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I didn't see a thread about Croatian football league so I decided to create one. I know Croatia is more famous for their national team than for their football league. Let's see if this thread catches up. If not, it will die out and won't bother anyone :)

The competition started back in July. There are 10 clubs competing in the league and Dinamo is sitting in the first place. Many of you that are not from Croatia probably haven't heard of clubs other than Dinamo. Maybe Dinamo too is a little known to many of you, but I'm sure that most remember their win against Chelsea in September that resulted in Chelsea letting go Thomas Tuchel as a head coach.

Back to the league. The 10 teams that are competing in this league are:

• Dinamo Zagreb
• Hajduk Split
• Osijek
• Slaven Belupo
• Varaždin
• Istra 1961
• Lokomotiva
• Šibenik
• Rijeka
• Gorica

Interesting fact (that I too wasn't aware of) is that the League earlier this year signed a multi-year partnership with Sorare. That partnership resulted in all Croatian teams that compete in the 1. HNL being available in Sorare.

As for the teams, Dinamo is currently sitting on top and has finished on top for the last five years. I'm sure that they plan to continue their streak of winning the championship this year too.

I only heard about two teams from the list. Dinamo Zagreb and Lokomotiva 😂

Yes, I think the same. The team Croatia was unbelievable in 1998 or 2002 world cup. They were one of the Semi finalist in one of the world cup, if I remember correctly. Your player Davor Suker was amazing to watch.

Wow! You have heard of Lokomotiva? If someone asked me what are the two most famous Croatian football teams, I'd say Dinamo and Hajduk. I'd never think that someone outside Croatia have heard about Lokomotiva :)


Actually Croatia didn't qualify for the next round in the World Cup 2002. We beat Italy, but was beaten by Mexico and Equador if I remember correctly. Maybe you meant that we did good in the World Cup 1998. (3rd place) and in the World Cup 2018. (2nd place). Interestingly, in both World Cups we were beaten by France - 1998 in semi-final and in 2018 in the final.

You haven't heard about Modric? I would say that Modric now is as famous as Suker was back in his days. The only difference is that Suker was a striker and Modric is midfielder. Strikers are usually more famous than midfielders.

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But back to the HNL... Yesterday Istra beat Gorica 1-0. Gorica is sitting firmly at the last spot and in the last five matches they have one draw against Slaven Belupo and four losses.

Today we have Hajduk playing against Osijek. Osijek can come a little closer to Hajduk if they manage to win. Also today Slaven is playing against Lokomotiva (I'm still surprised that BitcoinGirl.Club heard of Lokomotiva ;D ).

Tomorrow there are two more matches. In one match Varaždin is playing against Rijeka who is for me the biggest disappointment of this season. In the other match Dinamo is playing against Šibenik which should be an easy win for Dinamo. Interestingly, in the last game Dinamo suffered their first loss of this season against Osijek.

I never heard about Hajduk unless it has any other name in English 😂
Dinamo Zagreb are in UCL but not sure about Lokomotiva however I know the name. It could be from sports betting too.

Yes I was remembering this world cup and Davor Suker was outstanding at that time. Unfortunately in 2018, I did not watch many matches except English team.

From the UCL only in few matches.

Let me know if they win LOL
I hope they are a good team who stay at the top end 😉

Lokomotiva is basically a second squad from Dinamo :) And they were quite ok in the last few seasons but this season they suck big time. Maybe you heard it even from me here on the forum, there was a time I was sharing tips from our league and Lokomotiva is one of my favorite both to score teams in the past and they were almost auto include on my tickets.

Big game today between Hajduk and Osijek. Hajduk is also one of my both to score clubs but not when playing against Osijek so I am skipping this one.

Then you surely remember Croatia beating England in the semifinal of the World Cup :P


Well... If he was a striker and player at that level, you would have heard about him.

It is good that attention has also been paid to this competition. I don't follow it closely, but in the CL they usually always have a participant in the form of Dynamo Zagreb. Have been able to make many beautiful competitions and trips. That's the best team, isn't it? Back in the day, way back when, Hajduk Split was a pretty strong team. Even in Europe they were still quite good. And what about players like Modric who all started in the league. And Prosinecki used to be a celebrity too, and Suker was also one of the best players in the world. I'm probably doing other players short by not mentioning them.

ya.ya.yo!

Croatian football league is by far less know than Croatian national football team. The reason is that most of our national players are playing for foreign clubs. Hajduk was way better in the past than it is now mainly because of pool management. Also Rijeka was pretty good in european competitions few years ago. But now the only team good enough to make a mark in Europe is Dinamo Zagreb. They too have their own problems but I don't see any other team besides Dinamo to become the champion this year. Maybe Dinamo Zagreb would do better in Europe this season if they have had a better coach. It looks like Ante Cacic (current Dinamo's coach) gets appointed every time when someone gets fired and there's no one to film the spot.

You forgot about Rijeka, a club that in the last 10 years was a participant in the group stage of the European league several times and once the champion of Croatia  ;D
Unfortunately, apart from Dinamo and Rijeka, the other Croatian clubs have not really shown themselves in European competitions in recent years and were mostly eliminated from the competition early, from clubs from Malta, Ireland, Kazakhstan...
Organizationally and financially, at this moment, only Dinamo has the necessary strength and quality to make a concrete result in Europe and pass to the group stage of a European competition.
As for the Croatian football league, the champion is known even before the start of the competition, so the interest in watching matches in the Croatian league is declining.

I wrote about Rijeka here:

But yes, Dinamo has no competitors in Croatian league. They are financially far apart from other teams. I actually don't know what happened in the last match when they lost to Osijek. That was their first loss this season. It's a shame that other teams can't follow Dinamo in it's success in european matches. I remember few years ago when Dinamo played in the UCL and two other teams (I think they were Hajduk and Rijeka) played in the UEFA Europa League. That was really a great time and I thought that other teams will do better with every passing season but it was the other way around. They got worse and started losing in qualification rounds.

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So Hajduk managed to win 3-1 against Osijek which took them only one point behind Dinamo Zagreb, but Dinamo have played two matches less than Hajduk. Slaven Belupo vs. Lokomotiva ended in a draw (sorry @BitcoinGirl.Club, Lokomotiva didn't win this one ;) ).

In other news, Gorica's coach Igor Angelovski was let go following another defeat yesterday against Istra 1961. His career as Gorica's head coach lasted less than three months and ended without a single victory. So no surprise there.

The name Lokomotiva or Lokomotiv is a regular occurrence in Eastern Europe. I think you might be thinking of a different club from a different country. Some popular examples include Lokomotiv Moscow or Lokomotiv Sofia. Ice hockey clubs also use the name (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, Lokomotiv Moscow). Here is just one list (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lokomotiv) with some examples of everything that is out there.

I still remember that overtime goal by Mandzukić. 

In fact, when I look at the table of the Croatian Football League, it is really strange to see Rijeka and Gorica at the bottom of the table.
Until recently, Rijeka was always among the 2-3 best Croatian clubs and regularly participated in European competitions, and Gorica was also very good in the last few seasons, fifth or sixth in the championship.
That is why I am really surprised by the poor placement of both clubs this season in the Croatian league.
It is not clear to me what happened with Rijeka, that they went from being a candidate for the champion of Croatia to fighting for survival in the league.
Slaven Belupo and Varazdin are the most positive surprises of this season in the Croatian league.

I really don't watch other football leagues like Serie A, LaLiga, Bundesliga or any other leagues. The only league I am too close is Premium league. But long time ago when I was heavily in sports betting, I used to bet almost in all teams and matches without checking league, recent performance or even sports type. May be Trofo and Pmalek is right too but anyway, somehow the name was in my mind LOL

I have known and bet on scores for Croatian League HNL teams, there are several teams that are familiar to me such as: Hajduk Split, Istra 1961, Osijek, D. Zagreb, Slaven Belupo and many Croatian national teams that I know, flashscore is one of the score betting sites that I use to bet like what happened in the round of 16 here Hajduk Split vs. Osijek, these two national teams are great in the game, but unfortunately Osijek lost 3-1 by Hajduk Split.

I'm sure this thread will be a good place for discussion for the upcoming 22/23 Croatian League, I hope here to find the best Croatian national football teams in the future, but for the time being the strongest standings that many score bettors talk about are three teams. D. zagreb, Hajduk Split, Osijek, they can still maintain their respective rankings in the current Croatian League standings, I hope that in the future there will be interesting discussions to bet on in the Croatian League.

I think that Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split will have no problem maintaining their first two spots in the league. That goes especially for Dinamo who is in my opinion better than other teams. The only thing they lack is a better coach who I think should be responsible for losses against Red Bull Salzburg which in the end resulted in finishing at the last place in this year's group stage of the UCL.

As for Osijek, I hope they will manage to stay at the third place and maybe even challenge Hajduk's second place.

Actually the the biggest problem for Croatian football is lack of good teams that could challenge Dinamo's dominance and actually do something in the European competitions. This year Croatia had four clubs in the qualification rounds of the Europa League and Conference League but none of them, except Dinamo, made it to the group stage. If something like that repeats next year, Croatia will probably lose one or more spots that lead to the European competitions.

It's very strange to see a league with only 10 teams, can someone explain to me why there are only 10 teams in the league? looking at the table dinamo has a better chance of winning the league, but they lost in the champions league against milan and then they lost in the league against osijek, they lost again in the champions league against chelsea and then they beat sibenik in the league local, they even managed to score 3 goals, but sibenik is a team that is at the bottom of the table, so maybe dynamo is not managing to beat strong teams, anyway I will follow this league

The answer to why Croatian league has only 10 teams is easy. Croatia is a small country and we don't have enough teams to have bigger eague. Ten is more than enough. Even in this league we have teams that are struggling with finance and organization.

Dinamo can play against strong teams, but they are simpy not good enough to beat teams like Milan and Chelsea. The win against Chelsea in September was a big surprise.

I would very glad if someone except Croatians follow our league, especially because I don't like talking to myself in this thread :)

Another reason why a country would hold a league with only 10 teams is to improve their football quality.This is achieved that these teams will play each other at least 3 times and in some leagues 4 times rather than creating a league with more teams but those teams will not have any quality at all and thus all teams would be playing each other only 2 times but the problem with that would be that the league would be won by a good team with much point difference,while we see here in Croatia Hnl that there is not a big gap between the top two teams.

True, that's a good reason to have small number of teams in a league. With Croatian league it's different. To someone who doesn't follow the league closely it could look like Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split are close. But the reality is that Dinamo is way better team and in the end they will win the league. All other teams have similar quality. If I'm not mistaken, Dinamo played two matches less than Hajduk so there are six points that they will probably win and separate themselves from the rest of the league. Especially now when there's no more European matches so they will concentrate solely to the national league.

It looks like Rijeka is sinking more and more. After a terrible start of the season, they are sitting at the seventh place out of ten teams. And if that's not enough, yesterday they have lost a cup match against Bijelo Brdo (the club is sitting in the last place of the second Croatian league). I really don't know what is going on with Rijeka and for how long will Rijeka's coach stay in the club.

Wasn't Rijeka just a couple of years ago fighting and dominating this league if I recall correctly,I follow all the Western Balkans leagues because I live and work in this region from many many years now,I feel a Balkaner now  ;D.

I don't know for how long the coach has been there but I think that a coach needs a lot of time to improve the team,if he is there from a lot of time and has not improved anything in the team and in addition to that to go and lose a game with the last place team of the second league,I am afraid only firing him is the way forward.

Yes it was. OK, I wouldn't say that they were dominating the league but they were in the top 2-3 teams. They were even champions few years ago. Serse Cosmi was appointed as a head coach in September so he is still relatively new. But it wouldn't surprise me for him to be sacked because of bas results. Especially after they lost in the Cup.

Serse Cosmi,ex Periuggia coach in Serie A?Lol how things change in football,he was coaching in Serie A not that many years ago while he was also one of the good coaches there and now he is directing Rijeka in Croatia.I am not saying that Croatian league is a bad one but Serie A is a much stronger and competitive league.

The reason that they don't sack him maybe is exactly this,he is new as a coach and needs time and beside that I assume they pay him a lot since he has moved in a lower quality league compared to Italy,even if he was in other low quality leagues compared to Italy before coming here,I am sure he is being paid well.

Don't worry, I know that Croatian league is not that good. Besides two or three teams, there are no more teams that I could consider do something in the European competitions.

It could be that he requested a lot of money in case they let him go so they don't have a choice. I don't think that constantly changing a head coach can bring any good to the team. Every new employee needs some time to adjust and coaches are no different. But in the way Rijeka is playing lately, I think it will be a success if they stay in the first league.

I don't know the exact deal but I am sure he is paid much less then you think. Mišković (owner) is businessman and he runs a club like a business not a toy to play with it. All wages are quite realistic and on the low side. His favorite move is to take players that were destined for big things but their carrier went the wrong way. He made a lot of successful moves like that and he never gives problems to players when they want to leave, that makes Rijeka a nice place by the sea to come and revitalize your career.

Honestly I didn't even know that he was once a successful coach in the Serie A so I didn't have any idea on how much he is being payed. Maybe he is good coach but the players are bad. I don't know. I just know that if they continue to play like this, they will end up fighting to stay in the first league and not fighting for a spot that takes them to some of the European competitions in the next season.

So much foreign coaches from bigger leagues have come into Western Balkan leagues like in Vardar in N.Macedonia,like in Bosnia Hercegovina,Serbia and also Albania to bring their superior mentality but many of such times they could not.The problem is not the coaches coming from bigger leagues,the problem is the Western Balkan players mentality having a lot of trouble to harmonize themselves with this new mentality and as Trofo said most probably these coaches come by to enjoy nature and get a nice pay compared than doing nothing in their home countries.

The Western Balkan leagues need to believe more in their local coaches and to improve more their leagues by promoting local ambitious persons rather than importing,this is just my opinion after seeing so many failures from the "big coaches" coming here.

Actually in Croatia there hasn't been that much foreign coaches in the past. There were some, but most of the teams in the first league are trained by Croatian coaches. I'm not sure what is the problem with our clubs and why they can't perform at least as good as Dinamo Zagreb. That would bring more points in European competitions and as a result, more teams would play in those competitions. To me it looks like all of them are OK with Dinamo being number one and competing in the UCL and the rest of them are fighting for spots 2-4 that leads to UEFA European League and UEFA Conference League.

to solve this problem it is necessary for the person who manages football to put laws that facilitate the hiring of foreign coaches and players, most of the time the laws even allow the hiring of many foreign coaches, but as for the issue of hiring foreign players they are limited in numbers and to make matters worse, the salaries that teams pay are not pleasant for foreign coaches, but this is partly the fault of the people who run football who do not create laws so that teams can have many means of having money and being bought. by whoever wants

And now there will be one less foreign coach in Croatia. Everybody in Rijeka considers Cosmi as a history and I would say there is 99% chance he gets fired after Dinamo game. That is the last game before WC and whoever is managing our team would be expected to loose anyway. Better to count that loss under Cosmi, then fire him and give new manager a cleaner start and full month to work with the team.

This is to be expected. It doesn't matter which teams a coach was leading in the past, if the team that you lead is sitting at the end of the league table, a coach will be fired. It could be that they simply sold all the good players and signed bad ones but for the manager it's easier to let go the coach than to change the team.

Anyhow I hope that Rijeka will recover in the next part of the season.

The saddest thing in the whole story is that the coach is the least guilty and will be fired because of the mistakes of others, first of all the owner of the club Miskovic.
Miskovic never had a long-term vision for Rijeka, but every year he did a big sale of players and every season Rijeka entered with a lot of new players.
It is always a very risky transfer policy because you never know what the new players will be like and whether they will show the necessary quality.
Former coach Kek was very good at creating a strong and good team from a lot of new players every new season, but in the long run that strategy was doomed and that's exactly what is happening in Rijeka now.
In my opinion, the current coach is doing a very good job, the best he can with what he currently has, and the one who should be replaced is actually the owner of the club, Miskovic.  ;D

True, but it's the same thing in every club when they start to have problems. It's always the coach who is guilty and fired even though they are rarely guilty. The same thing was modus operandi in Dinamo when Mamie was in charge. But for the management (Mišković in this case) it's the only thing they can do to change something. The only thing except firing a coach would be management leaving, but that will never happen if they see earning posibillity. I agree that Kek was a really good coach and he did great things with Rijeka. Too bad that current coach won't be able to show what he can do.

Did anyone watch the match between Hajduk and Slaven Belupo yesterday?
Again we saw a lot of things that have nothing to do with football and it turned out that Hajduk fans are probably the craziest in the country.
However, this match also showed what is the difference between Dinamo and Hajduk and why Dinamo will be champion again without any problems, and why Hajduk is far from that goal.
Dinamo has a lot of quality players in the team, and based on their great individual quality, Dinamo often wins matches in which they play worse than their opponents.
On the other hand, Hajduk does not have many quality players in the team and depends too much on one player, Livaja.
Because of this, it often happens that when Hajduk is close to victory, they don't know how to end the match and are left without important points.

I didn't watch the game but heard about fans throwing stuff at the assistant referee. And then someone asks why must fans at Croatian league games be in "cages". Exactly because od behavior like this. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior! No matter what referee did, he should never fear that a bottle or some other thing will hit him in the face.

As for the stuff you said, you are right. Hajduk will never overcome Dinamo until they solve problems in their game. Dinamo can afford to play without Petkovic and Hajduk can't afford to play without Livaja (even though I don't like him, he still is the best player in Hajduk).

As expected, after Rijeka's disastrous defeat against Dinamo, 7:2, Rijeka's coach was fired.
It seems to me that this is Rijeka's biggest home defeat in history.
The long-standing wrong club policy and the large sale of players after each season led to this disaster.
Once a big club that always fought for titles in the Croatian league and in Europe often participated in the group stages of European competitions, now it is fighting for survival in the Croatian league.
It's a shame how the club's management destroyed this club with wrong decisions and the president of Miskovic should be the first to leave because he is the most responsible for the current state of the club, not the former coach.

After all, if I look at the history of Dinamo, it is indeed the team that has dominated the league the most and also, head to head against Reijeka, in fact, in the past, Dinamo also often won with big scores, such as 3-0, 4-0 and also 5-0. So this 7-2 defeat is the same as a five-goal gap which means Rijeka has also been used to this defeat before.
Also, in the last three seasons, Rijeka has also been inconsistent to be in second place or no longer able to compete in the title race.

Therefore, with Rijeka's performance declining during the last three seasons, I think it is only natural that Rijeka did not recover during that period.
So of course, their position will fall further but even so, Rijeka is still safe to be in the league next season because I believe they will still be able to survive at least in the middle of the table.

Yeah, too bad for Rijeka. Everyone expected that Cosmi will be let go after the game against Dinamo. I honestly did not expect them to lose 7-2. It's not a matter of the goal-gap, the problem is that Dinamo scored seven times against Rijeka. For someone who doesn't follow Croatian league it wouldn't be that surprising that Dinamo scored that many goals against the club who is sitting near the bottom of the league. But for those who remember Rijeka as the club who is always in one of the first spots of the league, it's surprising. But like you said, the management and their lousy decisions should be the first to leave. Not the coach.

I think that Cosmi is a very good coach, but he simply did not have the right support from the club management and the right players to achieve better results.
Rijeka fans are very bitter and angry, currently there is a lot of negative news and energy around the club and I think that this season is definitely lost for Rijeka.
Next season, they will not be placed in the European competition, for the first time in a long time, because of this they will be much less attractive for new players and sponsors, and I think that Rijeka is waiting for a very long period of recovery and returning to the old paths of glory.
Dinamo will continue to be untouchable in the Croatian league, while Hajduk, Osijek and the ever-improving Slaven will fight for European competitions.

I agree and that's really sad for a club like Rijeka. I hope they will recover from this but it will take a long time. I don't understand how the club management thinks that this is a good way to do business. This way they will lose many of their fans and with that, a lot of money that comes from sponsors and tickets. I'm not sure what kind of deal Miskovic have but he too probably have someone to answer if the results are bad. I mean, he probably doesn't own the club. Or does he?

Misković is the chairman and owner of the club. And as person that lives in Rijeka but would qualify myself only as casual supporter, I don't have anything bad to say about him. He got Rijeka out of big debts, brought in some good sponsors, made a modern stadium while Dinamo and Hajduk are still playing in ruins... We had bigger aspirations while we still had big money coming from Italy and when it stopped he very realistically talked about club goals. It is our reality to bring in players that need to revitalize their careers and it worked brilliantly for a couple of years. This is the first year when it backfired. You can't always get it right even when you have the budget, let alone when you don't have.

Over the past few seasons, Rijeka has really achieved great results in the Croatian football league and also in European competitions.
They were the only ones who managed to end Dinamo's dominance in the Croatian football league.
However, Dinamo is financially a much more powerful club than Rijeka, and it was unrealistic to expect that Rijeka could take over Dinamo's position as the best Croatian club in the long term.
Everything was clear when at the end of last season they were forced to sell their best player Drmic to Dinamo.
This will be a very difficult season for Rijeka, but I hope that they will survive and recover, for the benefit of Croatian football.

They will probably survive but I'm not sure if Miskovic will survive. I didn't know that he is also the owner of the club. But even so, as the owner he doesn't have unlimited amount of cash to invest into Rijeka. When that money runs out, it will be game over for him. Of course, I hope that won't be the case and that this season is just a big bump down the road for Rijeka. They will probably choose better players for the next season and I hope they don't miss again.

I don't know him so I can't criticize him, but I must say that the fact that he owns the club and is also the chairman is an exaggeration, he should give the position of chairman to someone else who is very experienced in club management, because from what I see the team's problem is in the limitations that the players have, even if a team is poor, they don't have much money if they get a good coach and that same good coach manages to hire good cheap players but with high talent and who have will to play so they can manage to lead the team to become champions, but most of the time when a small team has good players and some big team comes along offering some good amount of money to buy the good players, the small team sells the players that yes, greed always speaks louder in small teams


these players who seem to be on the team to revitalize their careers are not good choices because they are not there to make the team champion, they are thinking about their pockets, when a team offers them millions of dollars, they will not think twice, they they will accept it immediately, and the team will be harmed once again, I think the team needs to have players loyal to the cause, it has to have players determined to win the league and not just players who only think about having attention to get a better team

After a long break due to the world championship in Qatar, it seems that the time has come to reactivate this topic  ;D
In Dinamo, there is a big struggle for power between Mamic and Antolic, and the question is how this will affect the ambitions and results of Dinamo this season.
Dinamo is financially and organizationally the best club in Croatia and in the region, but unfortunately that club is run in a mafia way and it's time to change that.
Let's hope that this is the beginning of the end and the announcement of changes in the club.
There is a lot of money at stake, after the World Cup some players, especially Livaković and Oršić, are waiting for very expensive football transfers, and obviously the owner of Medjugorje wants that money.

dinamo zagreb has some good players even their goalkeeper (livakovic) performed brilliantly while defending croatia in the world cup

I don't know about the issue that Dinamo Zagreb is related to the mafia, so far I have seen that in the local league they are performing well and dominating the league, but their performance in the champions league is quite bad

Just like the German league, the Croatian league will also return starting in January 2023

Yeah, Dinamo didn't play that good in the European games this season. But they played good the last season. The problem with Dinamo is that his players don't have enough strong clubs to compete in the Croatian league. It's hard to stay motivated when you are playing against Chelsea on Wednesday and against some local Croatian club in the Croatian league.

I'm sure we will se some changes in the Dinamo's squad after January. I wouldn't be surprised if Orsic and Livakovic leave the club. This could be their last chance to find a good club in Europe where they will be payed much more. And for Dinamo it will mean a struggle to win the Croatian league and compete in the Champions League next season.

Orsic just left Dinamo for Southampton, thus fulfilling his great desire to play in the English football league.
This will be a big loss for Dinamo because Orsic saved them many times with his goals in the Croatian championship and in European competitions.
For now, nobody mentions Livakovic, so it seems that he will stay in Dinamo, at least until the end of the summer season.
During that time, a real war for power between two factions, Antolić's and Mamić's, takes place in Dinamo, and it will be interesting to see how it ends.  ;D

Orsic leaving Dinamo will surely give other clubs like Hajduk and Osijek to come closer to Dinamo and end their streak of five consecutive championship titles. It really is a big loss for Dinamo and it will be even bigger loss if Livakovic leaves. I thought that Livakovic is the one who will leave for sure after his performance at the World Cup, but I guess I was wrong. Maybe Dinamo is asking too much... Currently he is valued at 14m € and his contract is set to expire next year so they have time to sell him. The only problem is that he is 27 years old and he's not getting any younger.

Hajduk is preparing for the continuation of the league under the new coach Ivan Leko. Leko was appointed after Dambrauskas was fired at the start of the season. In the mean time Karoglan was appointed as a temporary coach. Hajduk fans wanted Leko to get appointed as a coach and the club management listened. Leko's biggest wish is that Hajduk become a champion of the HNL. With Oršić leaving Dinamo and Hajduk being only six points behind Dinamo, it's not impossible.

I think that it is impossible because yes Hajduk is 6 points behind,but Dinamo has one game less so in theory if Dinamo wins which I think they should win their game they are 9 points behind.Another factor that makes me think this is the number of goals scored from Hajduk which is clearly a lot lower than that of Dinamo and as such this new coach Leko for me has the difficult duty to make Hajduk forwarders score more goals in order to not be impossible for them to win the title,as soon as he fixes this and also win a direct clash with Dinamo chances will be there.

Well, I didn't say that they will win the title. I just said what Leko's expectations are and that's winning a title. Although he didn't say that the expectation is to win the title this season (he signed a two year contract) so if Hajduk remains in the top two or three teams, I guess he will have a chance to win the title next season.

It is always the same with Hajduk, big expectations and than a hit of harsh reality. Dinamo is by far the best club in the league and I don't see anybody taking the title soon.

I would like other top teams to make a step up in the European Competitions. We could use a bit higher coefficient and Dinamo is the only club lately giving us something on that front. Europe = money and we need more clubs to quolify for group stages.

Well,I did not understand it that way,I thought that this new coach was talking about this year to become a Champion and that has really really slim chances if at all.For the next year though it will still be difficult if he does not change what I described above as not working,the ability of the team to score a good number of goals,of course compared to Dinamo Zagreb and not other teams,he really needs to work hard on this if he wants to have a chance to win the Croatian Liga next year.

Of course... Hajduk always has big dreams but Dinamo is there to crush them. I agree that Croatian teams (except Dinamo) needs some better results from the European games which would increase national coefficient and give chance to more clubs to compete in Europe and maybe get weaker opponents. To me it looks like all clubs except Dinamo are in a loop where they don't have enough European games and because of that they don't want to sign better players. And without better players they can't get good results from European competitions.


I don't know what has to happen for some other club except Dinamo to win the championship. Believe it or not, in the last 17 years Dinamo won the title in every season except for the 2016/2017 season when Rijeka won it. But even then nothing changed.

Judging by the rumors, Livakovic and Petkovic are also leaving the club soon.
It seems that Livakovic could go to the Spanish league, Villarreal is even mentioned as a possible candidate, and it seems that Petkovic could go to the Turkish league.
If Livakovic and Petkovic really leave, Dinamo will be without their 3 best players in the rest of the season, which will be a big handicap for them.
OK, they still have an advantage in the standings over Hajduk, but they certainly won't be as dominant in the Croatian league as they were with these three players.
The current war for control of the club between the Mamic brothers and Antolic will certainly not help them.

There is also a rumor that Dinamo captain Ademi could be leaving the club. It is rumored that Valencia is willing to bring him, but also two clubs from Premiership are interested in signing Ademi. If all three of them leave, I'm not sure how Dinamo will look like in the rest of the season. This could be an opportunity for other teams in Croatian league to go for the title.

Even without all those players, Dynamo still has the strongest team in the Croatian football league. Only in Dinamo could it happen that such a quality striker as Drmic doesn't play, because there are better quality strikers than him in the team.
In the same way, Dinamo will earn enough from the transfers of Orsic, Livakovic, Petkovic and Ademi to be able to bring any player from the Croatian football league to the club and thus further weaken their competitors, as they did when they brought Bockaj from Osijek, who later played very little in Dinamo.
For Dinamo and its future, a much greater danger is the fratricidal war between two factions in the club for power, between Antolic and Mamic, and this could lead to serious problems in the management of the club.

That may be the case, but if Dinamo signs majority of the good players from other clubs, what is the future od Croatian clubs in European leagues? All other clubs will play less and less important part in the European leagues and that will weaken Croatian coefficient even more.

As for the fight between two factions, that is a serious problem which I hope they will be able to solve. It amazes me how a person like Mamic can influence things in the club even though he is not in the country anymore.

Doesn't have to be the case always, Rijeka made excellent loan deals with Dinamo in the past and their players were the ones that brought us results. It is normal for Dinamo to buy all the best players in the league after they played couple of seasons of good football. It is not normal for kids from Dalmatia or Istra to start their career in Dinamo. They should go trough youth teams in bigger clubs closer to home and then go to Dinamo before that big transfer abroad. Bayern is doing the same in Germany for years and PSG in France. Not really an excuse for total lack of European results.

For the past 10 years, Dinamo has been the only Croatian club that has been competitive in European club competitions and regularly makes it to the group stage of European competitions.
Rijeka managed to reach the group stage of the European league several times, but they have not been competitive and successful in European competitions for a long time.
The results of other Croatian clubs in European competitions are disappointing, especially from Hajduk.
And it's not really a surprise that Mamic still has such an influence on the club. When you look at the Dinamo club's assembly, they are mostly people that Mamic brought to the club and to whom they are indebted, because of the jobs they got or because of family ties.

Croatian HNL league is starting again with a Gorica - Varaždin game which should have been played in November but was postponed. Gorica's new coach Željko Sopić said that getting relegated is not an option so we will see how today's game will end for them. With only seven points in 16 games they desperately need a victory. Three players came on loan from Osijek and they should help them in a battle not to get relegated.

Varaždin on the other hand is in a pretty good position as they are currently sitting in the fifth position. But during this winter break six of their players so we will see how they will continue a battle for one of the top places that lead to European competitions.

Dinamo played disappointingly in the match against Gorica today. In the match against the weakest team in the league, they played only 0:0 at home.
It is obvious that the absence of Orsic and Petković and the factional conflicts in the club affect the entire club, as well as the performances of the first team.
Tomorrow, Hajduk has a chance with a victory against Sibenik to come within 4 points of Dinamo and make the championship interesting again.
If Dinamo does not find the right replacement for Orsic, it will face a very difficult fight for the title of Croatian champion.

Dissapointing result for Dinamo Zagreb this draw is like a loss. Its always wierd that first place teams lose points against the last team in the league. Gorica has been awful through the entire season and they start the second half of the season with a big points and this gives hope for them not to get relegated.

I'm actually surprised to see Gorica at the bottom of the rankings. Just one or two seasons ago, they were the hit of the Croatian football league and were fighting for a place in European club competitions.
I don't really understand what happened to that club in the meantime.
As for Dinamo, judging by their start to the new part of the season, a big fight awaits them with Hajduk for the title of Croatian champion.
The departure of Oršić to England, who saved them last season with his goals in many uncertain matches, is clearly an irreparable handicap.
Of course, the general atmosphere in the club and the war for power in the club between the two factions does not help much either.

Gorica manages to end this week with two draw games which could be an indicator that they are improving their form. I guess they will fight Šibenik not to finish at the last place.

Interestingly, all but one game this week ended with a draw. Only Hajduk managed to beat Šibenik.

It is still too early to draw conclusions whether Gorica will save themselves from relegation from the league, but they started very well in the continuation of the championship.
All clubs had problems in the game due to the very difficult weather conditions currently prevailing in Croatia, and it might even be better if some matches were postponed.
What I saw in the match between Hajduk and Sibenik, especially in the second half, these were really not normal conditions for the game and it was really difficult for Hajduk to organize the game.
In any case, it's good that Dinamo didn't win, because now the whole championship has become more interesting to watch  ;D

Dinamo is playing a very important match today against its city rival Lokomitiva.
Once upon a time, the results of their mutual matches were known in advance and Dinamo always won, but in recent years that has not been the case and Dinamo often lost points in matches against Lokomotiva.
If Dinamo does not beat Lokomotiva after Gorica, and Hajduk wins Istra, then the championship becomes completely open and uncertain until the end.
It is obvious that the current events in the club and the power struggle have a great impact on the players and their results.
Can Dinamo players focus only on football in these conditions?

Well... It didn't happen. Dinamo won the game 2-1. Lokomotiva woke up in the second period but they managed to score only one goal, even though Dinamo's Mišić got second yellow card. Now with even number of played games, Hajduk is seven points behind Dinamo.

Today we'll have Istra 1961 Vs Hajduk Split match, TBH I don't know this league very well, what I do know is that the team at the top is of course a strong team. If we choose win for Istra 1961 in this match we'll get @4.5 odds while for the Hajduk Split win, we'll only get @1.71 odds.

I want to ask for advice from you @slackovic, as a native, can you give me a bit of your views on predictions for this match? is it better for me to choose 1x2 bet or is it better to choose a handicap bet?

Dinamo dominated the first half and it is incredible that they did not score more than one goal in that part of the game.
In the second half, we watched a completely different game and Livakovic saved Dinamo again.
Lokomotiva once again showed how unpleasant the opponent is for Dinamo lately.
It is obvious that all these events surrounding the club and the struggle for power, as well as the great uncertainty of what will eventually happen to the club, affect the players and their performances in matches.
Hajduk still has a chance to catch up with Dinamo if they don't lose points in small games and if they do better in their head-to-head duels with Dinamo.

Do you wish to edit this part of the post now that Hajduk lost 3:0 against Istra  ;D

No matter how bad Dinamo gets and how many problems they have they will still be better than rest of the clubs in the league, including Hajduk. But there is no denying, Dinamo is currently in really big problems and something is not right in dressing room. Few of their best players including captain Ademi want to leave the club and that is always a really bad sign.

Hajduk looked really bad yesterday and those two goals that were denied due to the offside didn't help. When we look at the league table it is clear that Osijek and Hajduk will have to be careful not to let other clubs take their place in the battle for the European competitions.


Dinamo has real problems and they need to solve them ASAP. The title probably isn't in question but you can't expect good results in the international games when the captain wants to leave the club. I really hope they will solve their problems because Dinamo is the only reason why Croatia still has three spots in the European competitions.

even though I am not familiar with the Croatian league, I still hope that the Croatian league can compete with other major European leagues and regarding the match between Istra vs Hadjuk yesterday, many were very disappointed with the result, even though Hadjuk was more favored to win but they failed to do that. erceg was the man of the match he scored 2 beautiful goals, really good for istra.

Croatian clubs will continue to play in the European competitions but with lowered coefficient it will be harder for them to qualify for the group stage. Dinamo is the only club that actually has good results from the European competitions while other clubs often lose their games against much weaker opponents. If the Croatian league's coefficient goes down, the league will have less spots that lead to European competitions and those that secure those spots will have a hard time winning because they will face stronger teams.

In the meantime another player has left Dinamo. This time it's Danish Rasmus Lauritsen who signed for Bröndby. Dinamo will earn 3 mil. euros plus 20% of his next transfer. While there are a lot of rumors about players leaving Dinamo, it looks like Dinamo could sign Swiss national team player Omeragić but the transfer is not certain because two clubs are yet to arrange the deal.

I think it's only a matter of time and the right offer when Ademi, Petkovic and Livakovic will leave Dinamo, and without these three players the Dinamo team will be much weaker.
Ok, for the Croatian league Dynamo will still have a strong enough team to win the title of national champion, but I think that in international competitions they will no longer be as competitive and successful as in previous years.
Hajduk is a big disappointment for me in the Croatian league this year, Rijeka also, Osijek are selling their best players and I also don't see that these clubs have the potential and chance to be competitive in European competitions next season.
Unfortunately, Croatia will remain competitive only at the representative level, but at the club level we will remain uncompetitive and without results, and that is our reality.
Our clubs, with the exception of Dinamo, simply cannot financially and organizationally follow the level of the best European clubs, or even clubs from the region, for example Serbia.

Well, since the transfer deadline has passed it looks like all other players will remain in the club until the end of this season. I'm not sure what happened with Ademi but Croatian media says that the coach Cacic stopped his transfer. But if the team captain wants to leave the club, it's questionable how well he will perform. The only hope is that the situation in Dinamo gets resolved before the next transfer period and players decide to stay in the club.

I'm not sure what has to happen in order for the other clubs like Osijek, Rijeka, Hajduk to become more competitive in the European competitions. It looks like a vicious circle from which I see no way out.

Yes, you are right, Ademi wanted to leave due to his dissatisfaction with the situation in the club, but he is not allowed to change the club.
It is never a good idea to leave a dissatisfied player in the team, and considering how much Ademi has given to the club all these years, he certainly did not deserve the club to treat him like this.
Personally, I think that all three players, Ademi, Livakovic and Petkovic, will leave the club at the end of the season.
As for Hajduk, Rijeka and Osijek, I think it is not realistic that they will become competitive in European competitions in the near future, and the main reason, apart from finances, is the lack of a long-term vision and plan.
Miskovic sells out the entire first team every year, Hajduk sells out all young and talented footballers for little money, and last season when Osijek had a real chance to fight Dinamo for the title, he sold his best player to Dinamo.
With such weak competition, which is only thinking about how to sell its best players and earn money, Dinamo does not have to worry about its dominance in the Croatian league.

If things don't get sorted out in Dinamo, I expect even more players to leave Dinamo. Not just those three players. I'm sure that anyone playing in the club will rather go to some other club that doesn't have problems and fraction wars.


I think that this is the main reason why Croatian club football is getting weaker every year. Every year Dinamo doesn't have to worry about becoming a champion. They just have to be good in the first part of the season to compete in the European competitions because wins in those competitions bring the money to the club. After they get kicked out, they can start selling players because there's no need to pay their high wages to play in the Croatian league.

Even if such players leave Dinamo they will be still the top contender for the title and mainly they will win it.As you say the lack of a plan and also finances impact all the other teams but I want to emphasize another fact here which makes it even more clear,the fact is that Dinamo for example when facing such teams they go and win with a tennis result like 5-1 against Hajduk last season or two seasons ago I don't remember this well but when I saw that result it impressed me a lot in a bad way and I thought to myself,how can Hajduk be a contender when they lose 5-1 to the top team?

Of course that Dinamo will win against any team in the Croatian league in 4 out of 5 games. Now and then it happens that Dinamo lose a game like the one against Osijek in October. Hajduk, Osijek and Rijeka are considered as contenders because of their results in the past. Today they are not considered as real contenders because it's clear to anyone that Dinamo will win the title. It looks ridiculous to me when I see media headlines saying that the game between Dinamo and Hajduk/Osijek/Rijeka is a derby when we all know that it's not.

Dinamo Zagreb has dominated the Croatian league for the last few seasons ^{(not much different from PSG in ligue1 & Bayern in Bundesliga)} even though Rijeka have won the Croatian league but for this season they are not a tough opponent for Dinamo Zagreb.  at the beginning of the season, the hajduk split looked like it would be a big threat to dinamo zagreb but it didn't go well because they couldn't maintain a good performance, even in the last 5 matches the Split had results not satisfactory ^{(they only won 2, drew 2 and lost 1)}

If we want to be more precise, Dinamo Zagreb dominated the Croatian league for the last 20 years, and only Rijeka managed to take the championship title once, and that was all from Dinamo's competitors in the Croatian league.
Hajduk has long since lacked sufficient quality to become a serious competitor to Dinamo.
Hajduk, since it was taken over by the fans through their association, has only a name and tradition and nothing more.
On the other hand, Dinamo was practically taken over by one family, Mamic, and turned it into the most successful club not only in Croatia but also in the wider region.
Everything always comes down to money in the end, especially in sports.

And another weekend has passed with another disappointing result for Hajduk, but also for Dinamo. Hajduk lost another game at home against Rijeka. A year ago it wouldn't be so surprising for Rijeka to beat Hajduk. But this season when Rijeka is playing really bad, fans are furious. Especially when Hajduk was awarded in the last seconds of the game and Livaja managed to miss it.

As for Dinamo, I'm not sure if the lack of form lately is because players are unhappy in the club, but it is evident that something needs to change. After ending a game versus Gorica in a draw, barely beating Lokomotiva and now another draw against Slaven Belupo, I think their management has to do something about it.

I agree with you.Management should do something as even if they manage to win this season the Croatian league it is because they are already comfortably ahead.With such results like one win and two draws for the next season I can guarantee you that they are not enough to make you Champion that easily.The problem in this league is that there is no real competition,the ones that were the title contenders such as Hajduk and Rijeka are not at good times either and maybe that is why Dinamo is taking things easy.

Dinamo management is too busy fighting for the power to notice that they have very big problems in their team. Maybe they notice but don't care because there is no other team that can take the title away from Dinamo. It's sad actually because Dinamo was quite a team a few seasons ago. They were pretty solid in European competitions but if everything stays the same, I expect a very fast drop out from the European competitions.

https://i.imgur.com/6JmAFHu.jpeg

Our legend, the coach of all coaches, Miroslav Ćiro Blažević, passed away a day before his 88th birthday after a long battle with cancer. He will always be remembered as the man who initiated our journey with our golden generation and winning our first ever medal at the '98 World Cup in France.

Počivaj u miru, Ćiro! #RIP

Oh man... May he rest in peace. I just read the news. Who knows if Croatian national team would be so successful if it wasn't for him and his golden generation. He will always be remembered as the legend, no matter how many national team coaches come and what results they get.

Dear Ciro, rest in peace.
I think that no football coach has had as much influence on Croatian club and national team football as Miroslav Blazevic.
In the former Yugoslav football league, with Dinamo, after 24 years, he broke the dominance of Serbian clubs and became the national champion.
Dinamo fans, who remember it, will never forget that national championship title.
And what can we say about the third place of the Croatian football team at the 1998 World Cup in France and all the happiness and enthusiasm of the Croatian people after that?
Wherever Ciro was a coach, he left an indelible mark. Pristina, Bosnia, Iran... wherever he was a coach, he was loved and respected and the fans loved him.
Ciro, thank you for everything!

This was really sad to see. We all knew it was coming, he was ill for a while.

I remember when I came from my small town to Zagreb on a school trip - it was in 1999, we saw him driving his Vespa and started running after him and yelling 'Ćiro legendo'.
He stopped, smiled, opened his wallet, gave us all his money for icecream (it was really a lot of money at that time) and went away.

I met him a few times later as well and had a chance to talk with him, the guy was truly a unique character. Not a great coach but a fantastic ambassador of football in general.

 I wouldn't agree with you if Ciro wasn't a great coach.
Many today mistakenly say that Ciro was only a good motivator and nothing more, but that is wrong.
It's true that he was lucky in 1982 and 1998 when he got the opportunity to coach the best teams in the history of Croatian football, but Ciro achieved great results with much weaker teams.
In 1986, he saved the weak team of Priština from relegation from the first Yugoslav league, and he almost took the average national teams of Iran and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the world championships in 2002 and 2010.
Is it really possible to attribute each of his coaching successes solely to luck and motivation, or is it also a matter of great coaching knowledge and experience?
Boban recently stated that it was very difficult to lead the Croatian national team in 1998 because it was full of stars with very difficult characters and that he believes that Ćiro was the only one who could lead them successfully.

I never said he was terrible, I just think he wasn't great. I also think that Dalić isn't a great coach and he's had tremendous success with the national team.

Ćiro was a decent coach and a fantastic motivator, but he wasn't the best when it came down to tactics or game management. At least that's what I feel.

OK, obviously we will never agree on Ciro and that's ok.  ;D However, everyone agrees that he is a coaching legend and a man whose coaching successes will never be forgotten.
Let's go back to the Croatian league.
Dinamo had a very bad start to the season, but they are lucky that the competition is even worse, so they don't have to worry about the title and can slowly start preparing the team for the new season.
Hajduk really disappointed me, I expected a lot more from them considering all the stories, but again nothing happened   :D
It's really unexpected that Rijeka and Gorica are so bad this season, but it seems that Rijeka is slowly returning to the top of the rankings.
Unfortunately, the championship has already become boring to us because it is already known in advance who will be the champion  ;D

So Hajduk finally managed to beat a team in the Croatian league. All five goals were in the second half. Varaždin just managed to equalize, only to receive a red card for Elezi after a foul. After that red card they couldn't stop Hajduk from scoring three more goals. Maybe this win will give Hajduk players some moral boost. Their next game is against Gorica which is fixed in the last spot.

Other games ended with more or less expecting results. In a battle for the third place that leads into European qualifications Osijek and Slaven Belupo game ended up in a draw.

Much more was expected from Hajduk this season, even that they will fight equally with Dinamo for the title of Croatian champion.
However, it is again shown that such expectations were unrealistic and without a basis in reality.
Dinamo is simply financially and organizationally far above its competition in the Croatian football league and this has been a fact for the last almost 20 years.
Hajduk was not even able to take advantage of Dinamo's worse start and results in the last couple of weeks, and that says it all  ;D
The only thing that remains interesting right now is to see which clubs will qualify for next season's European competitions. I would like Slaven to be among those clubs, what a football holiday it would be for Koprivnica  :D

Typically, I don't place bets on HNL matches, but with the upcoming Eternal Derby, I'm curious... What's your take on the current line? Do you think it's a wise decision to place a bet on either team?

https://i.imgur.com/pLyJK2a.png

Dinamo is leading the table with an impressive record of 16 wins, 4 draws, and only one loss. They're currently sitting comfortably at the top of the league, and their recent form has been excellent. On the other hand, Hajduk is in second place, with a record of 13 wins, 5 draws, and 4 losses. They've also been in decent form lately, with some solid performances in recent matches. This will be the third time Hajduk and Dinamo face off in the current season. The first game ended with a 4-1 victory for Dinamo in Zagreb, while the second match resulted in a 1-1 draw in Split.

If I were to bet on this game, I would put my money on Dinamo. It's true that Hajduk is in a decent form lately, but games between these two teams are something special. I'm sure that Dinamo players will put an extra effort in the game. I didn't follow the news from Hajduk, but I see that SofaScore has Livaja as doubtful for the game. I don't like him but he is an important player and I don't see them winning without him.

HNK Gorica will host NK Lokomotiva Zagreb at Stadion Radnik on 2023-02-25 in an interesting encounter in 1. HNL. HNK Gorica, currently sitting at 10 will be looking for important home win. NK Lokomotiva Zagreb, on the other hand, sits in 8 of the league table and will be looking to improve their position with a win. This match will be a tough test for both teams, and it should be an exciting match in anticipation. The head to head record for HNK Gorica vs NK Lokomotiva Zagreb is worth a look. HNK Gorica have won 1 meetings with NK Lokomotiva Zagreb, while NK Lokomotiva Zagreb have won 2. There have been 2 draws between these two sides. With this record and the current form of the away team I don't see anything changing history is bound to repeat itself.
 

Rijeka will play at home ground against Slaven Belupo in new round of Croatian First Division and I think that they are going in this match as big favorites so I am sure that they will press guests well and take three points in the end. Rijeka is on 6th place in this league with 28 points but their ambitions and objectives are much higher so their need to show their quality to reach them. I think that they still have a lot of time and space for improvements and I think that they can catch European competitions places if they use their quality and talent well. I think that this is an very important match for them so I think that we can expect positive socre for them. Slaven Belupo is a very good team in this league for years and they will try to take a maximum from them in this season as well. They are currently on 5th position with one point more than Rijeka and I think that they also have ambitions to get points here. So there is no doubt that we can expect tight match here, but guest should be very careful against opponent like Rijeka. I think that home side will be on high level and I bet on them to get three points today.

Even though HNK Gorica is playing at home, they are not the favorites in this game. We can see from the odds that I attached for the 1x2 bet on the Rollbit site. This league is also a very risky league, just like the Denmark league which is difficult to predict. Instead of betting on this match, it's better to bet on the EPL or other major European leagues that are also running today. But if I have to predict the result of this match, I predict that HNK Gorica will win this match or we'll see a draw.

The results of the matches between Dinamo and Hajduk are always difficult to predict and the position in the league table or the current form are often not a decisive factor.
In fact, I would not agree that Dinamo plays well in the rest of the season, they lost a lot of points, but luckily for them, Hajduk plays even worse.
Livaja is a key player for Hajduk, if he is going to play Hajduk is not without a chance, but without Livaja the match is decided even before the start of the match.
These games are always very tense and quite nervous and usually the team that scores the first goal wins.
There is currently a lot of tension around Dinamo because of the upcoming club assembly and the struggle for power, so I don't know how Dinamo fans will react.

The result lf today's game between Dinamo and Hajduk (Dinamo won 4-0) perfectly showed the difference in quality between Dinamo and the rest teams. The only way Dinamo can lose a game in the Croatian league is if they let other team win. There is no team that can outplay them... And with this win I'm sure that the race for the title is over. Dinamo will once again win the championship title and it will be well deserved.

It was a game of men vs children. Totally expected though, Hajduk is nowhere near good enough to challenge Dinamo.
It should not be perceived as end of the world though - the difference is realistic, Dinamo has a far bigger budget and more quality and depth.

Hajduk is finally doing some things right, but it's still a long way to the top. History has shown they are impatient and will throw away all the good that has been done so far away soon enough.

Yeah, Dinamo has a bigger budget which attracts better players but what is stopping Hajduk to do the same? I don't think that Dinamo is that much better in investing their money in players. After all, in a few days Hajduk's juniors will play against Man City in the UEFA Champions League. So it looks like their young players are pretty good. What happens in the senior squad that they can't play against Dinamo?

Just look at Baturina's example. He was raised in Split, in Hajduk's footballing school. The kid's a fantastic player in the making, and he'll make a big transfer out of Dinamo.
Why? Because Hajduk has a toxic atmosphere, no cohesion in coaching/academy system and no vision. It took Dinamo years to get to the place they are currently at, Hajduk cannot compete with that by simply increasing the budget.

Dinamo is selling players constantly for huge valuations, Hajduk has to sell them as soon as someone's interested just to keep functioning. They are not in the same sentence, and won't be for a while.

even though they had to lose to Dinamo due to differences in player quality and strategy, Hajduk played quite well and produced 3 'shots on target' against Dinamo's goal. livaja is a great striker hajduk who is the current top scorer, luckily dynamo has a very good goalkeeper (livakovic) so livaja failed to score a goal.

On the other hand, the Hajduk juniors achieved a fantastic result and qualified for the quarterfinals of the Junior Champions League after defeating the big favorite of the competition, Manchester City.
This is proof that the Hajduk junior team is doing a great job and that they have a lot of young and very talented players, but the question is how many of these players will ever play for the Hajduk senior team?
Most likely, the club's management will sell the best juniors for small money to the first bidder, in order to cover the club's financial debts.
Hajduk simply does not have enough patience, a plan and a long-term vision for the development of the club.
Osijek and Rijeka are also in a big crisis, so Dinamo currently has no serious competition in the Croatian league.

I just remembered now to watch the highlights. Unfortunately I couldn't watch the game. I see that Man. City attacked more than Hajduk, but they couldn't score except for that one goal. When I see how juniors are playing against top European teams, I can't help but wonder what are they (Hajduk board) doing wrong? It can't be that they are so shortsighted that they can't see a quality young player in their squad. Something is seriously wrong with that club if their juniors can play in the quarterfinal of the Youth UCL and seniors play like a bunch of amateurs in the game against Dinamo.

That pretty much sums up well what has been going on in the Croatian Liga 1 for some time now.Dinamo is the strongest team there and it looks like other clubs like Hajduk their historical rival together with Rijeka sometime are not able to fight back or create a really good team in order to compete with them.

Even if Hajduk has been consistently producing good players from their academy we are not seeing any result here because most likely these players move away to other clubs for more money than Hajduk can afford to pay them.

Yes, it is very difficult to explain and understand.
Hajduk has long had a tradition of being a top youth football school, dating back to the time of the former Yugoslavia.
But few of these young players played for Hajduk, and most of them had to go to some other clubs to succeed.
As far as I remember, both Boban and Modric were not recognized by Hajduk's coaches as talents and were kicked out of the club.
Maybe there lies the answer to the question why Hajduk is not at the level of Dinamo.

the Croatian league is not too big so the development of the players will also be very slow, if players who graduate from their academy move and try to get more money from outside clubs that I think is a natural and humane thing.

yesterday's match, rijeka managed to win 2-0 over istra 1961, jankovic is the man of the match. In a few hours we will see the match between Varazdin vs Sibenik, looking at the history of the two teams it seems that the quality of the two is balanced but the chances for Varazdin to win are greater.

Croatian league may not be big, but I think that Croatia doesn't have a problem with developing young players. That's evident now that Hajduk's juniors won against Manchester City juniors. The problem is when juniors becomes senior players. That's the time when it becomes evident that Croatian league doesn't have enough high quality teams where they can play. And then juniors sign with foreign clubs because they offer them salary and other things Croatian clubs simply can't offer. That's why Croatian national team is much better than Croatian clubs.

In football, it all comes down to finances in the end.
With the exception of Dinamo, almost all Croatian clubs are barely surviving financially and depend on the sale of their best players to cover their costs and be able to continue doing business.
I just read the news somewhere that Rijeka and Osijek were financially fined by UEFA due to financial debts.
Of course, when you are forced to sell your best players in order to survive financially, then you are not competitive in European competitions and that is why Croatian clubs, with the exception of Dinamo, have not been able to make any notable results in European competitions for a long time.
However, the true quality of Croatian football players can be seen when the Croatian national team performs at world and European competitions.
Croatia is simply too small a country and does not have enough sponsors and fans to be able to compete with other, financially stronger European leagues and clubs.

Croatia league is not a pronounced league so we shouldnt be expecting much from the teams invloved. In This season in the croatia league, Dinamo Zagreb's form is Very Good with the overall 17 wins, 4 draws, and 1 losses.This performance currently places Dinamo Zagreb at 1st out of 10 teams in the Croatia league Table, winning 77% of matches. Dinamo Zagreb's home form is very good with the following results, 11 wins, 1 draws, and 0 losses. And their away form is considered very good, as a result of 6 wins, 3 draws, and 1 loss. Dinamo Zagreb has scored a total of 59 goals this season in their league table. Their meeting with osijek in the next match will be more favourable to them considering their previous record with osijek.

So, Hajduk lost 4-3 to Lokomotiva at home. It will be interesting in Split in the next few days..

Leko tried with 4 at the back, it looked even worse than with 3 recently. They need at least 2-3 CB's in the summer.

after Dinamo defeated Hadjuk last week, yesterday Hadjuk lost again to Lokomotiva, it seems that Leko has to find a new strategy for the Hadjuk squad, continuing to lose like this will only make Hadjuk's position in the standings even more threatened. Meanwhile, Dynamo was successfully held to a draw by Osijek, the counterattack that was carried out by Osijek was really effective.

Hajduk need much more than two or three CB's in the summer. The whole club need a complete overhaul. I don't know what exactly is wrong with them, but something is definitely off. I don't know if the problem is something in the team, the manager (although they change few of them this season) or somewhere else. How can you be a professional football club and let so many good players leave the club only to become stars in new team?

What Hajduk needs most of all is time. It is something they haven't been getting for years.

They are comfortably 2nd in the league, meaning that the progress has been made. Their goals of challenging Dinamo are unrealistic and if they went step by step, they would maybe be close in 2-3 years. If they rush it, they will destroy all the good things they have done.

Knowing the mentality of the people there, they will rush it - they simply can't take it that you can't challenge Dinamo overnight. Dinamo is by far the best club in the Balkan region.

Yeah, but have you ever met a dalmatian (a person, not a dog) that have patience? Because I haven't. But you are right. They should be given time to build a decent team that will be competitive against Dinamo and them they will be competitive in the European games also. But the problem is that in the mean time they will change 10 managers and 2 boards.

In my opinion, the problem is the management system of the club itself.
The club's fans have a decisive influence on the management of the club, even though they are minority owners and do not have the expertise and knowledge to manage the club's sports policy.
Fans elect the supervisory board based on big promises rather than realistic expectations.
Such a supervisory board, which is not an expert and knows nothing about football, elects the same board of directors, and the board of directors, without any clear plan and strategy, buys and sells players and selects coaches.
The result of that experiment with the fans is that the club stagnates and regresses somewhat, and is further away from the professional level of Dinamo and from Europe.
After 20 years of waiting, Hajduk can still only dream of the title of national champion.

I'm surprised that no one is commenting on the shocking defeat of Dinamo against Sibenik yesterday.
It's obvious that all the problems in the club are reflected in Dinamo players as well, some have decided to go to other clubs like Orsic and Ademi and others seem to have lost focus on football due to all the events in the club.
Cacic, coach of Dinamo, is actually lucky that his competitor Hajduk is in an even bigger crisis and that the championship title with Dinamo is almost certain for him, and maybe the Croatian Cup as well.
We still don't know what will happen in the end and who will take over the club.

I completely forgot to comment on yesterday's result. It's not a catastrophe for Dinamo, but I'm sure fans didn't like losing to Šibenik which is fighting to stay in the first league. I think the biggest problem for Dinamo is that Ademoi, who was their captain for a long time, left to play in China. Losing a captain often reflects in team performance. I'm still pretty sure that Dinamo will win the championship and probably the cup. But what will happen in the European games in August/September?

How is internal stuff at Dinamo? I heard they have some problems with president and situation around him? Mamic is big boss but does he still have everything under control?

In principle, arbitrage betting is not a criminal offense, but rest assured that bookmakers are not happy about this and there are plenty of players who have had their accounts closed for engaging in such practices. There are also people who call themselves value betters, but all they do is cheat. Assume odds knowing full well that these odds are based on the wrong information. Situations often arise because players are ill, or when a few years ago in Portugal a team with a few less people entered the field due to Corona. Yes, I think a bookmaker has the right to cancel a bet in that case.

I consider this defeat something normal, the dynamo was already coming from a sequence of many victories, any team when it comes from a sequence of many victories, then there is a tie against an opponent that comes from a sequence of lack of victories, so it is already a red flag that no The next game of that team that comes from a sequence of victories can lose or draw, this is a sign of some wear or tear or it happens when the team does not have the same good players there due to injuries or other reasons. looking at the table and the performance of dinamo's opponents, we can say with some confidence that dinamo will be champions, because the performance of its opponents is something disastrous

there is not much competition in the Croatian League, the difference between the teams is very big, a league that only has 10 teams will not have a great competition, to be honest I don't understand why there are not 20 teams in the league, because there are only 10 teams ? I know that the number of people in Croatia is not very big, but I think they could increase the number of teams and put laws that allow the rich to buy teams so that the league is more competitive

It looks like it's much nicer to write about Hajduk junior team than their seniors. Their juniors managed to beat Borussia Dortmund juniors in the junior UEFA Champions League. After 90 minutes the result was 1-1 but Hajduk was better at penalties. Hajduk will face Milan juniors in the semi final.

To further add to this, the Hajduk juniors have reached Poljud where they were welcomed by the fans after their miraculous victory in Dortmund.

You can follow the live stream here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wmdj1wyT48

Junior Hajduk looks so good and has a chance to become a strong team later but this is just the beginning because with time there will be another team that can beat junior Hajduk's team.
His win against youth team Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Junior Champions League wasn't a very impressive win as they managed to win on penalties.
If we pay attention to the game at normal times, Borussia Dortmund's junior team is better and superior, but for some reason they can get a draw and lose in a penalty shootout which determines victory in the match.
For the next match in the junior semi-finals, Hajduk will probably be more overwhelmed and have less chance of winning because they are facing the Milan Junior Team which cannot be underestimated.

This only shows that Hajduk fans are the best part of that team. They are eagerly waiting for an opportunity to celebrate something. I'm not trying to diminish this great achievement of Hajduk juniors. It's a great achievement but I'm sure that Hajduk fans would welcome their senior team if they would give them a reason.


I just wanna address this bold part. This win by Hajduk juniors is really an impressive one! They beat one of the top European team and you can't say that it's not impressive.

I hope the Hajduk management promote most of the players soon to first team, they deserve it and they are the future. I think the fans would like that and rather watch them play even maybe they won't be so competitive first year.

I'm not that sure it wil happen. Hajduk management will probably look to sell most of good players as soon as they can. That was their modus operandi in the past and I don't think it will change soon. Maybe they will surprise me.

Judging by how they ran things in the past, that probably won't happen. Hajduk has one of the oldest squads in HNL (older even than Dinamo), and 2nd most amount of foreigners despite the fact that their junior team are HNL champions for the last two years so that tells you how much they trust their young players.


Everyone says that, but question is how would they react if Hajduk finished 6th or 7th for two consecutive years. What Hajduk needs more than anything is to make a plan and stick to it instead changing it every year or two.

I'm not really sure if we were watching the same game  ;D
Hajduk was a better team than Borussia Dortmund, they had more chances to score and they should have won even before the penalties.
The penalty for Dortmund was very doubtful.
I remind you that Hajduk did not reach the semi-finals of the Junior Champions League by chance and that before that victory against Dortmund, Hajduk also defeated Manchester City, the first favorite of this competition.
I think that Milan juniors should be afraid of Hajduk and not the other way around  ;D
We will soon find out how much Hajduk juniors can do.

Hajduk Split vs Slaven Koprivnica's head to head record shows that of the 38 meetings they've had, Hajduk Split has won 19 times and Slaven Koprivnica has won 6 times. 13 fixtures between Hajduk Split and Slaven Koprivnica has ended in a draw. All has not been going well in terms of goal scoring for Slaven Koprivnica recently, with the side failing to score in 3 of the last 5 games. the manager has to change his tactics in todays match, or bring in another forward in other to get the ground rolling once again but the host team will always be a better side at home more than their Rivals.

Dinamo Zagreb Rijeka played so far 84 matches. Dinamo Zagreb won 43 direct matches. Rijeka won 22 matches. 19 matches ended in a draw. On average in direct matches both teams scored a 3.06 goals per Match. GNK Dinamo Zagreb is going head to head with HNK Rijeka starting on 19 Mar 2023 at Maksimir stadium, Zagreb city, Croatia. The match is a part of the HNL. GNK Dinamo Zagreb played against HNK Rijeka in 2 matches this season. Currently, GNK Dinamo Zagreb rank 1st, while HNK Rijeka hold 5th position, the home team is expected to win this match because of their position in the league, home advantage and both teams head to head record.

Yes, I agree, great statistics for Dinamo, but you didn't take into account some other factors important for this game.
Dinamo has been in a very big crisis of play and results for a long time, and in fact they are lucky that the second-placed team of the Croatian league, Hajduk, is in an even bigger crisis, so they don't have to worry for their first place and the championship title.
Some key Dinamo players, such as Ademi and Orsic, have left, and the rest of the team is clearly under the influence of a major crisis in Dinamo's leadership and media pressure.
It seems that Dinamo coach Cacic is also in conflict with the club's new management.
On the other hand, in the continuation of the championship, Rijeka is playing reborn, much better, and from being a candidate for relegation from the league, they have become candidates for placement in one of the European club competitions.
It would not surprise me at all if Dinamo does not win this match, or even if it loses, given the current circumstances and the situation around the club.

While there is a break in this competition, I just want to ask if you have heard of the rumor that Orsic could temporarily return from England and play for Dinamo again?
I don't know how realistic or achievable it is, but it seems to me that it would be the best solution for everyone, both clubs and Orsic.
Southampton obviously do not need Orsic, and allegedly they have not yet paid the full amount to Dinamo, so they would save money if they terminated the contract earlier.
Dinamo Orsic doesn't need that much in the championship because they are still dominant in the Croatian football league, but they will soon start qualifying for the Champions League, and Orsić's help would be valuable there.
Dinamo doesn't live from the Croatian league but from European competitions, and that's why they have to create a strong team again.
A return to Dinamo would probably save Orsic's career, which is very important for him, but also for the Croatian national team.
In short, everyone would benefit if the contract with Southampton was terminated and Orsic returned to Dinamo  ;D

I think there's no way of this happening. Dinamo will want that transfer money and Oršić will want his current salary.
I don't see Southampton sending him back, he's good enough to play in the Championship where they are likely heading.

In football, there have been bigger surprises than that, such as the return of Livaja from abroad to Hajduk. Why wouldn't Orsic do that if it would save his career?
What do Southampton have from Orsic now? Only dead capital and they actually lose big money on him.
Do you really think that Oršić would even play for Southampton in the Championship and now he is not even a reserve player?
I am convinced that Southampton will do everything they can to get rid of Orsic because they clearly have no patience for him and don't count on Orsic anymore.

Football doesn't work like Fifa. I'm not saying that Southampton doesn't want to get rid of him, I'm saying that they probably wouldn't want to get rid of him for 1m euro.
Dinamo can't pay him nearly close to what Southampton is currently paying - meaning that Southampton would have to pay a part of his salary as well.

Livaja came to Hajduk from Greece - not England, and on a free transfer. Oršić has a 2mil euro yearly salary. They are nowhere near the same.

I also think that there is no was Oršić will move back to Dinamo any time soon. He will probably come back at the end of his career. If Southampton wants to get rid of him, he could end up playing for some club in England's or some other country lower league. Those clubs can surely pay him more money than Dinamo.

Today, after a break for the national team, the Croatian football league continues.
Can Hajduk get closer to Dinamo and make them even more nervous after a series of bad results lately?
However, Dinamo is a huge favorite against Gorica and Hajduk traditionally has problems against Sibenik.
The fight for Croatia's remaining 2 spots in European club competitions between Osijek, Varazdin, Slaven, Istra and Rijeka is also interesting. Gorica is definitely out of the league.

The leading Croatian club Dinamo is in a huge crisis and in the next 2 games coach Cacic is saving his job and Dinamo his season.
Dinamo had a huge advantage in the championship, but they started playing very badly and currently Hajduk reduced the difference for Dinamo to only 7 points, and Dinamo still has to play in Split, Rijeka and Osijek.
In the semi-finals of the cup, they play in Sibenik against the team that recently defeated them.
Also, probably the best Dinamo team in the last 50 years is falling apart, because Livakovic, Petkovic and maybe Ivanucec will soon be leaving the club after Orsic and Ademi. A lot of work for the new Dinamo management.

I must admit that I stopped following what's going on in the Croatian league. I'm not that surprised that Dinamo is playing this bad. The most important players have announced that they will leave the club so bad performance is to be expected. Especially when you have a coach like Ante Cacic who I think doesn't have any respect from the players.

EDIT: Well... Dinamo lost the semi final cup game yesterday against Šibenik. I'm not sure if it's official yet, but the Dinamo board held a meeting last night where they fired Ante Cacic. The biggest problem for Dinamo is that Cacic wasn't only the coach, but was also a sports director (I'm not sure if that's the right name for position "sportski direktor" in English). Because of that and the fact that he recently signed a new contract, Cacic is looking to get around 1,5 million Euro.

So after letting go Ante Cacic, Dinamo appointed Igor Biscan as a new head coach. Biscan worked good as a national U21 team head coach so we will see how good he'll be in Dinamo. Important thing is that the fans welcomed signing one of the Dinamo's legendary players as the new head coach. Tomorrow Dinamo is playing against Lokomotiva and I'm sure that the fans will show Biscan that he is welcomed to the club.

Bišćan is a terrible choice - at least in my opinion. I don't really rate Čačić as well - and Bišćan will probably do well in HNL (everybody would with Dinamo).

Considering that Dinamo will have to go through a bigger reconstruction this summer and the fact that the new coach will have to assemble a team for Europe fast - they needed someone with at least more experience.

Dinamo needed an urgent replacement for Čačić, and currently there are not many available coaches on the football market who could take over that responsibility within 24 hours.
Bišćan was a good coach and achieved very good results wherever he was so far, in Rudeš, Rijeka, Olimpija and in the U 21 Croatian national team. Why not give him a little more trust?
I think he could be a very good choice for Dinamo because he knows how to work with young players and is ready to trust them, unlike Čačić.
Livaković and Petković are leaving Dinamo soon, Ademi and Oršić have already left, so you have to trust the young and talented players from Dinamo in order to be ready to take responsibility next season when the main players leave. Dinamo needs a coach who will already start preparing young talents and the team for the next season.

I don't know much about this coach, but he won in his first game as Dinamo's coach, maybe because Dinamo is at the top of the table and doesn't have many opponents capable of competing with the dynamo that makes Igor Biscan's task more It's easy, when a coach assumes the role of coaching a team that is at the top of the table with a big difference in points compared to second place, then that coach's task becomes very easy, even if the coach is not a genius, he will get good results

with this difference of 9 points with second place, and knowing that there are still 8 games left, it will be very important that the dynamo strive to win as many games as they can and pray that hajduk loses more points, at least that he loses in 3 games so that dynamo manages to become champions in advance, but if dynamo wins the next 6 games then they will be champions in advance even with 2 games left to finish the league

Honestly, the quality of Dinamo's team is higher than all other clubs in the Croatian football league, and the only reason why Dinamo has problems and bad results lately is the internal relations within the club and the team.
With the arrival of Bišćan and Šimić, the situation in the club has now stabilized and there is no longer any doubt that Dinamo will win the Croatian championship again without any problems.
It is now much more important for the club to start preparing for the new season, given that Orsic and Ademi have already left the club, and Livakovic and Petkovic are probably leaving as well.
Without success in European competitions, this club can't survive financially.

I agree that it is a bad choice, but I can imagine someone much worse who would be happy to be a coach again (Kruno Jurcic). Looking back, Dinamo ZG never seriously invested in coaches, they were all solutions that served The Boss, and regardless of the fact that he has not been in the country for some time, he is still making some key moves in the club. Biscan will serve his purpose, but the same fate awaits him as all the others before him.


Realistically, there is no such person on the domestic market, and a foreigner should be paid much more than Cacic or Biscan, not to mention that no foreigner would stay longer than a month in a club where some strange games are played, and in the past months we have seen about what a circus it is.

I agree that Biscan is not THE coach, but I think that any coach is better than Cacic who never had respect from the players. At least it looked like they don't respect him.

For now I think that Dinamo is not in a position where they can choose any coach, even if they were willing to pay someone a lot of money. Expensive coaches don't want to work in a club where someone else chooses which player has to play.

Not much was expected from Bjelica either when he became coach of Dinamo and he revived the team and brought it to the current level, when they are regular participants in the group stage of European competitions.
Biscan played for Liverpool for a long time and learned from the best, and he has already shown by coaching the U21 national team of Croatia, Olimpija and Rijeka that he is capable of winning trophies and meeting high expectations.
I think he is currently the best option for Dinamo because he knows the situation and is ready to give young players a chance.
I am sure that he will be a better and more successful coach than Cacic  ;D

That's true. It would be great if Biscan manages to be the coach Bjelica was when he was in Dinamo. Biscan already managed to secure one win against Lokomotiva. It may not mean much at first, but Dinamo had a really bad March when they won only against Rijeka. I have no problem giving Biscan a chance to show that he can be "the next Bjelica" and I definitely agree that he will be better than Cacic.

I think that after a long time, Dinamo has a chance to become a quality-led club, without problems from the past.
Simic managed to get into the Dinamo board and bring Biscan as the coach of the first team. The fans have a great influence on the club's policy, and a new club statute is being prepared, which will give them the opportunity to finally enter the club's Assembly.
The team is preparing for the next season, and it seems to me that the worst crisis in the club passed after the victory against Lokomotiv, when the players showed character and responded very well to the pressure. The club is obviously stabilized and now preparations for the new season follow.
The question of the champion of Croatia has been resolved, and currently the most interesting fight is for the remaining 3 places in European club competitions.

There is always hope for a new beginning, and although it seems to some that it is different now than before, I think that the possibility of some new "crisis situations" should not be dismissed yet. I think that there are still some people that the club should get rid of as soon as possible, especially those who still maintain ties with the old boss - so although some will say that it is a finished story, for some Dinamo is still an ATM that they want to continue using.


So who will Dinamo beat if not its younger brother, because it's no secret how deep the ties between these two clubs are. In the betting world, that would be called a safe bet :)

https://i.imgur.com/NlK3qs1.png

I think it can already be said that Biscan has changed things in the team and that the players are playing again without pressure and fear, and with confidence. The championship title is now safe.
As for the general situation in the club, I think it's obvious that Mamić has lost power in the club, and I don't think that Barišić will stay long either and that the story is over. Politics decided so and it is a settled matter.
Lokomotiva used to be a branch of Dinamo during the Mamica era, but in recent years that is no longer the case and their matches are always uncertain and open.
In the last few seasons, Dinamo lost a lot of points in matches against Lokomotiva.
Today we will see what Hajduk can do against Rijeka without Livaja.

Given that Dinamo won against Slaven Belupo 4-0 two days ago, I would say that the days of uncertainty are gone. Now that the title is safe, I think that Biscan should turn to getting new players for the next season. I hope that there will be some strong names who will sign for Dinamo because the current squad has a little to do with the squad that beat Chelsea in the Round 1 of the UCL.

And about Hajduk... It's Hajduk. They managed to lose the game 2-0 giving Rijeka important three points in the battle for the third place.

That's right, the title of Croatian champion has already been decided and now Bišćan needs to start preparing the team for the new season, determine which players will stay and which will leave, and sports director Šimić needs to start looking for new, strong players who will be able to help the club in Champions League next season. Dinamo financially depends on success in European competitions, not on the Croatian championship.
As for Hajduk, yes, what can we say? Complete incompetence at all levels of the club, from management to coaches and players. Organizationally and financially, they are far below Dinamo.

I really hope that Dinamo manages to sign some good players this summer that will help them win games in the Champions league. If Dinamo fails to win their games in the UCL, Croatian football will lose a lot of points that gives other clubs the possibility to play European games. Unfortunately Dinamo is the only team that can do anything in the European competitions. Other clubs simply doesn't have the quality to play against stronger European teams.

Good news is also an ultimatum given to Olmo by Leipzig.
He's entering into the last year of his contract and if he doesn't sign an extension by summer they will sell him.

He should go for 50-60 mil euros, Dinamo sold him to Leipzig for ~30 mil and they will receive 20% of all the profit Leipzig makes - which should be around 5-6 mil euros if they do sell him.

Dinamo has the money to invest - the problem is that there aren't that many players willing to go to Dinamo that are good enough to improve the squad for the CL.

Wasn't there also rumors about Leipzig selling Gvardiol? I don't know if Dinamo also has a similar clause for Gvardiol but knowing how Dinamo tends to sell their players, it could have. I remember that there were a lot of rumors about him leaving Leipzig after the last World Cup, but I didn't see such rumors lately. I'm sure that Leipzig wouldn't sell him cheap and if Dinamo has some kind of clause, it would bring even more money than with Olmo.

Either way, I agree that Dinamo doesn't have a problem with money. Bigger problem is that Dinamo is probably not a club that a star player would sign for.

Yup, I think they have a similar deal in place for Gvardiol as well.
Could be a profitable summer - which might come in handy considering how many important players Dinamo has lost in a short period of time.

Yes, unfortunately, in the last few years only Dynamo from Croatian clubs has been competitive in European club competitions, while other clubs are far below Dynamo's level in Europe.
Until recently, Rijeka was quite good in European club competitions and made it to the group stage of European competitions several times, but in the last few years, Rijeka has been far from such results.
Orsic and Ademi have already left Dinamo this season, and if Livakovic and Petkovic leave, the current Dinamo team will not be competitive for Europe.
I hope that the new sports director Simic will find a way to strengthen the team for the next season.

The departure of Luka Ivanusec, who is mentioned in relation to Burnley, but also to another club from the Spanish Primera, was updated again. According to Transfermarket, the price of EUR 10 million should be much higher in the final agreement, so I have no doubt that Dinamo is ready to sell the entire first team if the price is right.

Regardless of who they bring to the team, it will take time for things to be arranged in the right way, which in translation would mean that the chances of playing in the Champions League next season are significantly reduced.

I agree, some key players will leave Dinamo and a lot of new footballers will come and it will take time for the team to settle down and play at the highest level.
However, it is a good thing for Dinamo that it has a very good coefficient in UEFA according to the results so far in the European cups, so they will be the holders in the first rounds of the Champions League, and if they are eliminated, they will continue to compete first in the Europa League, and then in the League conference.
This gives them a very good chance to advance to the group stage of the European or conference league competition and achieve higher European profit, which is essential for the club's stable financial operations.
As for the rest of the league, the only interesting thing is who will play in European club competitions and who will be relegated from the league.

Dynamo is very close to becoming champion, so I see if in the next game dinamo wins and after the next game dinamo manages to win the game against hajduk who is his only opponent capable of taking the title from him then dinamo will already be champion, because it will be very difficult for hajduk to overcome the dynamo in the next remaining games. after dp dynamo becomes champion comes another big problem, this is the kind of problem that many teams have to deal with over the years, I'm talking about big goals vs profits. the dynamo will once again have to choose: take profits or win titles and take losses.

take profit:

Without a doubt, any team has as its main objective and nowadays teams sell everything, from tickets, game transmission directories, sell players, earn money with advertising, earn money with social networks... there are many sources of income that clubs have, they also earn money by winning leagues and cups and passing other stages in the case of European competitions, but to maximize profits clubs don't spend a lot of money on signing great players

win titles:

for a team to win many champions' league titles, it is necessary for the team to make big investments in terms of hiring great players (great players cost a lot of money) and great coaches who also cost a lot of money. so when the team spends a lot of money on hiring great players and coaches then the team stays a long time without making profits, unless it manages to win the big competitions like the champions league and keep its great players and coach for a few seasons and get constantly advancing in other stages in the champions league, with that the team manages to make profits and titles

With that thought of mine, I see Dinamo selling all its best players if good offers are made to them, because Dinamo is not aiming to win the Champions League or to reach far in the Champions League

Dinamo from Croatian club had made huge impact in this league. Dinamo against the Slaven game was unique one, because they had scored 4-0 against Slaven team. Dinamo was the team top on the league, it seems their manager Igor ordered them to make the huge win against the Slaven team. Dinamo doesn’t allow the opponent to score even the one goal against them. The game against the Lokomotiva was closure win for the Dinamo, because Dinamo had only scored 2 goals and Lokomotiva scored of 1 goals against the legend Dinamo. Dinamo was on the top of the table with 30 points from their complete matches. Sibenik had scored 2 goals against the Dinamo team with the score of 2-1. They had made good impact on the top legend Dinamo. Because they win the top label players, they had win the Dinamo most expensive team in the league.

Don't know if any of you track it, but Hajduk u-19's are playing a youth CL final tomorrow against AZ Alkmaar. They won their semifinal against AC Milan.

A croatian team has never played in a youth CL final before, the game is at 5PM in case you want to watch it.
Based on what I've seen so far Alkmaar team will be the favorites, but Hajduk really does have some decent players in the team.

Good luck to our guys, eh? Would be a fantastic achievement to win a game like this.

Yeah, the Hajduk U-19 team is playing great in the youth CL. Even if they don't win the title, them coming to the final is a great achievement. I hope that Hajduk will use some of those players to boost the quality of their seniors, but knowing how Hajduk's management work they will probably sold many of them to other clubs.

Unfortunately, Hajduk did not succeed and lost in the final, but still achieved a fantastic result for Croatian football.
Can you imagine any of our senior teams achieving such a fantastic result in the Champions League?
Today, Croatian clubs are very far from such results, but this great youth gives hope, although Hajduk will probably quickly sell them to the best European clubs to cover their financial holes in the budget.
Dinamo is still dominant in the Croatian league, but Hajduk obviously works better with juniors and pioneers.
Slackovic, it seems to me that some players from this junior team actually already play in the senior team, maybe not as main players yet, but they are definitely part of the senior team.

Yeah, this defeat 5-0 from AZ Alkmaar does not look good, but it still is a tremendous achievement from Hajduk juniors. Funny fact is that there was 7000 Hajduk fans on the stadium. More than the average number of people that visit games of the Croatian first league. I guess they decided that it's better to celebrate successes of Hajduk junior team than catastrophic results of their seniors.

And like it's normal in Croatia, the team will be welcomed by the fans in their hometown Split this afternoon. I'm sure we will see beautiful pictures from the event.

Shame about the heavy defeat, but still a fantastic achievement overall.

AZ team defeated both Real and Barcelona, and from little of junior CL football I've seen they fully deserve the title.

I hope this Hajduk team keeps growing, let's see how many of these youngsters make it to the 1st team soon. Some of them already play there.

There is no doubt that playing in the final of such a prestigious competition is a huge success, but I still think that these young players and the professional staff should not have allowed them to lose by as much as 5 goals. Regardless of the strength of the opposing team, it is still the final in which the two best clubs meet, and the result did not show that in the end.

The classic weakness of Croatian clubs showed itself again, which is that they completely lose concentration in the last 20 minutes, and I think that this is the result of bad or no psychological preparation, which our clubs still do not take seriously.

So while we already know the team that will take the title this season, the fight to avoid the relegation is quite interesting. Šibenik and Gorica are the two teams that are in danger of finishing in the last place that leads to relegation. Šibenik was doing good in the first half of the season, but now they are exchanging with Gorica in the last place. They played against each other two weeks ago and Gorica won 4-0. It will be interesting to see how this fight to avoid relegation ends up.

It must be admitted that AZ was better and deservedly won the final, but the result is definitely too high.
Although AZ  had the initiative and attacked, Hajduk defended well and it seemed to me that AZ would find it very difficult to score, and then with a stupid mistake the Hajduk players gave away a penalty to the opponent and lost the match.
At the beginning of the second half, the Hajduk players tried something else, but after the second goal of the opponent, they gave up, lost their concentration and ended up losing undeservedly even with 5:0.
It turned out that Hajduk has great juniors, but I'm sure that almost none of them will play for the senior team and that the management of Hajduk, like every time before, will sell their young gems and bring in players of dubious quality.
Currently, in the Croatian league, it is interesting to follow only who will win playing in Europe next season and who will be relegated from the league, and the champion was known even before the start of the league.

Yeah, Rijeka has an important game today against Lokomotiva. They have one game and one point less than Osijek who is third in the league (second and third place goes to Conference League qualifications). If they manage to win (which they should), Osijek will have to give them the third place. Each team still has five games to play before the season ends so every point is important!

Yes, at the moment it is very interesting to follow which of the Croatian clubs will eventually play in European competitions and which club will be relegated from the league.
For the past few seasons, it was already known in advance that Dinamo would be the first and that Hajduk, Rijeka and Osijek would win the place in the European club competitions, but this season many more clubs joined the competition and everything is still uncertain.
At the moment, Hajduka, Rijeka and Osijek hold the places that lead to Europe, but Slaven, Varaždin, Istra and Lokomotiva are also very close and everything is still uncertain and open.
Gorica or Sibenik will drop out of the league.

Actually we have a funny situation. If I'm not mistaken, the cup winner gets to compete in the Europa league qualifications. If that's the case, Sibenik which is fighting not to be relegated could play those games if they manage to beat Hajduk in the final. That would mean that Dinamo plays in the UCL qualifications, Hajduk and Rijeka/Osijek plays in the Conference league and Sibenik in the Europa league.

Unfortunately, it is not like that.
Firstly, Šibenik is the only club from the first Croatian football league that did not pay for the UEFA license and because of this they cannot participate in European competitions next season, even if they win the Croatian Cup. Obviously, the club did not believe in this scenario and took away a great chance for their players to play in Europe next season.
Second, of the Croatian clubs, only Hajduk has a chance to compete in the European league next season because it is close to the line in terms of its European rating. However, several things must come together for them and the question is whether such a scenario will actually happen. Most likely, 3 Croatian clubs will play again in the conference league.
The winner of the Croatian Cup no longer has a direct place in the qualification for the European League due to the poor rating of Croatian clubs in European competitions.

Oh, that's too bad. I read it in some last year's article that the winner of the cup will play in the Europa league. Probably Croatia's coefficient changed since that article was published. I remember the headlines last year saying how there's a chance that half of the HNL could play in the European competitions but since then our coefficient dropped drastically due to clubs playing badly last season. It would be great if that was the case.

The biggest problem of Croatian club football is that for the last 3-4 seasons only Dynamo has achieved good results and is competitive in European competitions.
All other Croatian clubs are very weak and uncompetitive in European club competitions and are eliminated very early in European club competitions, against objectively weaker clubs from Malta or Kazakhstan, for example.
Only one club cannot push the entire Croatian club football, someone has to join. Previously it was Rijeka, but currently only Dinamo has a notable role in Europe.
In the end, I think we should congratulate the new or old champion of Croatia in football, and if anyone doubted it, it's Dinamo again.  ;D

Yes, congratulations to Dinamo who secured another title in the row. As for the European competitions, when you look at the teams that are competing in the HNL, there really is no need for more than four teams to compete in the European competitions. I don't follow other "weak" nation's leagues but I don't see how Istra, Slaven, Varaždin or some other club could beat some team in Europe.

The struggle to avoid the last place in the league continues. Yesterday Gorica manages to get one point after losing 2-0 against Lokomotiva. It's an important point because Šibenik lost to Istra and is now at the last place of the league.

Dinamo is really dominant in the Croatian league, they were champions 17 times in the last 18 years. I don't know if there is such an example in any other European league.
The other Croatian clubs are simply not at the level of Dinamo in terms of organization and finances, and this is clearly visible when they compete in European club competitions and when our clubs are regularly eliminated in the first preliminary rounds by clubs from Malta, Ireland or Kazakhstan.
On that side, you are right, if we were represented in Europe by clubs like Slaven or Istria, the situation would probably be even worse for Croatian club football.
In any case, it seems to me that 4 rounds before the end of the Croatian league, almost everything is clear. Dinamo is the champion of Croatia again, in the European club competitions we will be represented by Hajduk, Rijeka and Osijek, and Gorica or Sibenik will be eliminated from the league.

I believe that the problem is always with politicians who, when they come to power, don't know how to look at sport, soccer is a business, when the government looks at soccer as a business and takes politics aside, then soccer evolves in the country, I don't I know the Croatian laws about soccer, but I imagine it must be the same as in countries where in leagues there is only one team to dominate the league. what needs to be done in my opinion is that laws be passed that allow clubs to be bought by anyone, that foreign players can be placed in teams but leave only 3 players native to the country, that encourage companies in the country to sponsor the league and teams, which encourage people to go watch the games

as for the teams, they need to have properties that allow them to rent in order to have more money to pay operating costs, they need to use social networks to have more money, they need to sell players to have more money, everyone knows that currently they win team with more money, in a league a team with very low budget will be relegated and unlikely to be in the main league again, in a league where there is not much money as a prize for the winner and does not have good laws about soccer will not attract rich people to buy the teams, because the rich want to make a profit, he buys a team to make a profit and when he knows he won't make a profit he won't buy the team

I stumbled across this graph on Twitter yesterday and I thought it'd be pretty cool to share it here. It really puts into perspective just how crucial Livaja is for Hajduk.

Minimum minutes per direct participation for a goal in the #HNL this season provided the player has played at least 1000 minutes

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvRbtGeWcAEUABU?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/MarkoSilov/status/1654047796423426050/photo/1)

Source: https://twitter.com/MarkoSilov/status/1654047796423426050?s=20

Yeah, I can't stand that guy but he is Hajduk's most important player. But in my opinion he is not that good player and it only shows how bad the other players in the team are.

Let's not exaggerate, Livaja is really important for the Hajduk team, but he is not their only quality player.
Some other very experienced and quality footballers like Kalinić, Krovinović, Melnjak, new young hope Vušković and others also play for Hajduk.
So, the problem is not in the lack of quality of the Hajduk team, but in the concept and strategy of their game, which is based on a simple formula: "Give Livaja the ball and he will do something".
That is why Hajduk is actually very easy to stop, and all of his opponents already know in advance that if they stop Livaja, they have also stopped Hajduk. Hajduk without Livaja simply has no alternative solutions.

I'm not following Hajduk games so I wasn't sure about the quality of other players. I guess you are right that the problem is in the tactics. But if every coach they had is doing the same tactics, why do they change the coaches at all? I thought that changing of a coach means that the management is not happy with the tactic that he is using. But if everything stays the same after they change a coach, what's the point?

In my opinion, Hajduk is a club with a great history, with great fans, but amateurish management, without a clear strategy and plan. That's why they haven't been champions for almost 20 years and won't be champions for the next 20 years either.
The club's coaches probably don't have the courage to go against the expectations of the club's management and especially the fans, which means that the game has to go through the fans' idol Livaja, and everyone else is just his assistants.
Dinamo also has its own problems because of the Mamić brothers, but that will soon be resolved, and the club is already professionally managed and therefore at a much higher organizational and financial level compared to the rest of the Croatian league, including Hajduk.
Rijeka and Osijek are slowly rising as the end of the season approaches, so it seems that there will be no surprises in the Croatian league this season.

It will be interesting to see who will leave Dinamo and who will they sign because this season some important players already left (I'm mainly talking about the captain Ademi) and other big names are announced to be leaving the club too. I hope they will bring some good new players so they don't end their European season too early.

As for other teams that will compete in Europe, I don't have high expectations so every positive result will surprise me.

I think that by frequently changing coaches, the club's management just wants to somehow justify doing something, because if they don't replace the coach after a series of bad results, someone will wonder if they (the management) should be replaced. It's hard to keep track of how many times a club has changed its coach in one HNL season, but if a club does it 3 or 4 times during the season, then the problem is definitely not with the coaches, but somewhere else.

If we take the example of Hajduk and Leko, who was brought in with great noise, we see that he is a man who is not and will not change anything. For those who followed a little better what happened around his arrival, it was possible to read that his vision of the game and the players that Hajduk has were not compatible from the beginning.

According to current information, Livakovic will most likely leave at the end of the season, and probably Petkovic too. Along with Orsic and Ademi, these are 4 key players in Dinamo's team this and previous seasons and it will be very difficult to replace them.
The new sports director of the club Šimić will have a very difficult task to find worthy replacements for such players and for Dinamo to be competitive again in European club competitions.
As for the other Croatian clubs in Europe next season, Hajduk, Rijeka and Osijek, they are too weak for European competition and we should not expect much from them, possibly to pass one or two rounds of European pre-qualifications.

The Croatian football league is coming to an end, there is currently a dramatic fight for places that lead to European competitions, but it seems that no one is paying attention  ;D
Currently, Rijeka, Osijek, Varazdin and Istria are fighting for 2 places that lead to European club competitions and two rounds before the end of the championship, everything is completely uncertain and open.
It seems that the match in the last round between Osijek and Rijeka could decide one or both clubs that will play in Europe.
Varazdin has not played in European club competitions for 20 years, and Istria has never, so for them playing in Europe would really be a huge success.

There's also a battle to avoid relegation between Šibenik and Gorica. Šibenik is playing against Osijek who is fighting for a place that leads to the European cometitions and Gorica is playing against Varaždin who has nothing to fight for as they are sitting comfortably in the middle of the table. Gorica needs to draw in order to avoid relegation while Šibenik needs to win and hope that Gorica will lose their game.

As for the upper part of the table, I think that Osijek will beat Šibenik and that Rijeka will lose against Dinamo which will put Rijeka on the third place and Osijek fourth.

Sibenik convincingly lost against Osijek and is now in a very difficult situation and most likely the main candidate for relegation from the league.
I would not really agree with you that Varazdin has nothing special to fight for. Varazdin actually has a historic chance to play again in a European club competition after almost 25 years.
If Rijeka loses to Dinamo, they will be fourth, not third, and will find themselves in a very difficult situation in the ranking of the first Croatian league, because they play in Osijek in the last round, and it could very easily happen that they do not qualify for the European club competition.
In any case, a very uncertain championship awaits us until the end.

So, before the last round of the HNL the only question is which club will finish at the third place and play in the UEFA Conference league. And it will be the winner of the match between Osijek and Rijeka. Since Osijek has 1 point advantage, they will be OK with a draw while Rijeka needs a win.

All other important places are secured so Šibenik will be relegated, Dinamo is the champion and Hajduk is the second and will play in the UEFA Conference league.

In fact, it doesn't matter which team will end up third and which fourth, because both teams will play in the European conference league.
Even if Sibenik beat Hajduk today in the final of the Croatian Cup, they will not play in European club competitions because they are the only Croatian first league club that did not pay for the UEFA license to participate in European club competitions.
Obviously, at the beginning of the season, the club did not hope for such an opportunity to play in the European club competition  :D
So, in the round before the end in the Croatian league, everything is completely clear, Dinamo is first and will play the qualifiers for the Champions League, and Hajduk, Rijeka and Osijek will play the qualifiers for the European Conference League.

Right... I forgot that the cup winner gets a place in the qualifications for the UEFA Conference league. Nothing can be changed in the last round. I know that Šibenik didn't pay for the license so we know all the clubs that will compete in the European competitions.

Now do that same graph but without penalties  ;D

Sorry had to do it. Congrats to Hajduk for taking the cup, I just hope they will not destroy too much of my city while celebrating. Some parts of the stadium already paid the price.

Yes, Hajduk once again won the consolation prize, the Croatian Cup, while they can only dream of the title of national champion.
It's unbelievable to me that instead of enjoying football, we have to talk about the fans and the city was almost a war zone with a lot of police.
Dinamo will continue to dominate the Croatian league for years to come, and what interests me now is how much our clubs can do in the upcoming qualifications for European club competitions.
I think that only Dinamo has a real chance to get into the group stage of a European competition again.

Yeah, the dalmatian people are quite hearty people. Hajduk's games in the national league often have better atmosphere than Dinamo's European games. But that doesn't justify destruction and vandalism while celebrating a victory. And behavior of Hajduk's best player Livaja only enhance the violent behavior of their fans.

Anyhow, congrats to Hajduk on winning the cup and I hope they won't lose their first European qualification game.

Truly amazing, I hope he gets a 10 games suspension.
An expected outcome, Šibenik is truly horrible. All the more reason not to act like idiots when you win a game and claim the trophy.

Quite disappointed in Hajduk - but that's actually normal in the last 10 years or so.

It's always disappointing to see a team consistently fall short of their ultimate goal, but winning the Croatian Cup is still an accomplishment worth celebrating. And, yeah! It's unfortunate that the behavior of some players and fans detracted from the joy of the occasion.

As for Dinamo's continued dominance, I believe it's important to have a competitive league with multiple teams vying for the title. So hopefully, other clubs will step up and challenge Dinamo in the future.

This will not happen in the near future. Dinamo is organizationally and financially far stronger than any other Croatian club at the moment, so other clubs in recent years have a chance just to try to win the Croatian Cup.
Of course, it would be much better if we had an tied league because then the interest of the spectators in the Croatian league would increase, which would attract sponsors and money, but at the moment I don't see that happening.
However, Ademi and Orsic left Dinamo, Livakovic and Petkovic will probably leave soon, and it will be interesting to see if Dinamo will continue to be this dominant in the Croatian league next season.

I'm sure that Dinamo's scouts and the whole management will sign some players that will make a difference in the next season(s). I didn't follow if there is anyone yet on the list, but they will have to hurry because the European qualifications will start in two months and new players have to find a chemistry with the rest of the team.

I must admit that so far I have not seen big football names coming to Dinamo this summer, but that is why it seems that the key and best players of Dinamo could leave the club this summer.
It seems that the new Trabzonspor coach and former Dinamo coach Bjelica wants to bring Petkovic and even Orsic to his new club.
Livakovic is currently also linked with the Turkish league and even with a move to Saudi Arabia.
With the earlier departures of Ademi and Orsic, it must be admitted that Dinamo is significantly weakened and that it urgently needs to bring in new and quality players if it wants to be competitive again in European competitions.
Domination in the Croatian league goes without saying, but Dinamo lives financially from European club competitions, not from the domestic league.

And when did you see that Dinamo ZG was bringing big football names? Their way of doing business is to buy relatively unknown players for relatively little money, and then if they are lucky, they sell them for at least ten times the price in a few years. What is the "problem" now is that there is no longer a chief operative who had a good nose for work, and regardless of the reputation they have, the young forces of Dinamo are far from being successful businessmen.

In addition, internal calculations are still ongoing in the club, and as I hear, several other employees were recently fired because they were identified as players of the former boss.

I'm not following news about new players coming to Dinamo, bit you are not wrong. Their last management's way of Work was just as you described it. Buy a potentially good player for small price, let him play and develop and then sell him at a much greater price. Maybe the new management needs some time to get things in order and employ some new scouts to find those potential players. But Dinamo and especially Croatain football can't afford another bad European season because it will fall even further down. But then again, maybe they (Croatain football in general, not Dinamo) belong there...

OK, by big names, of course, I didn't mean big foreign names, but I was thinking best Croatian players who came to play in Dinamo in recent years,  Petkovic is the best examples of that.
Mamic was the best in such jobs and knew how to recognize every young and talented footballer and bring him to Dinamo, like Eduardo. Of course, he was not right every time, but thanks to him, Dinamo was always stronger than the competition.
It seems to me that the new sports director Šimić doesn't really know how to manage this business because I see that the best football players like Livaković and Petković are leaving Dinamo and I don't see who will replace them.
As for European club competitions, Dinamo will again be the only one with a real chance to win the group stage of a competition, and I give the other Croatian clubs in Europe a minimal chance for that.

I don't think that Livaković and Petković leaving Dinamo is a result of bad work of the new management. I think that they are leaving because it's probably their last chance to sign for an international club. They are not getting any younger (both are 28 years old) so I think it's their age that made them search for another club.

I didn't say that the new sports director Simic is doing a bad job because of the expected departure of Livakovic and Petkovic, but because he does not bring in new players who could replace them.
As I have already said, Dinamo dominance in the Croatian league will continue, but Dinamo does not survive financially from the Croatian league but from appearances in European Club competitions.
If Dinamo doesn't have a team that will be competitive in Europe, then their European journey will quickly end and the club will be left without the expected income.
UEFA held the first draw for European club competitions, and when I see the possible opponents that Hajduk, Rijeka and Osijek could get already in the third preliminary round of the Conference League, our clubs have almost no chance of advancing to the group stage of the competition. Again, only Dinamo will have a chance for such success, but first they will have to strengthen the team.

There is still time to sign some big names, but I agree that there is no information about them in the media. Maybe Dinamo's new management wants to keep signings a secret until they are done. We all are used to how the former management did their job where Mamić was very loud and spectacular about everything. I really hope that there will be some big names signing for Dinamo this summer.

I am not Croatian, but I watched Netherlands and Croatia play yesterday. I am not very sure about Livakovic, but for Petkovic who came on for Josip Sutalo in the 91'st minute and scored a third goal for Croatia in the 98'th minute of the game with a good strike as expected of a striker to score, International clubs will come for him if he can have another great performance, scoring again for Croatia in the finals. Many top clubs are in need of a striker, clubs like Chelsea, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Arsenal and others, their scouts must have noticed him and monitoring his progress.

Petkovic could be a great striker, but he needs more will to play. Often on the pitch it looks like he's had enough of everything and doesn't try to create a chance at all, but just waits for the chance to score a goal to appear on its own. If he had tried more in the earlier period of his career, he would probably already be in a big club.

Petkovic actually had a great season in 2019, when he played very well for the club but also for the Croatian national team. He actually almost single-handedly beat Slovakia and that was great to watch.
There are stories and rumors that he was close to going to Barcelona that year.
Unfortunately, Perković is a player with a very special, difficult character and is often his own worst enemy.
Petkovic played very badly for the next couple of years and was far from the national team, but it seems that he found himself again and decided to show what he knows. He is obviously especially inspired when he plays big games, like against Brazil at the World Cup and now against the Netherlands. Now the main question is whether he will play in Dinamo next season or whether he will soon go to a new club.

I'm not saying that he is a bad player. But let's take last night game for example. I guess he was in charge to calm the long balls but I can't remember how many times the ball ended up with Spain players. Another example is when other players were putting pressure on Spain's defense and he was just waling around like it's none of his business.

Croatian clubs have just found out their opponents in European club competitions.
Croatian champion Dinamo will play against the winner of the match between Astana and Dinamo Tbilisi.
In the conference league, Osijek plays against ZTE from Hungary and Rijeka against the winner of the match between Kosovo's Dukagjini and Gibraltar's Europe.
Hajduk participates in the competition from the third preliminary round of the conference league.
It seems to me that Rijeka got the easiest possible opponent, while Dinamo and Osijek got very unpleasant opponents and that they could have done better in the draw.

Dinamo zagreb should be an easy win an expected to fight to get into the group for sure. They have been dominating the league for many years and good on the european stage . Osijek will struggle in the european match while Rijeka has an easy match up for them whoever win the duel between those two teams.

The problem with Dinamo is that few of their best players left this summer. It will be interesting to see how will Dinamo perform without them. The other problem is that Dinamo always has problems playing against weaker teams. They did improve on that in the last few years, but I'm always concerned when it comes to playing against those type of teams.

The new football season is about to start and it seems that almost no one will come to Dinamo except some unknown footballers like the Japanese Kaneko.
Bišćan is asking the management for several new footballers to strengthen the team, but it seems that he will not get them.
The moment of truth is coming soon as the Champions League qualifiers begin. For Dinamo, anything other than entering the group stage of any European competition would be a financial and any other disaster
Dinamo cannot survive financially from the Croatian league, so a possible failure in European competitions would mean a total sale of the team and the dismissal of the coach.

Well teams like Dinamo and most of the teams on Balkan they survive buy selling players and playing the champions league. We all know how hard is to qualify for the champions league. The problem is you have 2-3 round with 2 matches in each round and if luck dosent suit you ,you can get eliminated and go into a weaker tournament that dosent pay like champions league. Dinamo will find good players for sure just a question if they can learn to play with each other on time

Dinamo doesn't really have much time, because their season starts very quickly, and the team has not yet been formed for the new season.
Given that Dinamo's entire season depends on whether they will manage to enter the group stage of the Champions League or not, Dinamo must already be at the top level at the beginning of the season.
Thanks to the very good European coefficient, Dinamo will face relatively easier opponents in the qualifying rounds for the Champions League, but today there are no easy opponents in Europe and they will have to be fully prepared for the competition.
Unfortunately, unlike Dinamo, the other Croatian clubs that play in European competitions, Hajduk, Rijeka and Osijek, have almost no chance of making it to the group stage of a European competition.

They will get some players in, that's for sure. So far none of the expected departures (Livaković, Petković, Šutalo) actually left, Dinamo will probably sell them after their european qualifiers and then get more involved in the transfer market.

So far they brought 2 CB's, so it seems that Šutalo will leave for sure. I approve that transfer, they will get big money and in my opinion Šutalo is decent but not great.

That is exactly what I was thinking. The transfer windows is closing at the end of this month, right? If that's true then Dinamo has enough time to bring some "big" names (big for Dinamo). Maybe the management is waiting to see how the qualifying games will go trough. I guess they see no point in signing some expensive player(s) if they fail to qualify for the group stage of some European competition.

Nope, by the end of next month - so still plenty of time to assemble a team for next season.
I'm sure that Dinamo already has a list of players which they'd approach in case of selling some of the current ones.

Oh, by the end of August? I don't know why I thought the deadline is by the end of July. Either way there is still a lot of time for Dinamo to sign new players. Let's just hope they will again make sign some good players that will keep them competitive for the European games. For the Croatian league new signings are not that relevant.

For Dinamo, the best news this summer would be if Petković, Livaković and Ivanušec stay until the end of August and help the club qualify for the group stage of the Champions It will be very difficult for Dinamo to find real replacements for such quality footballers on the domestic market, and even abroad.
I would not really agree with the opinion that Dinamo will not have real competition in the Croatian football league this season.
If the announcements about the arrival of Perišić to Hajduk come true, then after a long time we could see more uncertain competitions than usual in the Croatian league.

Perišić to Hajduk seems so crazy to me - there's 0 reason for him to do that at this point in his career.

Maybe he doesn't care that much about money anymore and just wants to come home.

He was born in Split but never played a game for Hajduk - it would really be a great story.

I agree, from the rational side there is no reason for Perišić to come to Hajduk this season, maybe in a few years when he ends his great career.
Perišić can certainly play a few more seasons at the top level and earn serious money, either in some European league or in Saudi Arabia.
However, it is obvious that he, like Livaja a few seasons ago, is not driven by rational reasons but by emotions, i.e. the desire to make a big result with Hajduk and end Dinamo's dominance in the Croatian league.
If they succeed, Livaja and Perišić would become heroes of Dalmatia and Split.
Dinamo will most likely be without their main players Livaković, Petković and Ivanušec this season, and Hajduk clearly see a chance for themselves in this situation and are trying to take advantage of the opportunity and put together a strong and competitive team.

I don't know how Livaja played before, but with his laziness while playing for the national team I would never compare him with Perišić. I didn't follow the news lately so I'm not sure where is it coming from, but I really can't imagine Perišić in Hajduk. He is 34 years old and he can still play at the highest level for a few more years.

Perišić is still under contract with Tottenham for the entirety of the upcoming season. Given his professionalism, it seems unlikely that he will terminate the contract prematurely. It is most probable that his return to Hajduk (as he had previously promised) will only occur in 2024, when his contract expires and he becomes a free agent again.

Yeah, that sounds like a possible scenario. However, with 35 years of age next year, maybe some other club will want to sign him on a one year contract. But I have to admit, it would be nice to see him play for Hajduk. I just hope he won't be like Livaja. I can't stand that guy...

Yes, Livaja is such a character, a conflicted player and a man who likes to provoke other fans and even insult.
The stories surrounding Perisic have quieted down at the moment and it seems that it is not realistic that he will play for Hajduk this year.
By the way, the new season in the Croatian league begins with today's Super Cup match. The first match between the two biggest rivals, Dinamo and Hajduk, will answer questions about their current strength and quality and what we can expect in the new season.
Soon we will see all 4 Croatian clubs in the qualifying matches for European competitions, and it will be interesting to see if anyone else can join Dinamo and enter the group stage of European competitions.

So, the new season has started. This thread is not that big so I decided to remove the year from it's title. It doesn't make sense to create new thread for each season for such small league like Croatian League.

The new season started on Friday and right in the first game we have a pretty big surprise - Hajduk managed to beat Dinamo in Zagreb! I don't know when that happened the last time, but I'd say it wasn't in the near past. Dinamo had a lead 1-0 and a penalty that Petković managed to shoot so lousy that Lučić didn't have problems defending. Then Livaja scored an equalizer. And when everyone thought that it will finish with a draw, Hajduk managed to score another goal in 93rd minute to shock Dinamo at the start od the season.

In other news, Osijek played their first game at the new stadium. It's a great looking stadium with around 13.000 seats. Osijek players spiced up the opening of their new stadium with a great 6-1 victory against Slaven.

Maybe the bookies will offer good odds on Dinamo winning the title after the derby ;D

The result will lift Hajduk after their Supercup loss - but irrespective of this result I can't see any other outcome than another title for Dinamo.
They're a far better team with more options in all areas, and will remain so even if they sell a few key players.

Yeah, right... Maybe in some other big league that could happen, but not in the Croatian League. You know how small country Croatia is and everyone (except for some die-hard Dalmatian people) knows that Dinamo will win the title this season. One lost game means nothing. I really don't see how any other club could win the title. Maybe is some of them change their management, then they could stand a chance.

Prior to the start of new season I don't think that anyone expected this, even the most die hard hajduk fans: Hajduk Split at the top of the table with 8 points ahead of Dinamo Zagreb (they have one game less though) with latter only getting 4 points from 3 games.

Given the circumstances in Dinamo (Sutalo just left, Livakovic just a matter of day and possibly Ivanusec and Petkovic, Biscan being incompetent) I think that its now or never for Hajduk to finally win the championship after 18-19 years of waiting.

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2023/08/21/Mtoq3.png

Oh man, I forgot all about this thread. Yes, I agree that this is the now or never year for Hajduk to become the champion. But after seeing them play against PAOK, I don't think they have what it takes to win. Rijeka also have solid chance to win the title again, not just Hajduk. Dinamo changed a lot in the last year - new coach, new management... We will see how long the new management will have patience with Biscan. If they lose against Sparta Prague, I think they will look for another coach.

Biscan won't have a chance to prove himself against Sparta Prague as he has been sacked today and I would say good riddance, the only problem is that person who is rumoured to replace him (Goran Tomic) is not much better either.

The one I would like to replace him is Sergej Jakirovic who is doing a very good job in Rijeka and before that in Zrinjski but for some reason he is not mentioned as a choice at the moment.

Biscan is no longer a coach, and the names of possible candidates who will lead the club in the next match have already been announced. Like his predecessor Cacic, Biscan obviously did not understand what the substitutes were for, especially in moments when the rhythm of the game should be slowed down and the pressure created by the opponent should be released.

However, regardless of who will be the new coach, the departure of many key players will significantly affect Dinamo's game, which means that the championship could be much more interesting than otherwise.


Unfortunately, the practice continues, after two bad coaches comes a third and so on indefinitely. When the famous Kjuno Jurcic ;D returns, then we will know that Dinamo has reached rock bottom.

Loads of changes,not good changes at Dinamo I assume after they were eliminated from the Champions League fight for the group stages where most of the time we are used to see them,they should be happy with Europa League now which is not that bad but surely not their main objective.What makes it painful is that they were leading 0-2 and they lost it all in the additional minutes added in the end of the second half.

This makes them fight for the Croatian title a priority now and despite other teams having chances I think they will be the Champions also this year.

Oh, wow! That was fast. I was watching the news this morning and saw Dario Simic (a member of the board) who said that Biscan has their full suport. I guess a lot have changed since then. I didn't look at the news portals so the news skipped me. But I must say that I expected them to fire him.

EDIT: Rikafip it looks like the runoes weren't true. I just saw the news that Sergej Jakirovic is appointed as the new Dinamo coach. That was really fast.

Haha yeah, but I think that we might be closer to Jurcic coming back than we think. Maybe if Jakirovic doesn't work out. :D


Yep, just saw it and was about to share the news. I thought that I would be happier that Dinamo got Jakirovic who was probably the best choice, but on the other hand when I think about it, it kinda sucks for Rijeka to lose the coach that way, at the start of the season and before their important Conference League qualifiers games vs Lille.

From what I could notice on other forums, Rijeka fans are gutted by Sergej's move (I would be too if I was Rijeka fan) but what they have to understand is that is hard to resist Dinamo call and much bigger salary. Also, there are rumours that Dinamo appointing him is a sign that Mamic brothers still have the last call in Dinamo which is not a good news.

Jakirović will quadruple his wages - nobody should be surprised by his choice.

Taking Dinamo isn't really a smart move at this point in time, there's too much internal power struggle and he won't get the support he needs. But nobody local rejects Dinamo when they come calling.

I'm sure that Rijeka fans are outraged by the behavior of Jakirović. He left them just before the most important game of the season. But he also took his whole staff with him (at least it's what I have read in the news yesterday).

On another note, it looks like Dinamo goalkeeper Livaković played his last game in Athens on Saturday. The rumors are that the management tried to persuade him into staying until after the game against Sparta, but could not. Dinamo even tried to persuade him to stay until winter with a raise, but he didn't want to. The rumor is that he will sign for Fenerbahce. Now Jakirović needs to decide who will be his successor - Nevistić or Zagorac.

In fact, everything revolves around money, and this kind of move only proves that. Apart from that, there is also the matter of some kind of prestige and the further career of each coach, because if you do something good in Dinamo, it is definitely a good reference for your further career. Bjelica did a good job in Dinamo and then after Osijek he went abroad, and he certainly wouldn't have done that if he was the coach of a smaller club from HNL.



There is no doubt that there are connections between Miskovic and the fugitive brothers, but I can tell you that most of the people who were loyal to the brothers were expelled from the club, although the question arises whether there is some kind of financial weight from the past that still gives the brothers the opportunity to influence some decisions.

There is one guy who refused to go to Dinamo and that's Djalovic, Jakirovic's assistant.


Livakovic is already in Istanbul so that's done deal, and it looks like tonight's game vs Sparta will be the last game for Ivanusec who is going to Feyenoord for 10M euro. With all these Dinamo players gone, I don't think that Hajduk will have a better chance to win championship soon.


My guess is Nevistic as they didn't pay Lokomotiva 3 million for nothing.



I don't think that power struggle is over yet and Mamic probably still has some chance to come back. This current situation reminds me of Harry Potter where Mamic is Voldemort in this scenario.  :D

There are already rumors that Dinamo is looking to get their former certain Ademi back from China. I'm not sure how much mo ey are they willing to pay, but I'm not sure that Chinese club will want to let him go.

As for the players that are leaving or have left, we'll see how will Dibamo play today and especially the next week without Livakovic and Ivanusec. I hope that they won't be missed as much, but I'm not that sure about it. Especially Livakovic...

As a Fenerbahce fan I'm very happy for transferring Livakovic. I was thinking that he would go to one of top teams in the world after his performance in the World Cup. I want to ask Croatian league regulars here his success chance at Fenerbahce because of knowing only his national team performance.

If Croatian news say correctly, the transfer is a done deal. There were rumors that he could play against Sparta today, but he missed the last training and I think he is already in Turkey doing medical checkup. There were also rumors that he could sign for Sevilla but I guess that wasn't true. Anyhow, he is a great goalkeeper and I think that both of medals from the World cups Croatia got thanks to his great saves.

You got yourself a very good goalkeeper, especially at that price. He has some weaknesses though (if not he would be at the top club) like crosses but overall you will probably be satisfied with him.


Subasic was our goalkeeper in Russia, not Livakovic. I mean he was there too but iirc he didn't enter any of the games there.

Damn, you are right. I completely forgot about Subasic. What happened to him after Russia? I see that he has retired this year after playing for Hajduk since 2021. He played very well (at least at the World cup in Russia), but I don't remember seeing him after that World cup. I guess he was one of the players that said goodbye to the national team after that silver medal.

Yeah he retired after Russia, wanting to give younger guys like Livakovic a chance.

I always like to think that he retired so early because the guy before him (Pletikosa) stayed in our national team for at least few years too long while Subasic was obviously a better goalkeeper than him at that point (I remember Pletikosa being crap in the WC in Brazil) but since there's the thing called hierarchy in our national team, Subasic had to wait for him to retire. So maybe he didn't want to do the same thing.

Considering that you'll apparently pay close to 10m euros for him, I'd say it's one of the worst deals you could have made.
He is a decent keeper, but better keepers were sold for less money. Top clubs overpay top ball-playing goalkeepers, other than that, goalkeepers are quite cheap.

Livaković is horrible with his feet and not good as a sweeper keeper, so definitely not in the 'modern goalkeepers' bracket that you would need to overpay for.

What is your plan with Altay? He's not such a horrible GK. If I were you, I would have rather spent that money on a good CM - Fener is thin in midfield.

Fenerbahce club stated the cost of the player as 7 million euros. Frankly I think Livakovic will be successful in our team. Altay Bayındır is a good goalkeeper with potential. It is said that he will be transferred by Manchester United. When we think the requirement of having 3 Turkish players in starting eleven in the Turkish league, it is quite a risky move to put a foreign goalkeeper in his place. However Altay can't motivate himself for matches from now on due to the existence of big problems between him and the fans. The hardest thing for a player must be to get booed by their own fans.

Altay's biggest misfortune is that our arch rival has an elite goalkeeper like Muslera. He is always in a situation to be compared to him.

https://talkimg.com/images/2023/08/25/Mc2ko.md.png (https://talkimg.com/image/Mc2ko)

If you're selling Altay, then it makes sense. However - there are 5 days left until the deadline and United already brought a new GK - not sure how much truth there is in this transfer.
If you don't sell Altay, then you'll have 2 expensive GK's - which is crazy considering the overall depth of your team.

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I would not care much what the fans think, if he performs well for 5 games in a row they will suddenly start cheering him. Fans are something you should mostly ignore when making business decisions.

I don't think that 6.65M (transfermarkt number) Fenerbahce paid for Livakovic is overpaying. He is entering best goalkeeper years, has tons of experience at the highest level and beside some defficiencies (which are the reason he is not at a bigger club) is a pretty good goalkeeper for a club of Fenerbahce level. If you ask me, they sold him for too cheap and as a Dinamo fan I would much rather see him stay than them getting him for that kind of money.

Whether he ends up being a good choice for Fenerbahce remains to be seen, but he did a good job for Dinamo and our national team so far.

I completely agree. Few years ago he was lousy at playing the ball, but he improved that in the last couple of years. He may not be at the level of the best goalkeepers, but I think that he is a very good goalkeeper for Fenerbahce. Especially for that price. But didn't Croatian news say that Dinamk sold him for around 9-10 million dollars? I'm not sure anymore...

The fee is closer to 10 million. 6.5 mil immediately with 3 million in installments/reachable clauses.
As I said - he's a really solid GK. The thing for me is the fee spent for a GK is too high for a club of Fener's rank, especially considering they have a solid GK to begin with.

For example - Feyenoord spent the same on Ivanušec - a 24-year old winger with much higher resell value. That's a very good transfer, Livaković's one is in my opinion a much better deal for Dinamo than for Fener.

Was there any plan of Dinamo Zagreb after Livakovic? Zagreb are a team that needs to be successful in the league and European competitions both.


Fenerbahçe have stated with the official statement they made that they are going to pay 7.6 million euros for Livakovic together with bonuses.


I also agree with the topic that Altay is a quite good goalkeeper for Fenerbahçe's level. However he was really in bad with the fans. He was in a situation that he would still be protested even if he concedes 1 goal after having a clean sheet for 10 matches. This parting will be good for both sides. When we think that Manchester United will pay 7 million euros for Altay Bayındır it didn't cost Fenerbahçe too much to replace their goalkeeper.

That deal is awful for Dinamo and I'm sure that Mamic (who I don't like btw) would be able to sell him for much more. When I was reading rumours that Feyenoord will get him for ~10 million I thought it was a joke and it still baffles me that they sold him so cheap as after selling Šutalo and Livaković they weren't in need for cash.


They knew it will be impossible to keep Livaković indefinitely so few years ago they bought Nevistic for 3 million, who spent last 2 seasons on loan and is a very solid goalkeeper.

the games of this round have already ended, the dynamo that played against rijeka, managed to leave that game with a victory, but it was not an easy victory even with the dynamo dominating the whole game, they managed to score 2 goals in this game thanks to a penalty, but when the game was just a few minutes away, the dynamo conceded a goal, and it's funny that they had more than 70% of ball possession in this game and couldn't win comfortably even though they were playing at home. with this result, dynamo now has 7 points and occupies position number 4. while the leader of the table has 15 points, and a big difference in points

looking at ajduk's next game, I see that they will have a game that will not be very difficult, at least in this game ajduk can leave with a draw in case they have difficulties in winning the game, but I very much doubt that they will leave this game with some defeat . while in the case of dinamo their next game will be against a strong opponent, it will be against an opponent that currently occupies the number 2 position in the table, so I see that in this game dinamo can lose points, mainly because before that game they will have europa league game, this somehow obliged that at least some players need to rest in this game

and even if the dinamo coach does not choose to let players rest in this game, the players will be tired and their performance will not be 100% good, so I see dinamo losing points in this game. looking at the current scenario it is possible that this season maybe ajduk can become champions if they manage to take advantage of each game and strengthen themselves very well as a team, but if they cannot keep that distance of points and drop in performance in the next games then the Dynamo will be champion. we will see in the next rounds how each team will perform

Yep, agreed - I felt he'd go for 20+.
Maybe Dinamo was afraid - Ivanušec was great as a kid and then suddenly dropped in form quite significantly. Last season was his first really good one in the last 3 years or so, so maybe they wanted to cash in and not risk him returning to that version.

Still - Ivanušec is a great player for this level of football and I do agree that Dinamo should have risked more and demanded a higher fee.


So, it's agreed that he will be sold to United? In that case OK, getting Livaković makes more sense.

Thinking of it, he shoulnd't have been sold at all. I can understand selling Sutalo as ~20M is serious amount of money, Livakovic simply wanted to move on so I can understand that too, but after selling those two crucuail players, there was simply no need to selling another one, especially not before end of Europa League qualifications. Its almost like someone (Mamic?) is sabotaging Dinamo because what they did this summer doesn't make any sense at all.

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Just watching Dinamo losing against Osijek (despite my team losing its a pleasure watching HNL game being played at modern stadium) and I would be very surprised if Hajduk doesn't win title this year because Dinamo is just awful. Stronger clubs would be affected by losing three out of four best players, and at this point I woulnd't be surprised if Petkovic doesn't leave too because there's no one left that he can play with, expect Baturina.

edit: lool, what a crazy end of the game, Petkovic scored 2 penalties in the last 10 minutes and Dinamo leads 3:2

I think that because Dinamo sold three of their key players other teams will be more competitive for winning the title this season. But that's sad because instead of other teams getting better to compete with Dinamo, now Dinamo is weakened and now the race for the title will become interesting once again. It should have been the other way around.

More interesting is Hajduk losing to Istra. After a great start of the season, they lost points against one of the weaker teams in the league.

True, HNL recently became more interesting not by other clubs being stronger but instead by Dinamo getting weaker, which is obvious when you look at our country's UEFA coefficient which is decreasing for quite some time and it relies solely on Dinamo. If other clubs did their part of the work (especially Hajduk) we would be now at the situation where Serbian league is, with Crvena Zvezda getting straight into CL and half the league into Europe qualifications (then again they were horrendous this year).

In other news, rumour is that Ademi might come back from China which at the current situation would be a very good news but in the end (for Dinamo) everything depends whether Petkovic stays as without him they have no chances to win championship.


They really shouldn't lose points on these type of "small games" games if they want to have a good chance of winning HNL.

Yes, I forgot to mention that. It would be good for him and for Dinamo if he returns, but I'm not sure what is the deadline to have the list of players that will play in the Conference league. It doesn't make sense for him to come only to play the Croatian league even though it would help Dinamo win the title once again.

Teams in the Conference League submitted their squads for the groups to UEFA last night. Even though Dinamo Zagreb lost power this summer I think they will qualify from Group C very comfortably. Balkani and Astana aren't in a position to challenge Zagreb.

What do you think the main reason of Croatia league's being this much behind can be while Croatia are in a very good position as a national team?

Yep, Dinamo shoulnd't have much issues passing to the 2nd Confeence League round but how much further can they go is questionable. The only goof thing about them playing that instead of Europa League/Champions |League is that it will be easier to get points for UEFA coefficient (that's one of the things that doesn't make muchs esne to me, win in Confenece League giving same amount of points as in CL) which may help them next year.


We are a small country with less than 4 million people (on top of that not the richest one) meaning its a small market so you can't expect our league to be competitive and to keep our best players for long. We could be better though, but majority of other clubs are underperforming (Hajduk Split being a perfect example of incompetence) for a long time that brings us down even more. Dinamo can only carry our league up until certain point and after that you need other clubs doing their part of work

Wow, I didn't know that a win in the Conference league carries the same number of points as a win in the UCL. I always thought that number of points depends on the quality of the team that you are playing against. That would make much more sense to me because it's not the same to beat Chelsea or Sparta Prague.



The main reason why Croatian league is so weak is exactly what Rikafip explained. We are a small country but somehow very good players come out of our youth football academies. But 90% of players in the Croatian national team are playing in foreign clubs. I guess that's one of the reasons why our national team is so good. Players sign for foreign clubs where they can develop much more than they would develop in some Croatian club.

If I remember correctly, it wasn't like that before and CL wins were brining more points than lower tier competitions, but at some point UEFA decided to change, probably to give weaker clubs and countries a chance to compete agaisnt richer leagues and some leagues managed to profit greatly from it (unfortunately not us since all of our clubs got kicked out).

In other news, Arijan Ademi is back to Dinamo which means their chances of winning the league immediately increased and even bookies adjusted the odds and Dinamo is again the favorite (1.7) while odds on Hajduk are 2.3. Since it looks like Petkovic is not going anywhere and with the return of Ademi, I might put some money on Dinamo.   

Odds are definitely tempting but it's too long to wait for the bet to settle so I will skip it. Too bad that Ademi didn't join earlier so he could play in the group stage of the Conference league. This way he will have to wait and hope that Dinamo will be able to advance to the knockout stage. They certainly have the quality but you never know...

Things are slowly going back to normal at HNL as Hajduk is showing the same old behaviour as in the last almost 20 years -  starting good and sometimes during summer starting to fall apart. They lasted maybe few games more than usual, but ultimately we are starting to see Hajduk we all know. :D

After first 5 games and Dinamo having shit load of issues I really thought that this might be their year and that they will finally win championship, but after the last night's game vs Gorica I think that's not realistic anymore. They were simply horrendous even though they had 2 weeks to prepare for that game and I don't even wanna think how would they look like if they managed to reach Europa League/Conference League when even this is too much for them.

The difference this season is that we can't expect Dinamo to maintain the same level in which they performed in recent years.
I agree that Hajduk did not do themselves any favors with the last few performances, but Dinamo is beatable this season - and that is something that has changed.

They should still have enough to be champions - but I feel they'll have to work for it.

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Did you see Pjaca's performance for Rijeka? If he continues like this, he'll be HNL's best player by far.

The fall started last year, and unfortunately HNL didn't become more interesting by others getting stronger but instead by Dinamo getting weaker is not a good thing, especially in the term of UEFA coefficient.


Even Jakirevic said the other day that national league is priotity over Conference League, meaning they are aware that it won't be a walk in a park like in previous years.


Yeah I saw, and if he remains healthy (which is usually his main problem)  I don't expect him to stay in Rijeka for more than a season. He should have come back sooner to HNL, instead wasting him time in Anderlecht and several other clubs but better late than never I guess.

We can only imagine what could have happened and where he would play now if it wasn't for that injury during that stupid and unecessary friendly game vs Estonia back in 2017...

I was really surprised to see how Pjaca reacted in one situation where a referee awarded a corner kick for Rijeka. He approached him and said that no one from Osijek touched the ball and that he should change his decision so the referee awarded the ball for Osijek. Unfortunately I didn't get to watch the entire game but his reaction was really unexpected.