In the UEFA Nations League, Croatia defeated Poland 1-0 thanks to a direct free kick goal from 39-year-old midfielder Luka Modric. Modric had an outstanding performance on September 8th at his home stadium, Opus, Osijek. He touched the ball 136 times during the course of the ninety-minute game, played the entire ninety minutes, and completed two of his five passes that created opportunities.

 

 

When Modric received a corner kick from the right flank in the seventh minute, defender Duje Caleta-Car headed the ball towards goal, but custodian Lukasz Skorupski stopped it. The Real Madrid player took a strong shot outside the box in the twenty-first minute, but the ball missed the post.

 

When Croatia was given a free kick close to the penalty area in the 52nd minute, Modric took a shot with his right foot that went over the wall and into the top corner, prompting custodian Skorupski to fly but still failing to stop it. After nine games across all competitions, the 39-year-old midfielder broke his goal drought, and he assisted Croatia in earning their first three points of the Nations League this year.

 

2  SportFootballOther awardsMonday, September 9, 2024, 08:04 (GMT+7)

Modric outshines Lewandowski with a fantastic free kick.

 

Croatia In the UEFA Nations League, Croatia defeated Poland 1-0 thanks to a direct free kick goal from 39-year-old midfielder Luka Modric.

 

Modric had an outstanding performance on September 8th at his home stadium, Opus, Osijek. He touched the ball 136 times during the course of the ninety-minute game, played the entire ninety minutes, and completed two of his five passes that created opportunities.

When Modric received a corner kick from the right flank in the seventh minute, defender Duje Caleta-Car headed the ball towards goal, but custodian Lukasz Skorupski stopped it. The Real Madrid player took a strong shot outside the box in the twenty-first minute, but the ball missed the post.

 

When Croatia was given a free kick close to the penalty area in the 52nd minute, Modric took a shot with his right foot that went over the wall and into the top corner, prompting custodian Skorupski to fly but still failing to stop it. After nine games across all competitions, the 39-year-old midfielder broke his goal drought, and he assisted Croatia in earning their first three points of the Nations League this year.

 

Modric also scored directly from a free kick for the first time in 17 years. “I’m very happy because I finally scored a goal from a free kick myself,” he said to the national television channel NovaTV following the game. Similar to this, I also scored from a kick against Slovakia, but that time the ball struck an opponent and veered into the net. Since my time at Dinamo Zagreb, if my memory serves me well, this is the first direct goal I have scored from a free kick.

 

With 180 games played for the national team, Modric is only one game behind Cristiano Ronaldo (214 for Portugal) and tied with Sergio Ramos of Spain. In these 180 games, Modric scored 27 goals, placing him second only in Croatian national team history behind Eduardo da Silva, Andrej Kramaric (29 goals), Ivan Perisic, Mario Mandzukic (33 goals), and Davor Suker (45 goals).

 

“I never would have imagined that I would play for so long. We can’t think about the future; we have to focus on each game. I’m going to leave the team as soon as I lose my fire. I alone can sense the fire and decide what to do,” he stated.

On September 8, at the Opus Stadium in Osijek, Croatia defeated Poland 1-0 in the second round of Group A of the Nations League. Modric celebrates after scoring. Image: AFP. Modric played a fantastic game, passing the ball, running, fighting, and scoring as if he were only 25 years old, according to coach Zlatko Dalic. If his student continues to play at such a high level, he thinks he will wear the Croatian shirt for a very long time. The 57-year-old coach believes that today, September 9, is Modric’s 39th birthday, and that the win is the best present for him. Unlike Modric, Robert Lewandowski, the captain of Poland, was unimpressive. The 36-year-old striker made four shots over the complete ninety minutes of play. His most significant moment came in the seventieth minute when he controlled the ball in the penalty area, turned, and launched a left-footed drive that struck the crossbar. Lewandowski was awarded a score of 6.7 by Sofascore, while Modric was awarded the best score of the game at 9.3.

Coach Roberto Martinez surprisingly benched Cristiano Ronaldo, but the 39-year-old star still shone in time when he entered the field in the second half and scored the decisive goal to help Portugal beat Scotland 2-1 on September 9.

 

” Ronaldo ‘s current form shows that he is ready to aim for the 2026 World Cup ,” said AS (Spain). The 39-year-old has now scored a total of 6 goals in 6 matches for both club and country, and has 2 assists at the beginning of the 2024-2025 season.

 

 

Ronaldo scores regularly and is still an extremely important factor in the Portuguese national team.

Ronaldo’s goals for Portugal in the 2-1 wins over Croatia and Scotland in the UEFA Nations League were also his 900th and 901st career goals.

 

In addition, these goals also helped Ronaldo increase his national team scoring record to 132 goals after 214 matches. Ronaldo is currently the player with the most goals in the history of the Portuguese team, far surpassing the second-placed Pauleta with 47 goals and the legendary Eusebio with 41 goals.

“Two games, two wins. Thanks for the support, let’s go Portugal!”, Ronaldo wrote on his social media account X (formerly Twitter). This shows that this famous player is still making important contributions to the national team and coach Roberto Martinez was right to keep faith in him.

The special thing about the match where Portugal defeated Scotland at Estadio da Luz in Lisbon was that coach Roberto Martinez surprisingly left Ronaldo on the bench after starting and playing almost the entire 90 minutes in the match against Croatia.

Ronaldo was only brought on at the beginning of the second half to replace Pedro Neto. Before that, the Portuguese team’s attack was led by Rafael Leao and Diogo Jota with Bruno Fernandes supporting the back line.

Portugal team shows they still need Ronaldo

After McTominay unexpectedly opened the score 1-0 for the Scottish team in the 7th minute, it was not until the second half that Ronaldo’s presence helped the Portuguese team’s attack to improve again before Bruno Fernandes equalized 1-1 in the 54th minute. At the end of the match, Ronaldo showed his mettle and importance when he chose the right position to confirm Nuno Mendes’ pass, scoring the decisive goal to bring victory to the home team with a score of 2-1.

“The consecutive goals still show Ronaldo’s importance in the Portuguese team’s play, he is ready to aim for the 2026 World Cup,” AS emphasized . However, Ronaldo has not yet mentioned this possibility, when determining that this is the time to enjoy football and wait and see what happens next.