Domagoj Vida apologized for the second time on Russian TV, said he made a mistake with his political chanting.
But it's too late - he already got appreciation message from Ukrainian president and now center of Kiev is decorated with Croatian flags
Russian TV portrays Croatian fans rather positively - yesterday there were reports that they unfolded large banner with "Thank you, Russia!" text in Moscow. Their players were shown in the news too.
Ah, this one's from the book of dark arts in banana-republic football. When the other team's just minutes away from a cramp (or worse) rolling around for two minutes can be very nastily effective.
You do know that the ‘unofficial World Champions’ thing works if it's a) after the final and b) if you've beaten England?Selfish point - I want Croatia to win, because Estonia beat them 3-0 last March.
http://hns-cff.hr/en/matches/8651974/estonia-croatia-3-0/
The team we beat only included like 5 of those guys who played yesterday, but who remembers that?
I'm officially forgiving you for what you did to me in the last mafia game. Until we play another game, that is, but that's another thing.
So why would the coach who did the exact same thing as Vida be fired, then?
Speaking of camera operators, I've just watched the repeat of that pathetic situation when Croatia scored, every player was off the pitch… and England tried to resume playing on their own, which, even if it had been a valid rule to claim you could play with the other team off the pitch, would still have meant their players were offside.
To somewhat mitigate PR damage, and because he is less important for the team, I guess. The story is IMO blown out of proportion by Ukraine, which tried to present drunk chanting almost as official statement of support.
An interesting point that was made a few weeks ago was how, if you added the best players from the former Yugoslavia together into one team (think Croatia's midfield/forwards + Serbia's defenders + Jan Oblak + Goran Pandev + Edin Džeko, etc.) they should've been contenders for a decade now -and back in the '90s, too.
Because not every team plays the same amount of extra-times and penalty shootouts. Again, it's dark arts and a lot of it is what players believe, and if there's one crowd as superstitious as gamblers it's sportsmen.
I'm with you!
