Celtic saluted their monumental World Cup star, Josip Juranovic after he and his countrymen dreams of winning the World Cup in Qatar ended, courtesy of some Lionel Messi magic. It was a liberty that Josip had to be on the losing team after such an inspired performance en-route the Semi-final.
But there was no stopping the magician that is Lionel Messi. At the age of 35, Messi rolled back the years and strutted his stuff yet again, as Argentina booked their place in their fifth World Cup Final come 18 December. It was truly a Messi Masterclass on the night and Juranovic can’t be too down – it could have happened to anyone.
The Croatian team will look ahead to their third place play-off match with the loser of France and Morocco and Zlatko Dalic’s team will want to end on a high, both for Luka Modric and the gallant way they approached another World Cup. For such a small nation, they really are superb at producing world-class talent.
The team is packed full of young, promising stars for the future like Lovro Majer and Josko Gvardiol. Not to mention those in the here and now like our own Josip Juranovic and Mateo Kovacic. The future is certainly bright for Juranovic and his comrades. At the age of 27, you can be sure he will have plenty more experiences like Qatar.
Well done, Josip!
Paul Gillespie
