CROATIA VS AUSTRIA: A PICSPAM

[jenni_blog]

I've been trying to pick out my favourite of the national teams that are not considered to be frontrunners. Of course, Spain is my favourite team of all, followed by Portugal, who are two of the favourites. But having seen the first 5 games in the tournament, I did enjoy watching Croatia and Austria. I felt they played an interesting game, although I expected Croatia to be better than they were. Austria turned out to be surprisingly better than I thought they'd be. (I suppose the experts are right and Croatia is missing Eduardo a lot.) In any case, with Croatia and Austria playing each other, they provided us with a very attractive game. Here is a picspam.



Here is Pranjic of Croatia vs Standfest of Austria.



Pranjic vs Linz.



Petric vs Stranzl.



Niko Kranjcar gets his shorts pulled down.



Niko Kranjcar vs Standfest.



Niko Kranjcar vs Joachim Standfest.



Niko Kovac vs Martin Harnik.



Niko Kovac vs Jurgen Samuel.



Niko Kovac vs Andreas Ivanschitz.



Mladen Petric gives thumbs up.



Coach Slaven Bilic walks onto pitch for the second half.



Luka Modric vs Martin Stranzl.





Niko Kovac and Vukojevic.



GK Stipe Pletikosa.



Daniel Pranjic vs Martin Harnik.



Vedran Corluka vs Kienast.



Slaven Bilic reacts during game.





Austria's Umit Korkmaz controls ball.



Vedran Corluka kisses Luka Modric.



Vedran Corluka and Dario Srna leave the pitch.



The Croatian players celebrate.



Austria's Harnik reacts with Proedl.



Coach Bilic at a press conference.



Bilic with Luka Modric and Stipe Pletikosa at press conference.



And at training.



Vedran Corluka stretches.



Niko Kranjcar and Vedran Corluka jog during training.



Ivan Klasnic trains.



Ivan Klasnic with Nikola Kalinic.



Ognjen Vukojevic trains.



Daniel Pranjic stretches.



Niko Kranjcar, Vedran Corluka and Mladen Petric jog during training.

Comments

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

Yes, I saw most of the match when they replayed it late last night. I was working when they ran the initial broadcast. Spain's players are very quick. I think the only one of Russia's players who could match them was Roman Pavlyuchenko. Russia badly needs Andrej Arshavin to be out there (and they could have used Pavel Pogrebnyak, no doubt). Spain's defense did not play that well from what I saw, but their midfield and their offense is spectacular.

I did not see the whole match, but to me Russia looks very good despite the result. I hope they do better in the next game.

[igor-malinin.livejournal.com]

Yes, I hope too. Our defending is very bad now and I want to say several words about it to mr.Hiddink