Who will win this group?

Settle-down. I wasn't the one that brought-up the "pace" argument. It was EDon, who I think is Nigerian. lol

 

Poland is not the kind of team to play to prepare for us. We are opposite.
Again the mistake to think that Poland and Croatia are eastern european teams when they are not...even playing Serbia is not the same as playing Croatia as nobody in balkans is close technically to Croatians level as a team.
Poland tend to be solid mainly and rely on the best striker in the world.
While our main strength is our midfield and the way we manage the ball right and left with some of the best midfielders in activity...

 

I agree on the Poland thing. Poland Kind of seems like a one man team to me. I think Switzerland would be a good preparation for Croatia because it would help us overcome the midfield battle challenge that would be Croatia. Also the obvious choices of Germany, Spain and Co would prepare us as well.

 

Switzerland plays more like Poland too...
The teams that play like Croatia does are more the likes of Spain and Portugal...but they are more complete squads.

 

I don't think Croatia plays like the Current Portugal side. Portugal is very defensive.

 

Depands who they face...we are a bit of a mix between Spain and Portugal but they have better players in the backline than us.

 

I also think you have a better midfield than Portugal but Portugal obviously have CR7. Spain has some better options up front like Morata and Costa.

 

I think your playstyle is actually more like Germany in may ways. Direct crossing / pressing around the midfield. Kind of like Catenaccio. Somewhere between Germany and Portugal. Spain is more like tiki taka which is clearly a style Croatia do not play.

 

Last time I checked Iceland are in this group, somehow Denmark placed for this discussion that came right out of the blue! awkward comment.

 

One of the reasons why modric rakitic and kovacic were doing well in spain and atletico is interested in badelj is cause their way to see football suits us...
Not sure there is another team in europe closer to their style than we are.
You have tiki taka kinds of play in most of croatian urban football grounds since decades...

 

Hitman said I would be "sad" when Nigeria beat Iceland, suggesting I was Icelandic. I just corrected that impression. But thanks for caring, lol.

 

They are more complete but we have good strikers too...mandzukic kalinic kramaric can score anywhere...

When we play against these teams it is especially our backline that becomes a problem.

 

Yeah but Rakitic is the only player that plays for a team with tiki taka. Real Madrid is more like catenaccio and so is Atletico Madrid. Many players play in Italy as well. I was talking about Spain National Team plays like Barcelona.

 

Atletico is catenaccio.
Real plays with more transition due to the kroos modric duo.
Modric could have played for Barcelona they were interested in him even when he was playing for Dinamo Zagreb.
They know to play this style...and they do in most of their games but for shorter times.
I think croatia got it's own style but they are definitely closer to spain portugal and germany as you said than poland.

 

I am actually quite aware that Poland will be nothing like Croatia. People tend to think just playing teams from the same region is good enough but it often is not. Croatia is gar more technical than Poland. Personally I see Poland as one of the weaker Euro sides and Croatia near the other end.

Forget eastern European, I think playing Portugal would be more fitting.

 

We are even not in the same region lol nor the same region nor the same football...

 

Not in the class of a Vlasic in my opinion. Moro has a good attitude and work rate but i don't see the extra class that Vlasic has. Coric is very talented but has a very poor attitude. If Coric had Moro attitude and work rate he would be at a big club already.

 

Do you think that Dalic will take both Pjaca Rebic and Vlasic to Russia along with Perisic Kramaric Mandzukic and Kalinic?
It is 7.
Even players like halilovic brekalo perica have almost no chances to make it to the final 23.

I don't remember a time we had as much depth...i think it's the first.

 

I never implied that you were Icelandic. But I guessed you had an affinity to them as you do.

 

Well, people are in the habit of dividing Europe between east and west.

But when it comes to football and style-of-play, I think its more relevant to think in terms of North & South Europe. You have Italy, Spain, Portugal and Baltic countries play a similar style (short-passing), and U.K., Ireland, Poland and Nordic countries play a completely different style (longer passing).

 

The styles are still really different. It all comes down to three styles: Tiki Taka, Catenaccio, and High Pressing. Of course every team has their own variation and tactics to it but the three main styles are played as follows:

Tiki Taka: Spain, Belgium, France, Netherlands

High Pressing: Germany, England, Wales, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey

Catenaccio: Portugal, Croatia, Italy, Switzerland, Iceland, Serbia, Ireland, Northern Ireland

 

Sorry but you got all wrong there.
France never played tiki taka they even don't know to do that...i live in france and even if they wanted to try they can't. They just haven't been trained for that. They don't have short passing skills in their midfield...matuidi tolisso rabiot pogba etc will never be tiki taka kind of players.
Not a coincidence if none of the french belgian or dutch midfielders are in the best spanish clubs.

When you got kroos modric rakitic kovacic now and there was khedira and ozil in a recent past...

The only teams in europe that know tiki taka more or less at the moment are Spain Germany and Croatia.

 

Never really thought of Portugal and Croatia as similar in playing style, due to having different strengths. However looking back at Euro 16, it could be the reason it was viewed as a dull game in which both teams just sort of negated eachother until a mistake or something lucky happened.

 

Well, that is how I interpreted it, hence my responsive post.

BTW, just because they are Scandinavian doesn't mean I have an "affinity" for them. I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to post something positive about Norway, or God forbid Sweden. Iceland engenders support because they have put together an amazing run despite being just a dot on the map, but that would be the case for me whether it was Luxembourg, or Vanuatu, or Equatorial Guinea that was punching far above their weight. The fact that Iceland is a Scandinavian country plays no role at all, other than I am perhaps more familiar with their story than I would be with the others.

 

Are you sure about France? In Euro 2016 they had pretty much a passing game. That is I haven't really watched them since their games vs Sweden in qualifying.