck when russia didn’t won in israel, but 4 days later we won at wembley, again no pressure game)

it looks like portugal or germany and croatia(qf will be very, very hard for us, harder than semi) are main contenders for one spot in the final; holland and spain for other

so

sf:
portugal-croatia
holland-spain

f:
hm, croatia-spain??

oh, sorry if i didn’t spell some words correctly

pozdrav s balkana

Oh yeah… I didn’t give them any credit at all. Sorry about that.

I stand by the statement that the second goal was lucky. If you can convince me that Srna’s cross, that went off Podolski, hit the post, and bounced right to Olic was a designed play, then I’ll concede the point.

They’re a great team. But in their two Euro matches, they’ve had trouble generating consistent goal-scoring opportunities. They beat Austria 1-0 on a penalty kick. They got two goals against Germany, one of which was pure luck. The other goal was brilliant, no question about it. But one goal in two matches that was the result of offensive execution and not luck or help from the ref is cause for concern. Can they turn it around? Absolutely.

I agree, they should have won this game 4-0. But the fact remains that they did not. I’m not trying to bad-mouth them. I’m just not ready to crown them.

Of course – its so obvious now – Croatia is this incredibly lucky team that just keeps kicking everybody’s ass

Go CROATIA!

I mean it was far far from a traditional “bunker” they were playing. Yes, its should have been more with the chances they had – they certainly had more than Germany. I too believe that the Germans got lucky with their only goal.

In the qualifications process Croatia took out Russia in Moscow, 2 times England (including in London) and was the only team to win in Israel for the last 20 years. Call them lucky once – ok, call them lucky twice – ok, but to call them lucky every time – sorry thats just plain ignorant.

It should have been at least 4:0 for Croatia – they had plenty of chances and muscle attacking.

Equality of points after the group matches
If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings.
a) Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question.
b) Superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question.
c) Higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question.
d) Higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question.
e) If, after applying criteria a) to d) to several teams, two or more teams still have an equal ranking, the criteria a) to d) will be reapplied to determine the ranking of these teams. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria f) and g) will apply.
f) Results of all group matches: 1. Superior goal difference 2. Higher number of goals scored 3. Higher number of goals scored away from home 4. Fair play conduct.
g) Drawing of lots.

It’s all irrelevant though – Portugal to get to the final from this half