Hajduk vs Ružomberok (0-1)
Hajduk were set and poised to face off against Armenian side FC Noah in the next round of qualifiers, only needing to get past a Slovakian Side, Ružomberok, that on paper are much weaker than Hajduk. Despite having a home crowd at Poljud backing them, Šarlija’s own goal was enough to send Hajduk crashing out of Europe after two lackluster matches in the series. Hajduk went to Slovakia and were able to scrape by with a 0-0 draw, what seemed to be lining up for an easier match at home. Ružomberok opened the match at Poljud scoring in the 8th minute thanks to a misguided Šarlija clearance that went straight into Hajduk’s net. From there Hajduk failed capitalize off their many chances to get themselves back into the match. At first two chances came quickly after Ružomberok’s opening goal, however they resulted in back-to-back big misses for Pukštas, both falling to his feet off deflections in the box. Livaja also missed an open 1v1 in the box at the end of the first half that should have leveled Hajduk. However, going into the second half Hajduk found themselves unable to create as many chances in the first half. Controversially their best chance to level came off a questionable no-call when Anthony Kalik was knocked down by a defender in the box. Hajduk’s elimination comes a major shock as AEK’s upset on the opposite side of the bracket gave Hajduk with what on paper seemed to be a straightforward path. Hajduk’s pathway to Europe, should it have been successful would have been, HB Torshavn (Faroe Islands), Ružomberok (Slovakia), and FC Noah (Armenia). With the wheels falling off early in the season for Hajduk, the big question in Split is the combination of Perišić leaving and an early exit enough to signal trouble for Gattuso’s tenure and possibly Hajduk’s title hopes going forward.
Osijek vs Zira (2-2, 2-1 After Pen.)
Osijek yet again find themselves on the ugly end of football, suffering from yet another late minute goal and defensive errors that have resulted in a tough loss. Despite losing the match, Osijek in regular play never trailed Zira in both matches, making their loss in penalties even harder to bear. Of the three goals scored by Zira, two of them were penalties, and two came from after the 90th minute of play. Osijek found themselves leading before the half thanks to captain, Vedran Jugović, after conceding yet another penalty Osijek retook their lead late in the match thanks to their star talent, Anton Matković. Ultimately, Čavlina made yet another error in a tumultuous start at Osijek, missing a savable shot due to poor positioning and reactions in the 90th minute that gave Davit Volkov and Zira an ever so important equalizer. Arguably the worst part of the match would not come until penalties, were Osijek managed to only score a single penalty going 1/5 in the shootout. Čavlina did give himself some redemption in penalties nearly bailing Osijek out with three penalty saves. In what may have been the worst penalty shootout in recent years for both sides, ended with Osijek eliminated on a low scoring 2-1 end to the shootout.
Rijeka vs Elfsborg (2-0)
Rijeka find themselves as the lone club left to qualify for Europe alongside Dinamo, as despite their 2-0 loss, they have a second chance dropping to the final round of Conference League Qualifiers. While holding Elfsborg to a one all draw in the first leg, Rijeka bowed out of the Europa League falling on the road in Sweden. Rijeka’s loss comes not long after controversially seeing their manager, Željko Sopić was fired even though he opened Rijeka’s campaign with 2 wins and 3 draws. The shock firing of Sopić just two days before a crucial Europa League match, which if they would have on would have secured European play left the club and squad in disarray. With Sopić’s former assistant manager at the helm Rijeka found themselves at a huge disadvantage going into Thursday’s match, a disadvantage that Elfsborg used. While Rijeka made a few half chances off the counter, Elfsborg had most of the control of the game and created tons of chances and pressure. While holding them off for most of the match, after a crossbar miss by Elfsborg, Rijeka’s luck ran out by making an unforced pass back to Labrović that was picked up by the Elfsborg striker and put away, making the game 1-0. From their Rijeka conceded another goal in the 83rd minute, sealing their fate and sending them down to the Conference League. This however, does line Rijeka up in a favorable match up against Olimpija Ljubljana from Slovenia. With Rijeka having a new matchup that is lining up in their favor and Dinamo likely to qualify for the Champions League there still is hope that Croatia could secure two teams in European play this season.
Labrović now plays for Augsburg. The Rijeka keeper is Zlomišić
Re: Hajduk, that miss by Trajkovski in the first half was the guiltiest of all the parties.
Halilovic with two goals in two games to start the season, teammate Mitrovic also with a goal today.
Halilović is breaking through now. He may yet become the player who he was once on track to be. He’s still only 28!
Also saw that Tin Jedvaj is playing in a legit league again. He’s also still only 28, and now he’s anchoring the defense at Panathinaikos and scored two cheeky PKs against Ajax (Šutalo also scored his).
And Vrsaljko is almost close after coming back from injury.
Cmon guys, we have to move on. Enough of regurgitation.
Modric should go too as far as I’m concerned.
Baturina and sucic are ready.
As maminjo said in a prior post, we can’t waste anymore time overthere. Enough is enough
I agree with you Z, but the Halilović case is relevant because he plays RW and has always been a good one-one-one player who can shoot. Croatia needs a player with that profile plus a winning mentality. Halilović seems to have matured as a person and put together a strong season last year including a number of man of the match performances in a decent league. He just scored two goals in two matches, and quick ones too. Vrsaljko’s injuries were a shame but have nothing to do with Halilović, who actually turned down a big payout and committed to improving his game instead. There are players ahead of Jedvaj for sure, but it’s always good to have Croatians competing at a high level. It doesn’t hurt to have a skilled CB for a decent Panathinaikos squad on the backup of backups list just in case.
@TGAD
I hear you man. I didn’t mean to offend anyone. I brought up Sime sarcastically. I love all our boys. I’m just frustrated that we’re having trouble moving on from that Gen.
If we don’t start introducing guys like Baturina and Sucic soon we’re going to be in deeper poop than we already are.
We’re going to take some lumps from this transition for sure but we must be prepared for some upsetting results. We just have to.
To break down my rationale:
With Brozović retiring, Sučić will have a big role beginning next month. With Vlasić injured, Modrić getting older, Majer not performing well in the crunch moments, etc. Baturina will also have a chance to be a major player already. The big questions are the wingers and the backup defenders. Vida should retire from national team play, but is anyone younger actually any better than him? I mean, he still plays every game the full 90 at AEK Athens… Maybe Jedvaj and Caleta-Car are now better, but they’re that mid-90s generation that “didn’t pan out” according to most commenters on this site. Who else? Vusković might not be there yet, so you have to keep guys like Caleta-Car and Jedvaj on the radar since they seem to have matured after supposedly not living up to the potential. After all, Jakić is the same age, and he’s still developing and doesn’t get dismissed the way the others do because he was never a prodigy… That prodigy generation is still young enough.
About the wingers, until some younger wingers start playing better, you have to consider Halilović and Pjaca as relevant. Which younger guys are going to open up the play, take defenders one on one and score goals? So far this season, Halilović is outperforming Marco Pašalić. I like Pašalić, but he has to step it up because Halilović has something to prove. Which left winger is currently better than comeback Pjaca?
Also, which young left back is going to finally make Borna Barišić irrelevant? Barišić made a great move for his career this summer and is playing regularly again and at a higher level of domestic competition. I don’t want to see him called up to the repka again, but until some younger guy starts shining in that position, Barišić will continue to be Dalić’s third choice at left back.
Bottom line is that we have so many central midfielders that a still good Milan Badelj is ancient history and a still pretty good Brozović had to retire, while there are key positions where the same guys are in the conversation for the last 10 years, and there is nothing to be done about that until some top players emerge to replace them.
Watching Hajduk on Maxtv 1, I had to shake my head in disbelief at the TV commentator and his bias and total disrespect for Ruzomberok. Hajduk was losing 1 – 0 after 8 min, and he kept on saying throughout the first half that Hajduk was going to Armenia to play FC Noah on Tuesday and as such the HNL match against Varazdin scheduled for Sunday was going to be cancelled.
Only through the second half did he start saying if Hajduk wins.
What an ID..T.