Croatia Overcome Belgium Challenge

March 8, 2010

Croatia traveled to Brussels last week for their first friendly in early preparations for Euro2012 qualifying. Even as players were pulled from clubs across Europe ending their seasons, Croatia recruited a strong lineup trying a new 3-5-2 formation consisting of Vedran Runje; Hrvoje Čale, Vedran Ćorluka, Ivica Križanac, Josip Šimunić; Niko Kranjčar, Luka Modrić, Darijo Srna, Ognjen Vukojević; Mate Bilić and Ivica Olić. Subs used were Dejan Lovren, Eduardo da Silva, Ivan Rakitić, Mario Mandžukić, Danijel Pranjić, Tomislav Dujmović, and Drago Gabrić.

For Belgium the lineup was Logan Bailly, Steve Colpaert, Vincent Kompany, Thomas Vermaelen, Jelle van Damme, Axel Witsel, Jan Vertonghen, Maarten Martens, Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku, Moussa Demble. Their subs used were, Wesley Sonck, Mehdi Carcela Gonzales, Nicolas Lombaerts, Thomas Buffel, Jonathan Bloudel, and Toby Alderweireld.

There were many missed opportunities throughout the game, however, Croatia broke the ice in the 63rd minute with a thunderous shot from Niko Kranjčar, which was the only goal of the match. Luka Modrić collected the ball at midfield and brilliantly slid it out to the wing for Kranjčar to fire home from 30 yards out.

Croatia’s new formation did not work as well as they would have hoped but when asked about its potential coach Slaven Bilić said, “3-5-2 is one of our options. So far it has not been based on a lot of training but on the conversations and sketches on paper, but it suits us and is ideal in certain phases of the game.”

Goal scorer Niko said after the match, “This is a friendly game; it can not show too much quality. However, it is nice to go home with a win after such difficult opponents. The ball came right for me, and perhaps their keeper was wrongly placed. All in all I am satisfied, although this game came at the worst time of the season.”

Croatia next play Austria in May.

Jill Guthrie

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