In a huge clash for table position in the HNL, Hajduk Split defeated reigning Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb 1-0 at Stadion Poljud on Sunday evening.
After a scoreless first half, now-Canadian midfielder Niko Sigur broke the ice with a 54th-minute beauty from the top of the box. After a blunder from star Dinamo midfielder Martin Baturina inside the 18-yard box, Sigur made the most out of his opportunity and found the back of the net with the help of a tiny deflection off Spanish defender Raul Torrente.
Hajduk’s defense was impeccable, allowing only one shot on target the entire match and winning 90% of their tackles. The experienced midfield duo of Ivan Rakitić and Filip Krovinović controlled the tempo of the match during the second half, preventing Dinamo from gaining any sort of momentum down a goal.
At the end of the day, Hajduk was simply the better side. Coming off a 3-0 defeat to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League, Dinamo lacked flare, pace, and their usual sense of control over the match. Aside from a few counter-attacking opportunities, Dinamo had a tough time getting anything going on Hajduk’s side of the pitch. The Croatian champions were also without midfield studs Josip Mišić and Petar Sučić due to injury.
Hajduk now have a three-point lead over Rijeka for first place in the HNL table, and a commanding seven-point lead over third-place Dinamo Zagreb.
This seems to be the case every season — Hajduk jump out to a strong lead in the table, but crumble in the second half of their campaign. However, this year just feels a little bit different. Dinamo aren’t as strong as they have been in years past, and Hajduk are finally connecting the dots with young talents such as Niko Sigur, Stipe Biuk, Dominik Prpić, and Bruno Durdov. So far, manager Gennaro Gattuso is doing a terrific job at Poljud, with a record of 10-7-2 with the club.
What a night for the boys in Split.
For a moment I thought that HNS was finally capable of being bold and pushing Dalić out and getting Terzić in but….
Apparently Dalić turned down the Qatar offer. At this point I’m kind of seeing him like a parasite who doesn’t know when to let go and give Croatia the fresh wind of change it’s needing and longing for
Terzić for National Team coach would be a dream scenario that is too good to be true.
He can coach at any club in the World right now. He can pretty much choose any team he wants.
Picking the Croatia National Team during a rebuild is actually a big risk for him.
But he’s a diaspora Croat (like the rest of us) who would probably do a stupid thing like risking his career advancement to try and win a World Cup with Croatia.
Terkic is going to be a wonderful addition to our squad
Too bad Vuskovic doesn’t turn 18 a bit earlier
FA Cup 3rd round draw today
Tottenham had the luck of drawing the lowest team left
i.e. Non-League side Tamworth – they play in the National League (5th tier of English football)
The match will be at their ground The Lamb Ground (will an eye-popping 518 of seat capacity – they add a couple thousand to this w/ standing room)
Game will happen 2nd week in January – if Vuskovic was 18 by than (and called back from Westerlo loan early) – this would be the perfect match for him to debut in
For a preview of their ground – here’s the highlights from their 1st round defeat of Huddersfield – crazy long throw-in that led to a goal (if the keeper didn’t fumble it, it wouldn’t have counted, of course)
***.youtube.com/watch?v=hmh_uelbmGQ
James Maddison can’t even bother to roll-up to Fulham in put in a performance (or any team not in Manchester, really, this year) – can’t wait for him to roll-up to Tamworth, lol
I think that Vuskovic will be loaned out again when he arrives at Tottenham. He is not ready for EPL and most likely will be loaned out to some team in the Championship or even in Scotland for a couple of years?
Playing in the Championship would be a good start for him because it is a physical and fast-paced comp which will in the end show weather he is good enough to play in the EPL.
Would it make sense for Dalic to leave for Qatar at this moment? We are still in the Nations League and im sure he wants another try at the world cup? Then him and the veteran players can retire/leave for another opportunity elsewhere. Unless, Qatar offers him a lot of money to coach them but he makes decent at HNS. It would be nice to see what Terzic can do with the national team and someone who can connect with the younger players. It just seems odd for it to happen at this moment.
It may make sense for both sides.
Dalić probably doesn’t want to coach this team without Modrić, Perišić and Kramarić.
These guys will all be gone within 18 months (with Perišić already being long overdue).
Dalić probably doesn’t care to coach at club level, and is unlikely to be signed by a big National Team…so, he may as well pull the “epicBroz” move and cash in off a Middle Eastern team.
It makes sense for the HNS because they don’t seem interested in extending him (for even more money than he’s already being paid), and the team has still not recovered from their poor Euro2024 showing (which is concerning).
They’re probably fine with keeping him until the end of his current contract, but if they’re feeling pressured by him going to Qatar… they’ll be able to get out of his contract early and use those 2 million dollars towards a coach that could get this team back on track.
Two Croatian media outlets are quoting some sources from Qatar that Dalic is leaving HNS and will become the coach of Qatar National team ??
If this true? he should have left after the EURO.
No clue Mart
But I did see HNS post on IG a few days ago pic of Kustic hosting Edin Terkic holding a Modric jersey – apparently he was invited / participated in some HNS conference
And Terkic was singing praises how great Croatian football is and the team
It was all rather chummy – and he’s still available (probably not long – the next PL manager that gets fired he’s first in line eg west ham w Jarrod Bowen)
Dalic probably butt hurt by the photo and comments so he called some friends in the press to put these stories out
I’m going to assume you mean Terzić.
If Dalić is serious about joining a team like Qatar, then he’s pulling a Brozović and it’s probably better that we move on (so long as it’s not Olić or Ćorluka).
Yup – Terzic – check out IG if you haven’t seen it – it looked like a bit more than “hey I’m hear for a conference” but might be Anonymous wishful thinking
Alternative is HNS/Kustic want Dalic to leave (b4 the end of his contract) but don’t want to fire him (bc they don’t want to pay 2 coaches at once, etc and concerned about public blow-back/face-saving) – so they put in some calls into Qatar (or whoever) to make some reverse-soft enquiries if any interest taking Dalic off their hands – if so feel free to approach him w/ an offer
I think that for sure HNS doesn’t want to pay the rest of Dalić’s contract.
I think Dalić probably wants to stick around long term, but feels like the HNS is planning for s future without Dalić.
I just really hope that future includes and actual experienced coach, and not try to pull some “former player” crap.
I saw this about a week ago ….I was actually hopeful that maybe the HNS was “testing the waters” with Terzić. I think he could be a good replacement for Dalić. Why not establish a good dialog with him?
100%
He won’t be “unemployed” (read available) forever – just a matter of time till someone snatches him up
These things often come down to timing – so in parallel Qatar happen to be looking for someone
It’s almost too perfect
But we know Dalic will stay till 2026 -‘will get f up somehow – and now as punishment for him reading via his CS.com burner account that everyone wants Terzic over him – he will now never ever play a winger while he’s in charge
Recall Anonymous hypothesized that Petar Sucic is a Packaged Deal in terms of Baturina
That was after TWO matches whete this was apparently to Anonymous astute observation
Folks questioned Anonymous (when will you learn ?) bc only 2 data points (Anonymous pointed out as we don’t have ANY data pointing to the opposite that it cannot be invalidated)
Well fast forward
We now have EIGHT matches by count that Baturina is a complete ghost without Petar by his side
Any further questions from the doubters ?
Yes Im questioning you since you love Spurs so much. Something must be wrong in your head
I’m still shaming sigur for choosing Canada if I ever see him in the streets of Burnaby
Sramota!
He’ll regret it when the Canadians force him to wear rainbow themed kits and bending down in a submissive position when his country’s anthem is played.
Deserved win by Hajduk but this was an awful match to watch like it always is.
To many stoppages for fouls and pyrotechnics from both sides. Strong wind also did not help.
Dinamo had one shot on target in the first half and that was it, they did not have one chance in the entire match. Baturina had one or two good touches at the start of the match, after that nothing and was to blame for the Hajduk goal failing to deal with a cross. Apart from the goal Hajduk had one more good chance that fell to Livaja in the second half, but Zagorac made a good save.
With all the injuries and European commitments Dinamo is not playing well and just maybe this could be the year that Hajduk or Rijeka win the title ??
Important match coming up in two weeks’ time when Hajduk host Rijeka.
Same thing happened last year.
Hajduk at around this time last year had a better record (13 wins and 4 losses). Good for 39 points after 17 games.
Hajduk currently has 32 points after 15 games.
However, it was at this point last year when Hajduk went winless in four games (against the bigger teams) that cost them their big lead.
They got back on track by winning games in February again (against weak teams)…then they fell apart completely by losing four straight games in March to Dinamo, Rijeka, Osijek and Lokosi.
This year seems different because of today’s big win.
If Dinamo won today, it would have almost signaled the exact same thing happening to Hajduk as last season…where in December they just go winless for a few key games (which Hajduk started to do with their three game winless streak), but they just snapped it with a big, big win here.
If they can close out these three December games with wins (before heading for the winter break), they’ll be in a great position for the second half of the season.
Gattuso will hair-dryer treatment their a*s no doubt at the first sign of slippage
After the first time and 6 hours of suicide runs at training in a row won’t happen again
Also Rakitic won’t let any slippage slide and will hold them accountable real quick
Well…
Hajduk DID lose to Varazdin this past month, and followed it up with draws against Istra and Osijek (which they had to come from behind to earn).
That was more than a first sign of slippage. It was several foolishly lost points, against two teams they should have beaten.
If they lost today, then it would have been a disaster for them. The win against Dinamo is huge, but they can’t lose points to Istra anymore. It seems like every time Hajduk plays Istra, it’s a draw. Getting a bit ridiculous.
Anonymous doesn’t follow HNL closely enough to comment
But weren’t there some injuries – like Prpic out for a bit ? Others ?
It’s clear Gattuso doesn’t let stuff fly – when we see comments like what he made on Sarlija before the Derby – that’s as aggressive / direct as they come – it’s clearly a message to all his players – you f around in training (never mind during the games) – your going to sit your a*s in the stands
“Yesterday, during training, Zvone sensed he wouldn’t be in the starting lineup, so he didn’t train at maximum intensity. That’s why I decided he wouldn’t be part of this game and stayed in the stands. That will always be the case while I’m here.”
Maybe.
But I agree that Gattuso has been good for Hajduk.
He looks like and almost acts like a Splićanin, so it seems to go well.
I couldn’t watch but I see Baturina seems to have played bad again? Also I see Gvardiol was not in the starting line for city today (not surprised but still sucks to see the young players in a bad period)
I was able to watch the second half, and Hajduk hasn’t looked this good in a long time. I’m cautiously optimistic, but I’m still bracing for back-to-back losses to Slaven Belupo and Lokomotiva in typical Hajduk fashion