It was a…meh week in Croatian football after the previous one, which was great. Dinamo Zagreb got past Thun in extra time in a 5-goal thriller in the second leg. Varaždin and Hajduk lost their 2nd legs; Varaždin is out of Europe, while Hajduk drops down to the Conference League 3rd qualifying round. Thankfully, Rijeka saved the coefficient from a complete embarrassment as they beat Derry City again and went through.
Dinamo 3-2 (4-3 agg.) Thun
After a 1-1 draw that could’ve gone either way in Switzerland, Dinamo started the game at home by conceding in the 4th minute. Mišić gave the ball away, and Thun hit the hosts on a quick counter as Brighton Labeau struck. The Modri continued making mistakes and misplacing passes, and eventually it led to a free-kick for Thun in the 22nd minute. Fabio Fehr swung it in and the captain of the Swiss champions, Marco Bürki, headed the ball perfectly as it looped over Filipović and into the goal. 0-2 to Thun.
Thun then dropped back, and Dinamo failed to create anything for the rest of the first half, or for most of the second, for that matter, until the captain and goalscorer, Bürki, got sent off after stopping a clear goal-scoring chance. That gave new life to the Dinamo players, and they started going at 10-man Thun. It took just seven minutes until Dion Drena Beljo opened the scoring, and just four minutes later, Lukas Kačavenda tied it up. Delirium at the packed Maksimir.
The Croatian champions were unable to find the net again before the full-time whistle, so the game went into extra time. There, Thun almost shocked Dinamo in the 98th minute, breaking through on a 3-on-3 counter-attack; Michael Heule got the ball on the left-hand side of the box and fired JUST past the post.
Into the second half of extra time, the game was still at 3-3 on aggregate, until Moris Valinčić took the ball at halfway, ran down while being pressed and scored an absolute ROCKET to give Dinamo the win.
Dinamo will now face Kauno Žalgiris in the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League. The Lithuanian side hired Croatian manager Željko Sopić, who has now delivered the club’s first-ever European group/league stage appearance. He also celebrated with the team in some fashion.
Pafos 4-0 (4-2 agg.) Hajduk
Where to start… Hajduk tried to play the same way they did at Poljud in the first leg, but Pafos shut them down early; first to every second ball, clearly playing with a chip on their shoulder to prove the first leg was a fluke. But, even while pegged back, Hajduk kept Pafos quiet until the 40th minute. Pafos got a free-kick and took it immediately, taking the away side by surprise, and Guga struck a quick volley past Toni Silić at his near post to halve Hajduk’s aggregate lead.
That was it for the first half. Now all Hajduk needed to do was be mentally strong enough to endure Pafos’s attempts to tie it up and keep their concentration at its highest. But, as has happened every year for the past 16 years, Hajduk crumbled right at the end of the match as the Cypriot side took a short corner and Goldar met the cross and equalised with just 2 minutes remaining. Right after, Marko Livaja almost won it for Hajduk, but his shot went wide. That’s just not how the script goes for the Whites.
In extra time, Pafos took the lead after just 3 minutes, then defended against Hajduk’s attempts to equalise, before eventually ending the game in the 117th minute as Correira made it 4-2. It was a terrible and shameful performance once again after a brilliant 1st leg. Just like against Žilina, Hajduk succumbed to the pressure, only this time the opponent was a much more experienced and quality side, who took advantage of their dread.
Gonzalo Garcia and his men now drop down to the Conference League, where they will face FK Žalgiris Vilnius. This makes two Croatia-Lithuania matchups in the next two weeks.
Jablonec 2-0 (4-3 agg.) Varaždin
Turns out my hypothesis from last week – open play > set-pieces – was wrong, as Jablonec scored two more goals from set-pieces to get past Nikola Šafarić’s Varaždin. The first goal came in the 29th minute as Jiří Sláma shot from a tight free-kick angle, hit the bar, and the ball went into the goal off Varaždin captain Robert Punčec’s head. Wrong place, wrong time. Not much to be done about it, sadly.
However, the 2nd goal came from a corner kick; Lamin Jawo redirected the cross into the middle of the box, and Dušan Pavlović got past his marker, reached the ball, and put it past Josip Silić for 2-0. Varaždin then had some half-chances that aren’t really worth mentioning. At the very end, the Croatian side did score, but it was disallowed immediately for a clear offside by the goalscorer, Gregor Sikošek.
Two years in a row, after an amazing first leg at home, Varaždin struggled away, and their inexperience showed. Conceding four goals from set pieces, although today’s first one was unavoidable, is saddening and nearly unacceptable. But credit to Jablonec; however much I hate this style, they use their strengths, and almost every set-piece was a threat for Varaždin.
Derry City 0-1 (0-2 agg.) Rijeka
The hosts started the game strong, but Rijeka contained them and took control. This led to Daniel Adu-Adjei scoring with a delightful little finish to give Rijeka a two-goal lead. Derry had a free-kick which went right past the target in the 66th minute, but that was it. Rijeka controlled the game afterwards and closed it out.
Matjaž Kek and his side are now the only side this season to win a tie by winning both legs. Although not as impressive as I myself and many others expected, Kek gets the job done, and that’s all you can ask for. Next up for Rijeka is Finnish side Ilves Tampere.
Nothing new for Hajduk and after watching both matches it has to be said that the better team deservedly won the two-legged tie.
Hajduk defended the entire match and the only shot on target came from a Hrgovic free kick in the second half. Towards the end Hajduk was defending desperately and unfortunately, they could not hold out with the Pafos second goal coming with only 90 seconds left on the clock.
Livaja immediately after the restart had a chance to score however his shot went wide, however it has to be said from an acute angle.
The momentum was with Pafos and as expected they went on to win the match in extra time.
Even if Hajduk beats Zalgiris I cannot see them progressing to the League phase of the Conference League. They would then need to win the play-off match against a seeded team and that will be a tough task.
Dinamo will be in Europe, Hajduk and Rijeka need to win their third-round qualifying rounds first to progress to the play-off round.
The draw for the UEFA play-off rounds will be on Monday.
Well hopefully Hajduk can get into Conference league and we can have three teams in Europe.