A Night to Remember for Senijad Ibričić

August 19th, 2010 | by: Harun | Comments Off

Croatia’s Hajduk Split has a fantastic outing in the UEFA Europa League tonight, beating Romania’s Unirea Uzriceni 4-1 at home. Perhaps by now it should come as no surprise that the ringleader of the thrashing was Bosnian international Senijad Ibričić. More below the field, including one great, great goal.

Before what seemed like a sell-out crowd at Poljud, Ibričić was undeniably the man of the match. Five minutes after Unirea took the lead, Ibro scored a header to equalize in the 39th. Then, in the 66th minute, he gave Hajduk the lead with an incredible individual effort, dribbling from his own half, beating several defenders and then curling in a shot from just inside the penalty box. By the end of the game he also earned an assist, making the connection from a corner. If all that wasn’t enough, Ibričić also hit the crossbar and apparently blocked a shot on goal in the last second.

Here you can see the 2nd goal that I mentioned:

Sušić just mentioned a day or two ago that he was seriously considering giving Ibričić another chance in the starting XI, and you’d think that this would be enough to tip the scales in his favor. The only question now is where exactly Ibričić would go, since in an ideal world he would be playing in the same spot as Misimović (or, for that matter, Pjanić). Considering that Miske probably isn’t going anywhere, odds are that Ibričić and Pjanić will line-up like they did against Ghana, but possibly in reverse: one of them next to Rahimić (i.e. Salihović’s vacated spot) and another next to Misimović on the wing. Of course, this will all depend on the formation Sušić ultimately goes with, although I still expect it to be either a standard 4-5-1 or the 4-2-2-2 from against Germany.

Ibričić has had a fantastic start to the season. This includes two goals against HSV in the pre-season, and their scouts were supposedly in attendance here as well. As long as he’s carrying Hajduk on his back like he did tonight, however, it’s questionable how eager the Bili management will be to let him go.