Croatia played three and not two games, in the second 45 minutes against Albania Dalic revolutionized the team and laid the foundations for the challenge against Italy.
Now comes the good or the bad for the Luciano Spalletti’s national team. The first match against Albania was a good match, much praised by those who talk about Italy. The second was an anguish for 75 minutes, after which the national team was downgraded to the black jersey of the tournament. As always happens, the truth is in the middle because our national team is averagenot at the level of the first five-six, but not incapable of hurting the others either.
What a team Croatia is, Italy’s next opponent at the European Championships
Croatia is exactly in our group, but with very different problems from ours. While we are young, without international experience, not very clever in some moments of the match and we also have difficulty reading these moments, Croatia excels in all of this but unlike Italy it no longer has the energy of the pastsome men are almost ex-footballers, they play, if deployed in a certain way, borderline staid football and can’t handle 90 minutes of high intensity.
Two opposite teams will therefore play, which could also be different in terms of tactical arrangement. The problem for us is understanding which Croatia we will face, because Dalic’s team he played three and not two games.
Italy’s next match at the 2024 European Championships, when it plays against Croatia: date and time
How Croatia played against Spain in the European Championships
In the first against Spain, Croatia literally took what they had done over the last two years and brought it back to the pitch. The formation chosen was 4-3-3, with Gvardiol on the left, while with Guardiola at Manchester City he plays in a three-man defence, a central pair formed by Pongracic and Sutalo who are immediately in difficulty, little shielded by Brozovic, just as Modric now has a clear lack of stamina, at the limit of 39 years of age. The attack was precisely the one that Dalic has often used in recent years: a center forward, a pure second striker, Kramaric, who starts from the outside but enters the pitch to play on the center forward’s banks, and a right winger on foot. reversed, Majer.
Croatia also played well in some phases of the match, they beat Spain in percentage of ball possession after sixteen yearsbut it was clear that Spain could have done badly every time they decided to accelerate and literally go for goal.
The changes against Albania, Dalic tries different solutions for Croatia
After this lesson, which we also underwent a few days later, Croatia changes skin and in the first half against Albania they line up with a three-man defense in which Juranovic plays on the right and Gvardiol returns to his natural role on the other side. , Perisic enters full flank on the left and Petkovic is chosen in attack instead of Budimir, to have greater dynamism and provide fewer reference points. The first 45 minutes go even worse than the 90 with Spain, everything seems blocked in the Croatian maneuver and Albania goes into the locker room with a one goal lead (it could have even been more).
When Croatia returns to the field for the second half there are substantial changes. The first, the most decisive, is having removed every ball in the Croatian maneuver from Modric’s feet. Dalic removes Brozovic and Majer, moves Modric to Brozo’s place, as a low midfielder, gets Kovacic centralized by inserting him into the heart of the game and from that moment on it is through his feet that all the balls must pass. He lets Sucic and Pasalic play together with Petkovic and Kramaric, thus inserting the greatest rate of creativity available. Modric does a dark job and from a champion it is also a gesture of example for the team, Kovacic proves himself to be in great shape and breaks the game, Croatia goes ahead 2-1, but then gets caught again at the last gasp because he stays a team with little breath.
Croatia’s possible choices against Italy
Speaking of the triple Croatia, how will they play against us? Dalic cannot fail to take the best of the last half against Albania, that is the three-man defence, Kovacic central and Sucic who is the creative spoiler. However, playing with all the offensive men he played with in the second half against Albania is not possible, for exampleso one could imagine a two-man attack with Sucic himself with duties as a pure midfielder.
They declared that they know how to hurt us and that’s for sure, but how can we deal with them? First of all attitude, courage and desire to do even difficult things, they are not lightning-fast counterattackers like the Spaniards, we can dare more without the crazy fear of running back as quickly as possible. And then we need greater quality, which is why Fagioli is likely to be used for Frattesi, just as we also need a center forward who knows how to create spaces with his body, see Retegui.
It’s not an impossible Croatia and it’s not even the Croatia of a year ago. It is a team that focuses on men in physical difficulty (even if they perhaps have one last great international match in the works) and starts the generational change from this European Championship. We must be good at exploiting these problems and not be afraid.
