Dinamo Zagreb is the top team in the Croatian league, having won seven consecutive titles in the last seven seasons, comparable to Lyon in Ligue 1 at the beginning of the century, but Croatia is not as good as France, and the Croatian First Division, which has only 12 teams in total, is not as good as Ligue 1.

As a giant team in Croatia, Dinamo Zagreb has its own way of survival, that is, basically following the path of Lyon at its peak, dominating the domestic league, focusing on attacking the Champions League, relying on more financial resources than competitors, poaching teams from the same country, and then selling outstanding players to other European leagues at a high price for profit.

This is a normal and common practice in European football, but one of the more controversial aspects of Dinamo Zagreb is that the two brothers, the president of the club, also run one of the largest agents in Croatia, and almost all of the players who come out of Croatia come from their operations.

This is somewhat similar to Juventus and Moggi in Serie A before the phonegate incident.

Therefore, the brothers Dinamo Zagreb and Mamic are not good in the impression of Croatian domestic fans.

In the group stage of the Champions League last season, Dinamo Zagreb and Lyon were in the same group, but in the final round of the group stage, Dinamo Zagreb lost 7-1 at home to Lyon, which helped the Ligue 1 powerhouse to qualify from the group by second place on goal difference, which caused huge controversy in European football and Croatia.

Everyone thought it was a match-fixing, and the frustration with the Mamic brothers was completely vented, and the clarifications of Lyon and Dinamo Zagreb went unnoticed, and finally even forced UEFA to come forward to make a statement, and the matter gradually subsided.

Gao Han also watched that game, Dinamo Zagreb itself is not as strong as Lyon, at the bottom of the group, eliminated early, uncompetitive, even if it is a home game, it can barely support in the first 30 minutes, but the player Leko was sent off in two consecutive yellow cards in the eleventh and twenty-eighth minutes respectively, which completely became the last straw that crushed Dinamo Zagreb.

In fact, after the red card, Dinamo Zagreb also had the power to resist for a while, scoring the first goal in the 40th minute to take the lead, and it was that goal that made Gao Han remember a name, Mateo Kovacic.

But then Dinamo Zagreb was defeated, on the one hand, one less than the opponent, on the other hand, the strength itself was not as good as the opponent, and finally ended in a dismal 1-7 defeat, after the game, the head coach Jursic resigned, and the current head coach Ante Kasic took charge.

But Kasic's coaching results are not much better than Jursic, in the first few rounds of qualifiers against Bulgaria and Slovenia, they can successfully qualify, but in the Champions League group stage, they met Porto and Dynamo Kiev, the beginning is two consecutive defeats, both games are 0-2, and it is indeed inferior.

This home game against Paris Saint-Germain, they also fell behind 0-2 in the first half.

But in the second half, Ante Kasic tried to play a counterattack, first made a direct substitution in the midfield, took a defender from the May Fourth formation, replaced a midfielder, and then replaced a teenager Halilovic in the 70th minute.

After two substitutions, Dinamo Zagreb's midfield attack improved considerably.

Kovacic, Halilovic and Brozovic seem to have been stimulated.

In a defence on the edge of the box, the centre-back cleared the ball and kicked it to the edge of the box, where Kovacic, wearing the number eight shirt, burst out of the box and caught the ball at the top of the arc.

But as soon as he stopped, Paris Saint-Germain's Di Maria stepped forward to press, but he didn't expect Kovacic to make a feint, knock his heel, turn around flexibly and dunk the ball past Di Maria, and then suddenly accelerated, and forced his speed to pass Yaya Toure, who was back on defense, and chased straight after the goal.

Rabiot, who came on as a substitute, was quickly returning to the defense, and PSG's defence was constantly retreating.

After crossing the halfway line, Rabiot began to try to force Kovacic to the side, but he didn't expect Kovacic to take advantage of a feint first, and after deceiving Rabiot, he suddenly buckled again and directly changed direction to kill back to the middle.

Seeing that Rabiot was about to be thrown off by Kovacic, Yaya Toure finally returned to the defense and blocked in front of Kovacic, but the Croatian did not lose the ball at his feet, and another change of direction deflected past Yaya Toure's tackle, but the Ivorian hooked him down and gave Dinamo Zagreb a free-kick.

The whole process happened in a very short period of time, the ball seemed to be stuck to Kovacic's feet, through skillful dribbling, constantly changing speeds, Kovacic single-handedly hit the Paris Saint-Germain midfield.

This made Gao Han and Zidane on the sidelines both surprised and admired.

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"If I'm not mistaken, this kid is only eighteen years old, right?" Gao Han laughed.

He had already been aware of Mateo Kovacic, who scored a goal in the game against Lyon last year, when he was only 17 years old, but his performances were impressive.

In the first half of the game, he was in a slump, just like his team, but in the second half, as the team's style of play adjusted, the situation gradually turned around, and he began to perform, and the dribble just now was eye-catching.

"Take a good look at him. Gao Han patted Zidane on the shoulder and smiled.

Soon, Dinamo Zagreb was once again forced on the edge of the penalty area, but this time it was Kovacic who retreated to defend himself, in front of the penalty area, cooperated with his teammates to attack, cut off Di Maria's ball, and rushed forward with the ball, and along the way it was a player who used the change of speed to shake the Paris Saint-Germain player in succession.

This time, however, PSG reacted more quickly and before Di Maria crossed the halfway line, he was back on board and joined forces with Yaya Toure and Rabiot to cut the ball off at his feet.

But immediately Dinamo Zagreb got another chance to take the throw-in, Kovacic was very active, ran over and raised his hand to ask for the ball, one turned to get rid of it, and then he shook off Di Maria, who was guarding him, and then he single-handedly dribbled the ball over the halfway, but this time he learned to be obedient, and before Yaya Toure and Rabiot were trapped, he wanted to distribute the ball to the side, but it was passed directly to the Paris Saint-Germain player, and he was so angry that he hurriedly chased after it and forced it.

This made Gao Han and Zidane laugh from the sidelines.

"This kid is good. Gao Han smiled.

Zidane nodded, "This kind of continuous speed change not only requires the speed of the player, but also the control and adjustment of the center of gravity is also crucial, just look at his dribbling, you can see that the technique at his feet is very solid, and the dribbling ability is very good, especially in the middle of the midfield, which is very rare and very suitable for your taste." ”

Gao Han smiled, but did not express his position directly.

He really admires this type of player, especially one who can do so well in the middle of the midfield.

At the beginning, he admired Kaka's ability to push in the middle, and now he uses Di Maria to play in the middle, which is also fancy this, but Kovacic is different from these two players, his ball control and dribbling ability are better, and the continuous change of speed in a small area is impressive.

He does have a great appetite for Gao Han, because Gao Han has always believed that improving the efficiency of offensive and defensive transitions will become more and more important, and how to complete the team's offensive and defensive transitions with the least investment in the shortest possible time has become the direction he has been working on.

Mateo Kovacic is the kind of midfielder who can switch between attack and defence alone, with different characteristics from Luka Modric, but with a lot of similar tactical value.

"Look at the Halilovic on the wing, the one who came off the bench, he is younger, he has a good job at his feet. ”

Following Zidane's gestures, Gao Han also noticed this Croatian youngster with a similar hairstyle to Modric, and after observing for a while, although it was not as eye-catching as Kovacic, it was also quite good.

Gao Han's eyes swept away, and the situation of Kovacic and Halilovic was already in full view, and even the situation of the entire Dinamo Zagreb team was clear, including that Brozovic.

"Croatia has been a real source of talent in recent years. Gao Han smiled and praised.

Zidane nodded, "When this group of players grows up, Croatia will be a force to be reckoned with in European football." ”

After a pause, Zidane looked at Gao Han curiously and asked, "How about these two?"

Gao Han smiled, "As I told you before, the growth of young talented players is amazing, some players can be predicted, just like Neymar and Hazard, the growth trajectory is very predictable, the talent is excellent, and he was born to be the core of the big team, Lucas Mora is slightly worse, but if he is cultivated properly, he will definitely be the main level of the big team." ”

"But there's another one that's hard to predict, like Isco and Paul Pogba, they all have very unique abilities, and they definitely belong to the ranks of geniuses, but it's hard to set a specific direction for them, so it's hard for them to judge what the long-term future will be. ”

Zidane agreed, "Yaya Toure also belongs to the latter category, but he is lucky to have met you. ”

During his tenure at Inter Milan, Gao Han created a path for Yaya Toure that was very suitable for his development, which allowed the Ivorian to grow up, and now he has become the midfield thigh of Paris Saint-Germain, both offensive and defensive.

"Kovacic also belongs to this category, it is not easy to grow up, but once he succeeds, he will be a superstar player, and Halilovic belongs to the kind of better planning, but I estimate that he can only reach the main level of the big club at most. ”

That being said, it's quite rare to have two of these players on a team at the same time.

Originally, there was also a Brozovic who was not bad, but he didn't belong to the type of alpine appreciation, so I won't talk about it.

Zidane lived in Madrid for a while this summer, and had contact with Chinatown for a while, especially Hazard, Pogba, Isco and other players, he is very familiar with them, and feels that Gao Han's vision is indeed extremely sharp, and he has found such a group of outstanding talents for Chinatown.

But the trouble that ensues is also obvious, how to cultivate this group of geniuses?

"It's a pity that PSG's positioning is obviously not conducive to good youth training, especially youth players like Kovacic, otherwise, buy him and train him carefully, so as not to be ruined by other unpopular managers in the future. Zidane sighed.

The case of the destruction of a talented player and the eventual evolution into injury Zhongyong is also unknown.

But any head coach can't help but itch his hands when he sees a talented rookie, and Gao Han is no exception.

Kovacic is a gem, and Gao Han really doesn't feel comfortable handing it over to anyone else.

was really tempted by Zidane's words.