Scream to a sigh, to a sigh.

What a difference a few days can make. Croatia had entered Euro 2008 as many people's dark horses and even as some people's favourites thanks to a commanding qualifying campaign and the presence of players such as Kranjcar and Corluka who have begun to hit the big time in England. After watching them scrape an unconvincing win against tournament outsiders Austria, the waves of optimism had vanished, only to be replaced by uncertainty and a lack of faith in maverick coach Slaven Bilic. That was then, this is now. Croatia have beaten Germany 2-1, a Germany fancied by many to be the complete package and likely tournament winners. Of course, the Germans can still win, but who will think they can do it now after a brave Croatian side exposed more holes in them than in a block of Swiss Emmenthal on Bern's main marktplatz. The Germans were not great but for the most part this was because the Croats simply didn't give them a chance. In their blue away-shirts, Croatia were rampant and dominated the game, frustrating German superstars like Michael Ballack and Bastian Schweinsteiger, the latter of whom couldn't deal with the pressure, lost his cool and was red carded for aggressively shoving Jerko Leko to the floor. With time dying out this sending off was a welcome development for Croatia since Germany had been relying upon using the substitute Schweinsteiger who seemed fresher than all his compatriots and was the river through which all German moves seemed to flow.

Nobody can now underestimate the Croatian team. They do indeed have their poor performances, the dire victory against no-hopers Austria and the goalless bore against Japan in the previous World Cup immediately springing to mind, but when they play well they play very well indeed. This was classic Croatia, the same Croatia that put England twice to shame and beat the Germans 3-0 back at France '98. Croatia have a habit of only playing matches for 60 minutes rather than the full 90, which for some players such as Ivica Olic is because they have run themselves into the ground through sheer hard work, while for others like Robert Kovac seems to be a more worrying question of concentration. Last night though the full team worked like a well oiled machine for every second of the game. Half way through the first-half the creative Darijo Srna poached a goal as the German defense opened up. Croatia had all of the good chances in the first-half though the fans were still wishing for the referee to blow his whistle so as not to concede a sloppy goal in the final moments of the half. The Germans did wake up a little once the second-half was underway but it was the Croats who took the initiative with Ivica Olic getting a second goal for the team. Olic's performance was talismanic, giving every ounce of energy for the team, fighting for every ball and leading by example. Ballack shot just over for the Germans and they had a disallowed goal after Stipe Pletikosa was molested. With 79 minutes on the clock Lukas Podolski pulled a goal back, leaving all Croatian fans with a finale so nail biting that one would be forgiven if they were left without any fingers on either hand. Even in the dying minutes though it was Croatia who seemed more engaged in the game, and Modric almost sprinted away to score a third before the referee blew his whistle and quite inexplicably gave him a yellow card.

For the traditional rivals England and Germany it seems that a new common enemy has been found. It always seems to be a lottery as to which Croatia will emerge from the tunnel at the start of each game, but if it is the industrious, creative and brave Croatia that defeated Germany then they need fear nobody. The team must be careful to avoid suspensions through two yellow cards to the same player since without the likes of Modric and Srna they could be toothless. We all had our faith shaken a little after the Austria game but now we can get back to dreaming. Could it be possible for Croatia to go all the way?

Did I disappoint you or let you down?

While only one Balkan team made it to the European Championships this year, there is still plenty to get excited by as we watch on to see how far the Croats can go under talismanic coach Slaven Bilic. After last night's performance against the hosts, and by far the weakest team on paper, Austria, the answer would be not very far at all. Croatia have a habit of playing well for 60 minutes and then taking their collective foot off the gas, as we all saw in several of the warm-up matches prior to the tournament, such as the clash against Scotland at Hampden Park back in March. Now though it is time to get serious, this being the second most important football competition in the world, surpassed only by the World Cup. Unfortunately Croatia didn't manage their usual 60 minutes of pressure, instead controlling the game for only 30 minutes. Fortunately this half-hour spell did include a goal in the fourth minute by Luka Modric, which would turn out to be the only difference between the two teams come the end of the game. A win is indeed a win, and with three points to their name they sit in second place on the table behind Germany as two teams look to progress to the quarter-finals. With Germany looking like potential winners of the tournament, this coveted second place looks to be a two-way battle between the Croats and the Poles. Whilst Croatia have the advantage at the moment, it should not be ignored that Poland lost admirably to a very strong German team, while Croatia struggled to beat a very poor Austrian team.

Are we being unfair on Austria? Partially this is no doubt the case. Andreas Ivanschitz, the Austrian captain, was a creative force far superior to any of the Croatian players, and as a unit they were happy to push forward. Several thousand of the Austrian public signed a petition to have their team removed from the championships for fear of shaming the country with poor performances but with the benefit of hindsight looking back on last night's result we can see that they are by no means the pitiful team that their pre-tournament friendlies would suggest. On the other hand, much of the credit for making Austria look good must be given to Croatia who were at times cumbersome and lacking in creativity. Workman Ivica Olic was lacking in fitness and looked as though he could be in his last living moments as he collapsed on the touchline after being substituted and Niko Kranjcar, Portsmouth's player of the season, seemed to have just had enough and couldn't be bothered to play any more when he went off. The greatest problem facing the Croats remains their attacking options. Since the injury to Eduardo which he sustained playing for Arsenal against Birmingham, the national team has not scored a single goal from its strikers. No team will do well in a major tournament if it must rely upon midfielders to get the goals. Yet again this was the case as it was midfield-magician Luka Modric who, either rather unconvincingly or with supreme confidence depending on how you wish to interpret it, slotted home the penalty. Olic and Petric isn't a match made in heaven despite both players being wonderful in their own rights. The team misses Eduardo so badly but will have to wait until the World Cup in South Africa two years from now for him to show his magnificence at a major tournament. Maybe it is time to start with Petric and Klasnic in the next game since anything that offers the opportunity of finding an end to this goal-drought must be tried.

Other Balkan interests can be seen in the tournament. A wonderful harmony unachievable anywhere else outside football can be seen in the Swiss team where Kosovo born Valon Behrami offers creative flare and Philippe Senderos, the defensive mountain, has Serbian relatives. Both played well in their match against Czech Republic despite their team being defeated, although maybe Behrami could be seen to have tried to overreach himself on occasions. Added into the mix, Switzerland's third choice goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic was born in Bosnia, has dual Bosnian-Swiss citizenship and has represented both countries at under-21 level.

Austria also feature Balkan links in their team, most notably in Andreas Ivanschitz and Ivica Vastic. Ivanschitz, who plays for the Greek club Panathinaikos and is touted by the Austrians as their very own David Beckham, is a Burgenland Croat. These were Croats who settled in Austria in the 16th Century as they fled the Ottoman invasions. 50,000 in number, they have maintained their Croatian culture though the language is a little more archaic. Vastic on the other hand is a Dalmatian, born and brought up in Split. Moving to Austria in pursuit of club football he eventually stayed and by 1996 had taken up Austrian citizenship. By 1998 he was representing the Austrian national team at the World Cup in France and has several times been voted the Austrian league's player of the season, a feat he managed this year too, seeing a renaissance in his form despite being quite aged at 38 years old. One might say that Vastic is a late comer to the Gastarbeiter tradition.

I took a walk with my fame down memory lane, I never did find my way back.

With the French Open reaching its final stages now, the proof of the Serbian revolution in the sport is clear to see. Whilst this is lead by three players in particular, namely Novak Dokovic, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic, it seems that the success in the sport will surely have a knock-on effect which will be far superior to the Henman-Rusedski years in Britain. The success of these three Serbian athletes has come largely from nowhere, all of them are in their early twenties and can be considered to be the first truly world-class athletes that the country has produced from the new post-war generation.

It is always peculiar when a smaller country can go several years without any notable athletes in a sport only to see several then emerge at the same time. Similar to the Serbian phenomenon today was the rivalry between Belgian tennis stars Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin though in this comparison whilst the female players are matched there is was never a Belgian Dokovic. Several years back, if one was to try and predict which Balkan country would produce the true superstars of the tennis circuit then only a fool would have bet against Croatia. With its Dalmatian coast a perfect environment for training tennis hopefuls on countless red clay courts and with two ATP Tournaments, the PBZ Zagreb Indoors and the Croatia Open Umag, surely it would be the Croats who became the regional powerhouse? Maybe the Croats peaked too early possibly. Indeed, they did have great success, Goran Ivanisevic's 2001 Wimbledon triumph being one of tennis's, if not sport's, most memorable moments. Then there was the 2005 Davis Cup victory where the Croatian team spearheaded by Ivan Ljubicic went to Bratislava to defeat defending champions Slovakia in the final. Despite big names such as Ljubicic, Ancic and Karlovic, it seems that Croatia peaked too early because of these players only Ljubicic has come close to winning Grand Slam events. Whilst Iva Majoli did win the French Open in 1997, she was something of a surprise winner who will not be remembered as one of the sports true greats.

Of Serbia's three tennis stars of the moment, only one of them, Dokovic, has actually won a Grand Slam event. This is not a criticism, merely a warning that we should not get ahead of ourselves. Whilst it is possible that all three could continue to play for many years to come, it is not fair to expect them to be able to continually challenge for tournaments every time they play. Unlike Roger Federer or Pete Sampras before him, none of these players are robots. As Martina Hingis retired at the age of 22, then made a comeback at the age of 25 only to retire again at the age of 27, tennis players no longer play on the same circuit as Ivanisevic did, when a top player could remain competitive into his thirties. Having said that, Dokovic is only 21 and has won the Australian Open, reached the final of the US Open and got to the semi-finals of both Wimbledon and the French Open.

Whilst Dokovic can appear on countless billboards throughout Belgrade advertising banking services, it is a slight shame that he, as well as Ivanovic and Jankovic, does not actually live in his country. Based in Monaco, Dokovic clearly benefits from avoiding the taxes and countless autograph hunters who would plague him in Belgrade, but at the same time he has made it perfectly clear that his Serbian identity is very important to him. Humorously, at a tournament which he won last summer in Canada, during the presentation of his trophy the announcer mistakenly said that he was from Croatia. On a more dubious note, in February Dokovic sent a video message to the riotous crowds who had convened in Belgrade following Kosovo's independence. To what extent Dokovic should be becoming involved in such debates is questionable.

For British tennis fans Jankovic may be of particular interest. Whilst tabloid coverage often highlights how Ivanovic is considerably prettier, Jankovic has been romantically linked with her doubles partner, Jamie Murray, with whom she won the mixed-doubles at Wimbledon in 2007. Dokovic, Ivanovic and Jankovic seem to be here to stay for sometime given their high rankings and consistently excellent form. The Jankovic-Ivanovic semi-final means that one Serb will definitely be in a final, and whilst Raphael Nadal seems to be the man to beat on clay, it is hardly inconceivable that both trophies could be Serbia bound. Beyond the immediate, will the success for Serbia stop with this holy trinity or will it become sustainable with equally talented players emerging over the coming years? Time will tell.

Prijatelji, kako ste mi danas?

Thompson's concert last night on Zagreb's Trg Bana Jelacica went off largely without controversy and by most accounts was a wonderful spectacle with 60,000 fans not dissuaded by poor weather. Rain lashed down as the masses gathered and waited an hour past the scheduled start of the concert before Marko Perkovic Thompson made his way to the stage. The concert was staged as part of the city's celebrations for its men who fought for Croatia and there could surely be no more fitting a performer than Thompson for such an occasion.

The majority of fans celebrated the brave part played by Zagreb's men in defending Croatia between 1991 and 1995, though some misguided teenagers, numbering not more than a handful ignored Thompson's unambiguous call for nobody to wear Ustasa insignia. One fan close to the front of the stage was seen carrying a poster featuring General Mirko Norac who was this week convicted by a Zagreb court of war crimes against Serbs in the Medak Pocket. Most fans were happy to celebrate the overwhelmingly positive role of Croatia's defenders and a united pride in their country with flags and the ubiquitous red flares being aplenty.

I cannot hit to hurt or cause you pain, If words could kill I'd spell out your name.

Early this morning, a local man in Tuzla, one of the main cities in the Bosnian-Croatian Federation entity of Bosnia-Hercegovina, went on a gun rampage killing six people and seriously injuring one other. Taking place in the small village of Gornja Lipnica, the man went into two family homes and a bus during his murderous spree. This is a truly unpleasant event, but unfortunately the message it will send out to the outside world will be even worse. Since it took place in Bosnia, readers who come across the story on websites such as BBC will read about murder, guns and Bosnia, collate the three themes and shake their heads with what they deem to be a knowing shame, but what those of us with a better understanding for the region will realise is nothing but patronising ignorance. It will be all too easy for people to look at a story such as this one and ask "Oh those primitive Balkan people, they don't belong in Europe, when will they ever stop killing each other?". For starters, there is no evidence yet as to whether this crime was ethically motivated, but secondly, even if it were, would this make it in any way typical of the geographical region of the Balkan peninsular? Clearly not.

Whilst the 1990s were bloody years for Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia, these were war years, and it is fairly hard to find a long list of countries that haven't been involved in wars at some point in their relatively recent history. To further debunk the ethnic argument attributed to the region, described by people who know nothing of the history such as John Major with his "ancient ethnic hatreds", the more we look at the causes of ethnic cleansing we see that they were politically motivated rather than through any sort of primitive blood lust endemic to the region. If we accept that there were wars on, and go on to accept that they were bloody, it should therefore also be accepted that now that there are no wars in the region it is not bloody. If the shooting today in Tuzla was to indeed be shown to be ethnically motivated, although at this stage it appears this was not the case, then this would not give credence to the bloodiness of the region. This was a gun massacre, and from scouring news websites and the international sections of newspapers we can quickly build up a picture showing that the region is actually no more dangerous in this respect that other parts of the world. The motivation for the killings, whatever they might be, are not relevant since all massacres will have particular reasons and causes.

The United States does have a justly deserved infamy for gun crime, and a quick perusal of the most elementary figures shows that this is indeed with good reason, whilst any such similar claim made against the Balkan region is undeserved. In America the massacres seem to be part of a trend which repeats with worrying regularity and is matched by gun based murders, robberies and other such crimes on a daily basis. In the Balkans, whilst the gun was evidently the weapon of choice during the wars, such crimes are so rare as to be of no concern to average citizens and usually only entail mafiaesque hits against politicians, Ivan Stambolic for example, and other even more shady types, such as Arkan.

The United States can stand with blind pride as it defends the right to carry arms with one side of its face while mourning the victims of massacres such as Virginia Tech, Columbine, Waco, Thurston, Platte Canyon, Lane Bryant, Oklahoma City Bombing, West Nickel Mines... the list goes on seemingly forever. In its moment of respite it can cast a glance over the Atlantic to the filthy Balkans and question why the people there are so primitive, so prone to killing each other and why they can't just get along. It is not just the United States that has seen more than enough massacres to dispel any right to patronise the Balkans on its levels of violence. Finland is widely regarded as a country with a wonderful standard of living yet last year it saw the massacre of nine students at a school in the town of Jokela. Britain too has seen its own fair share of mass killings, the Dunblane massacre carried out by Thomas Hamilton with 18 victims and the Hungerford massacre carried out by Michael Ryan where 17 people died.

Earlier this year, Croatia saw a spree of murders in its usually peaceful Zagorje region in the north of the country. These were quickly attributed to the retired army General Ivan Korade. During his time in the army Korade had distinguished himself as a strong and respected leader and commanded the unit which reclaimed Knin during Operation Oluja. Unable to re-adapt to life outside of the army, Korade suffered from bouts of anger and was a heavy drinker, all too often ending up in brawls but seemingly receiving meagre punishments because of his respected role in the liberation of Croatia. In a bizarre chain of events, Korade killed four residents of his village, including a teenage boy, an elderly woman and his former assistant. The police were baffled and began to search for the retired General who was nowhere to be found. Sightings came in of a man fitting his description and the Croatian media became obsessed with wall-to-wall coverage of each twist in the story, speculating on motives and attempting to find reason. Once they discovered Korade's hideout deep in a forest, a special police unit descended on the area and a shoot-out took place in which one policeman was killed and Korade took his own life. Whilst this was a senseless event it should be noted that it shocked the Croatian public, showing that in no way was Korade's behaviour representative of the country as a whole. Whilst Croatia has made good efforts to look after its retired army personnel, the Korade case goes to show that there is probably a need to spend more time with those who are so affected by their former lives that they have slipped through the net that has already been cast out by the state.

We can therefore clearly see that today's massacre was a one off which will likely haunt the village in which it occurred for many years to come. This will most likely not be understood by the majority of the people who might just read the headline that a mass killing took place and presume that after having already a couple of articles about Srebrenica and Vukovar that this is just more of the same, ignorant to the fact that events such as today's killing probably happen more often in their own country than in Bosnia. With regards to day-to-day living, the Balkans are a very safe place to live, the night-time streets of its capital cities having no areas that aren't safe, compared with the shocking spate of knife-crimes that have rocked London in the last few months. Neighbourhoods such as Hackney, Camden and Tower Hamlets in London are far more threatening places to find oneself late at night than Tresnjevka, Dubrava or Crnomerec in Zagreb. Whilst the Balkans is for the most part out of the news coverage now that the wars are over, the unfortunate consequence is that outsiders will stop learning about the region. During the negative years many people became familiar with towns like Tuzla and Srebrenica and leaders like Milosevic and Tudman, albeit for the wrong reasons, whilst now that there are truly reasons to be happy about the overwhelming majority of people will have turned away. Nevertheless, if we assume that people will not change their habits then this lack of interest is far more favourable than the gory and morbid fascination which people held during the 1990s.

O Zagoro, lijepa li si, Slavonijo, zlatna ti si, Herceg-Bosno, srce ponosno.

As Zagreb gears up for a spectacle on its main square Trg Bana Jelacic at the end of this month, the debate once again emerges around Marko Perkovic Thompson, Croatia's leading rock star of present times. Thompson will take to the stage in the Croatian capital city as part of the celebrations recognising those who came from Zagreb to fight for the freedom of Croatia. Currently in Germany, Thompson's concerts have seen protests from Serbian and Jewish groups who claim that he glorifies Croatia's part in the holocaust. Along side this have been uneasy murmurings amongst the general population who in Germany are especially quick to distance themselves from anything controversial concerning the Second World War given their country's role and the strong sense of united guilt which is taught in the country's education system.

Last summer there was a similar uproar as Thompson's “Bilo jednom u Hrvatskoj” tour rolled into Zagreb. This was one of the most eagerly anticipated concerts in the country's history and was a true extravaganza of both music and patriotism. The waving of Croatian flags at Thompson's concerts is nothing new, neither is the wearing of t-shirts featuring the face of Croatian General Ante Gotovina, but the Zagreb concert, held at the huge Maksimir Stadium was something different. Zagreb is viewed as the intellectual centre of Croatia, in tune with its Austrian heritage preserved in the cities architecture and somewhat detached from the more provocative nationalism found in Dalmatia and Hercegovina. To generalise entirely and call the concert provocative would be too strong, but it could have very provocative for those whose families did suffer as a result of the Second World War Ustasa regime. The overwhelming majority of fans were in a patriotic mood, carried along by the music, but a very small minority went beyond the boundaries of what was acceptable, wearing Ustasa hats or t-shirts featuring Ustasa insignia. Obviously, Serbian mainstream media and independent websites and blogs who have a pro-Serb agenda were quick to carry photos of the controversial fans, portraying it as though these were the only people who attended the concert, and not picturing the thousands of average respectable people who also went along for a night of great music and entertainment.

Essentially, what must be decided is whether the accusations that Thompson is a glorifier of the holocaust are true. This can be decided through his music and his comments far more convincingly than through some misguided teenagers who wear a controversial hat without fully understanding its meaning. Giving an interview to Hrvatski Radio Frankfurt, in his own words, Thompson says “I'm a patriot, not a Nazi” and if one is to look at the set list from the Maksimir concert then it would be impossible to find anything to support the claims that Thompson is the rabid Nazi that some would wish to see him categorised as. His most recent album, "Bilo jednom u Hrvatskoj", is a celebration of Croatian myth, beauty and history while his most famous and popular song “Lijepa li si” is a geographical tour around the lands of the Croatian nation. And whilst some people will still come to Thompson's concert's wearing Ustasa emblems, Thompson has himself said live on stage, such as before his concert in Vukovar, “Wear the emblems of the victorious Croatian army, and not of the Ustasa!”, because, after all, it should not be forgotten that Thompson was himself one of the men who fought for Croatia against the invading Serbs.

Of course, Thompson has made mistakes with comments he has made, but these, given his huge public profile, are relatively old and sound like the words of a man who speaks his mind a little too freely. It is not surprising that Thompson feels a prejudice against Serbs, and nor is he the only Croat to have such feelings. Having fought in the war, Thompson literally put his life at risk to defend Croatia and the threat he faced was a faceless Serbian army. This more or less explains one of Thompson's controversial songs, “Anica Kninska Kraljica”, in which he sings “I'll set fire to two or three Serb headquarters, for my trip not to be in vain”. Those lyrics seem shocking, but let us not forget that the song was written in 1993, at a time when the city of Knin, where the song is set, was held by an illegal Serbian paramilitary organisation despite Croatian sovereignty of the land.

The motives of those who so virulently protest against Thompson should equally be put under scrutiny if they are to demand this treatment of Thompson. It seems clear that on occasions Thompson's reputation precedes him, as shown by the B'nai B'rith organisation which released an entirely unfounded statement claiming that Thompson had sung a song claiming that both he and his father were proud Ustasa members. Many accusations can be made at the man but this was not one of them being a misleading lie. Equally, when Thompson's Sarajevo concert was disrupted by Serbian bomb threats it seems obvious that it is his position as a Croatian nationalist icon that forces him to court controversy.

It can be argued that as Thompson looks to avoid international bans which would prevent him performing abroad, as is already the case in the Netherlands, he has had to tone down his nationalistic and controversial rhetoric. It would be hard to dispute this, but in the context of the events of the Balkans during the 1990s this still does not make Thompson a Nazi. When Thompson comes to Zagreb on 30th May, it would be best if those who wish to go and enjoy his music attend the concert while those who wish to embroil it in controversy (i.e. those celebrating Croatia's World War II past) and those who wish to moan because it does not fit their personal views stay away.

You used to be my team mate, Or that's the way it seemed.

Croatian coach Slaven Bilic announced this week the squad which he will take with him to the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland this summer, making him the first coach to do so. Rather than being filled with surprises, the greatest surprise was the lack of surprises. Of course, there is no Eduardo, that has been known for some time now, and, with equal certainty, present are Luka Modric, Niko Kranjcar, Ivica Olic and Niko Kovac. The only sour note for some fans of Croatian football will be the woeful lack of Croatian based players in the squad.

Despite having a fully functioning league that has been the cradle for many of the squad's star players, only three players from the league were able to impress the coach enough to make his twenty-three man squad. Nobody would be foolish enough to suggest that the Croatian league is on a par with its Italian, English or German counterparts but it nevertheless seems that several extremely talented players have been left out who could have expected to make the squad even if they would not have started games. Players like Mario Mandzukic, Anas Sharbini and Bosko Balaban could certainly be forgiven at questioning their own omissions when places were found for Hrvoje Vejic and Robert Kovac. Balaban did himself no favours openly criticising Bilic in the Croatian media, and while it might be argued that he is past his best and has had his chance, he is an old warhorse who does manage to score goals. Greater sympathy must be felt for Mario Mandzukic and Anas Sharbini both of whom are young players and should have been given a chance. Sharbini has at least made Bilic's reserve list, but there was no such consolation for Mandzukic. Of course, Hrvoje Vejic and Robert Kovac play in different positions to these two up and coming stars, but their inclusion should be questioned irrespective of who it kept out of the team. Vejic plays in Russia for the less that glamorous FC Tom Tomsk, located deep in the oppressive Russian interior and carries the ignominious 84 as his shirt number. FC Tom Tomsk slowly rose to Russia's top league but in the few seasons that they have been there they have achieved nothing of note. Greater concern lies with Robert Kovac who can at best be described as unreliable at the moment. While not wishing to diminish the previous achievements of a player who has served his nation impressively, it looks as though Kovac has made the squad based on his past glories rather than current form. Since signing with Borussia Dortmund this season, a last minute deal which came about because a move to Dinamo Zagreb fell through due to personal reasons (for this read size of wages), Kovac has been largely anonymous. At his German club he has been entirely overshadowed by his countryman Mladen Petric who has been in scintillating form. Furthermore, cynically speaking it might be asked whether Robert Kovac has made the squad so as to keep his brother Niko happy. Niko sometimes tires after sixty minutes and by the end of games can look as though he is on his last legs, but nevertheless he is a talismanic captain, strong tackler and an example to all of the squad. Is his brother dead weight?

The problem which exists around Robert Kovac can also be said to affect other members of the team. What has Dario Simic done to deserve his place in the squad? At AC Milan he is nothing but a bit player, trotted out in the final minutes of games when the result is already assured, win or lose. In Croatia it is akin to blasphemy to speak a bad word about Dario Simic, the country's most capped footballer, is a player who has defined the Croatian national team for over a decade. But is that not maybe the problem? Simic is part of the old guard, players who have played their best football and now need to move over and make way for the exciting new generation that includes Vedran Corluka, Ivan Rakitic, Luka Modric and Niko Kranjcar.

Of the three players who bucked the trend and managed to come from Prva HNL clubs into the national team, one of those, Luka Modric, has already signed a contract to play for English club Tottenham Hotspur next season. Nobody can blame Modric for this, he has achieved all that there is to achieve with Dinamo, with the exception of helping the team play in a European competition after the new year, but this is why he has made the move. Of course money plays a part but Modric is such a humble man that the opportunity to test himself against Europe's best, both in the League and in Europe (Tottenham secured a place in the UEFA Cup thanks to winning the Carling Cup), is what made the move essential. His team-mate Ognjen Vukojevic, a firm tackling midfielder and likely star attraction at Dinamo following Modric's exit so long as he does not accept Celtic's advances, also made the squad. He has played well this season, showing himself to be both hard working and reliable even if he lacks the pure skill of Modric. Vukojevic is one of Bilic's favourites, but has done enough to prove himself. The third and final domestic talent making the journey to Austria is Nikola Kalinic. Having attracted the attention of both Chelsea and Schalke thanks to some sublime goals, Kalinic will be looking to impress, if a move abroad is indeed his aim. Kalinic will be under no illusions regarding his position in the pecking order though, only making the team due to the injury to Eduardo and having four other more proven strikers ahead of him. He is likely to only get a run out if Croatia win their first two matches and can relax for the third game or if everything goes wrong and Bilic has to resort to desperation tactics. Vukojevic and Modric will get time to show themselves, but Kalinic on the other hand should look back to the last World Cup in Germany. At that tournament there were again only three Croatian based players, and one of those was striker Ivan Bosnjak (the other two being Modric and Kranjcar). Bosnjak's contribution to Croatia's World Cup was four minutes at the end of the game against Japan where it seemed that Croatia would never have scored even if they had drafted Maradona, Pele and Linekar into the team.

Of course, it is entirely Bilic's prerogative to select the players he feels comfortable working with since he is the man who brought Croatia to the finals. That is not to jump on the Bilic bandwagon which in the Croatian mass media which has got to the stage that nobody would bat an eyelid were they to suggest Bilic be sainted, for example several publications voted him their “2007 Man of the Year”. No, wiping away the mist of public idolisation, which could easily vanish if Croatia perform poorly, it is Bilic's job to do what he feels right during these championships. The time for reflection and criticism is after the final whistle of Croatia's final match, whether that be after their final group match against Poland on 16th June in provincial Klagenfurt or after a dream final against Italy in grandiose Vienna on 29th June. Bilic has shown he has great potential and even more passion, he must just remember that his players were what got him to the final and that public opinion can be painfully fickle come the end of the summer.

Little things change people's lives, Hostile words won't fill your eyes.

Ahead of the 11th May Serbian parliamentary elections the vote is being lauded as an effective poll between two options. The first, integration with Europe, offers better standards of living and, most importantly for many Serbs, higher wages either inside their own country or in Western markets. The alternative is isolationism, putting up a huge fence around Serbia (minus Kosovo) and sticking two fingers up at progress. Early polls suggest that it will be the ultra-nationalists of war-criminal Vojislav Seselj’s Radical Party who poll the most votes, but unlikely to win an outright majority (the most recent poll placed them on 36.5%) they could be bettered in a coalition were formed by President Boris Tadic’s Democratic Party and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica’s Democratic Party of Serbia (standing on 33.5% and 12.5% of the electorate respectively).

Despite the similar names held by the parties of Tadic and Kostunica, a large gap has opened up between them, which itself lead to the need for the election as their coalition fell apart. In Serbia, being “pro-western” is all very relative. Tadic’s Democratic Party is the one which promotes integration with Europe, but in comparison with pro-European parties in Western Europe, Tadic’s Europhile credentials are rather thin. Kostunica on the other hand is the man who can be seen as having betrayed the 5th October Revolution which removed Slobodan Milosevic from power. For those of us who had not closely followed Kostunica’s career during the Milosevic years, we were swayed by a sentimental belief in democratic principles, believing him to be made from the same mould as the Buddhist monks of Burma or Morgan Tsvangirai in Zimbabwe. We were misguided. Whilst Kostunica has not lead Serbia into any more disastrous wars, he has nevertheless continued Milosevic’s rabble-raising practise of cheap-nationalism. This is the type of nationalism which one can get by waving a flag, spewing forth empty rhetoric and blaming the rest of the world for your country’s problems, rather than a sincere nationalism that looks to make the difficult decisions necessary to better people’s lives in the long term, even if that may make you look like the bad-guy at that point in time. In a country that has suffered so many problems and is so politically unstable it is understandable, though not forgivable, for a clever man like Kostunica to take the easy path, after all, come his retirement he will no doubt have more than enough money to live comfortably. Many other Serbs will not.

The difficult decision which needs to be made is letting go of Kosovo. Despite his faults, Tadic is at least the best hope which Serbia has. His men have portrayed the election as a choice either for or against Europe, but it would be interesting to see how the results would change were this instead depicted as a vote for or against continuing the Kosovo charade. Watching thousands of people stand outside the Skupstina, listening to Kostunica and other public figures speak about how Kosovo is the heart of Serbia and will always be part of Serbia was pitiful. When there is nothing to lose these people will be happy to join the masses, just as many of them did the same when they ousted Milosevic. It should be maybe asked though how many would continue to care about Kosovo (a region that the vast majority of Belgraders have no interest in visiting, let alone living in even were it to be part of Serbia) if they thought that it could be exchanged for a better life. Obviously this is hypothetical and infeasible in practise, but if offered the opportunity to work and study abroad with ease, take home pay cheques on a par with Slovenes and have a stable functioning democracy, the majority of people in Serbia would happily demand that their government recognise Kosovo’s independence immediately. The irony here though is that all of that is on offer. The EU is so keen to hush-up and talk that Serbia is being victimised that it is showing real flexibility on the issue of Serbian war criminals still at large that Serbia could, were it to cooperate and show a little humility, become a fully fledged member within a few short years.

This election will not augment a great deal of change in Serbia though. It is likely that we will see a continuation of the clanking system that has brought the country to its current pedestrian speed of development. If the culture of victimhood could be despatched with then Belgrade could become a locomotive. For the moment, if the woeful candidates who will assume office following 11th May are anything to go by, announcements by the government that the country will become a fully fledged EU member within four years seem patently ridiculous.

I want you to notice when I'm not around, You're so very special.

Winning the title, and possibly the cup too, masks the fact that the Dinamo Zagreb ship are entering dangerous waters. It has been common knowledge for some time that the talismanic Luka Modric would be leaving, but now it appears that there may be an exodus of many of the club's big names. Dinamo's form has not been fantastic in recent weeks and, given their far superior resources, talented players and the poor opposition, it is worrying that they have struggled against the likes of Varteks. With Mamic always willing to interfere the future does not look bright for current coach Zvonimir Soldo. With the exit of Modric, and potentially Vukojevic, Etto, Balaban and Drpic too, the summer must be a time of observing and then spending.

There was a great cash injection last summer from the sale of Eduardo and Corluka, but if you sell you need to replace, and in no universe are Balaban or Sokota (both well-worn second-hand goods) a substitute for Dudu's genius. They could always count on unearthing another youth talent, but for a club with Dinamo's reputation it is potentially a suicidal gamble that could see their European challenge fall apart at the first hurdle. Everybody would rather that the club maintained its Croatian character rather than picking up randomers from the four corners of the globe, Eduardo obviously being an exception, so maybe a player like Krunoslav Lovrek would be a great addition. There was speculation that he might join Dinamo last Christmas from cross-city rivals NK Zagreb, but this fell apart when he broke his leg in an indoor tournament during the break. If fit and recovered he would surely create a good partnership with Mario Mandzukic. Below is a translation of an article from 24 Sata bemoaning the current state of affairs at for Dinamo. It doesn't make pleasant reading.

Nobody is allowed to leave Dinamo except Luka Modrić
“The attitude of the club is that in the summer, if the offer is satisfactory to both sides, just Luka Modrić can leave”, said Dinamo’s head director Damir Vrbanović

“It’s not easy to work because you don’t know who will go, or who will stay. I don’t like to speak about what will be in two or three months. I’ll only go into that when I see to whom we have access,” said Dinamo’s coach Zvonimir Soldo. He hadn’t even finished his sentence when Director of “the blues” Vrbanović jumped in “Only Modrić. Out attitude for Luka, is that if the offer satisfies us and him, he can leave the club. The others aren’t going anywhere,” remarked Vrbanović in a breath, but Soldo quietly and blushing smiled. The coach of Dinamo talked four times with Modrić and the captain unambiguously said how in the summer he “lifts his anchor” from Maksimir.

Offers arrive for Vukojević, one more important link in Soldo’s chain. Celtic pressure, and how Ogi wishes to go to Scotland. He’s in peak form, the best years of his career and doesn’t want to stay at Maksimir. Drpić isn’t satisfied either, and with the first real offer will “migrate”, and Soldo is powerless in the case of Etto. Clauses in his contract say that with an offer of two million euros he’s available to everybody. Soldo doesn’t sleep peacefully either because Zdravko Mamić isn’t satisfied with Dinamo’s game. In the queue stand Dražen Besek, Zlatko Dalić, Krunoslav Jurčić. I Branko Ivanković. It is said that Tanac still hasn’t found employment because he could return to the bench- at Dinamo.

Ogi wishes to leave:
Celtic dangerously bit for Ogi, and Dinamo’s “motor” claims how he would be delighted to play at Celtic Park and that he will sit down with Mamić to discuss it.

And Balaban considers leaving:
The fans haven’t taken to him and Boško doesn’t really play with his usual zip. He claims that he will talk with people from clubs if an offer arrives.

New environment saves Drpić:
Drpić’s problems can only be solved by entering foreign employment. In the club they are already ready to release him if there is an offer of two million Euros.

I light a cigarette because I can't get no sleep.

With a lot of bad press about their apparent primitive, even deceptive, ways being piped out of Greece recently, Macedonia is trying to turn the tide and win back the good will of Western Europe which many observers believe it may have lost. Macedonia’s main issue at the moment, the issue which controls their future integration into European institutions, is that of the country’s name. That battle looks to rumble on against the country’s southern Hellenic neighbours, but in the meantime Macedonia must attempt to market itself as having more in common with European success stories like Slovenia and Hungary than pariah states like Serbia and Belarus. Could banning smoking, despite being a huge tobacco producing country, be one of the bricks that goes towards building Macedonia’s bridge to Europe?

Many visitors to the Balkans note how smoking is a regional obsession. What could be more romantic that a bar just off the main street in one of the Balkan capitals, gentleman sat around discussing dissident poetry, political intrigue or their most recent success at the bookmakers, sipping on either coffee, tea or brandy, with a thick cloud of greyish blue smoke lingering above them, soaking up the developments in the conversation. Alternatively, smoking can be seen as a dirty habit carried out by people who are ignorant to the fact that they are harming their own health, and thus the state should take action. This has been Macedonia’s decision, the government extending the a current smoking ban to now include all enclosed public spaces, and pushing through a bill which will see all cigarette packs carry gruesome images of diseased organs from deceased smokers.

Slovenia already has a smoking ban in enclosed places and cigarette packs carry health warnings similar to those in the United Kingdom, far more visible than the discreetly placed messages on identical brands across the border in Croatia. For Macedonia, a country where one third of the adult population smokes at least twenty cigarettes per day, this is extremely progressive, and acts as further evidence to call into question the orientalising quips of the Greeks. Of course, a rebuff could be that this is action being taken by the government, an elite few, and does not reflect any change in public opinion against smoking. Further credence is offered to this line of thought following a survey which showed that only 5% of Macedonian smokers actually plan on giving up the habit. When forced to look at blackened lungs and diseased hearts though, maybe a few more will change their minds.

Of course, one should not be too quick to accuse the Macedonian government of cashing in politically on the smoking issue. There is the chance that the country’s leaders are entirely altruistic in their drive to decrease tobacco use, hoping to create a healthier nation. Sadly though, we do not live in the 1930s, and ideas such as creating a fit society seem to be anachronistic, belonging to 1930s propaganda films rather than the modern day given the huge number of other vices which exist and are tolerated in the country. Alternatively, maybe the government is attempting to make an investment for the future, hoping that by decreasing the number of smokers it will make healthcare easier in the years to come. Given the woeful lack of investment in basic healthcare when compared to industry and the military all across south-east Europe this also seems a little too idealistic to be true. When we look at the list of countries who already have smoking bans, including newer European Union members like Malta, Lithuania and Estonia and bedrock members such as France, Spain and Italy, it is not unreasonable that Macedonia wants to be in their company. The greatest for of flattery, after all, is imitation.