It was a wild one from Maksimir Sunday afternoon. Hajduk draw Dinamo 2-2 to remain one point behind Rijeka for the HNL lead when all looked to be lost heading into injury time.
-Baturina opened up the scoring inside 5 minutes
-Dinamo own goal levels the game midway through the 1st half
-Dinamo must play final 30 minutes of match with 10 men (Ristovski red card)
-Krovinović header (91’) forces 2-2 draw
-Hajduk are undefeated vs. Dinamo this season (2 wins, 1 draw)
Dinamo will be disappointed with the draw as Hajduk only managed three shots on goal. It will be tough for Dinamo to claw back from a 7-point deficit with games like these as the 2-horse race continues in the HNL.
Next two matches for Hajduk: Home vs. Gorica; @ Rijeka
Next two matches for Rijeka: Home vs. Šibenik, Home vs. Hajduk
12 matches remain with he slightest of margins atop the HNL table. Hajduk and Rijeka still play each other two more times. All is still to be played for in the HNL.
Squad for France match.
Good to see Ivanovic on the list. Some players like Livakovic and DCC have not played for more than a month.
Vratari: Dominik Livaković, Ivica Ivušić, Dominik Kotarski
Obrambeni: Joško Gvardiol, Josip Juranović, Duje Ćaleta-Car, Borna Sosa, Josip Šutalo, Josip Stanišić, Marin Pongračić
Vezni: Luka Modrić, Mateo Kovačić, Mario Pašalić, Nikola Vlašić, Luka Sučić, Martin Baturina, Kristijan Jakić, Petar Sučić, Nikola Moro, Toni Fruk
Napadači: Ivan Perišić, Andrej Kramarić, Ante Budimir, Franjo Ivanović
Pretpozivi: Marko Pjaca, Mislav Oršić, Martin Erlić, Marco Pašalić, Nediljko Labrović
Ivanovic and Fruk – well done
Pong and Erlic over Luka Vuskovic – complete joke (Erlic has played 350′ vs. Vuskovic 2,300′ and Pong just back from injury)
Vlasic over Robert Mudrazija – lol
U don’t need Moro – now that u have both JJ and Stanisic back
Crnac (top joint goal-scorer in Championship U21) not on stand-by – lol
Orsic over the best available HNL winger – lol
Ivusic (Cyprus) and Kotarski (Greece) over Pandur (Championship) – lol
@Maminjo will freak when he sees MLS Marco on the list and not MLS Musa !
Very unfortunate to see that Luka Vušković isn’t even on the pretpoziv list.
We’re going to “Gvardiol” him when it comes to his first cap.
He’ll play at 2026 World Cup, but he won’t have time to prepare and build chemistry.
Agree he should have been on the list. I see that Olic has called him up for the U21team heading to Doha for some friendlies.
Yeah he should be on the plane
Obviously he’s a special talent
Sure IT’s apparently only Belgium but dudes 18 and playing mostly consistently at the top of the league
Let’s throw him on as a sub for a last minute defender to hold the lead in a must win game for his debut instead!
Brilliant idea
We (yet again) only called up one CB who is actually playing (Šutalo).
Gvardiol probably plays at LB, so the shitshow of having an out-of-form CB always in the lineup will continue.
Pongračić and Duje aren’t playing regularly, and even our pretpoziv Erlić isn’t either.
Dalić just can’t seem to make the right call for our backline, and we’ve been hurting for some defensive stability.
Argentina and Netherlands provisional squads out for upcoming int’l break
Note their don’t have the silly call-up list and standby list separate – like the primitive Dalia – just one list of names
So it must be close now – Dalic is behind for once – which is refreshing
Anonymous missed this Petar Sucic red card challenge in 92′
They say it should have been another straight red !
So Anonymous corrects – Dinamo DID receive once again favourable referring
x.com/TheCroatianLad/status/1896489854608806349
Did Misic get a red for face to hand contact on Lucic after the whistle ?
Dinamo should have received FOUR RED CARDS y’day
If they only received TWO than they received two favourable calls
Yet still sit in 3rd place
Big point for Hajduk.
The game was reffed very fairly. The goals and red cards were not controversial.
I still think this goes down to the wire since teams like Osijek, Slaven Belupo, Varteks, and Istra are playing well and have been playing spoiler (and will cause Hajduk, Rijeka and Dinamo to lose points).
The game in Poljud in May will be epic.
“Epic”
STFU
You are a Moron
With 12 matches left I’m also reluctant to write Dinamo off because at the same time last year from memory they went on a 10-match ? winning streak and won the title easily.
This time around it is more difficult because they are chasing TWO teams and they need both Rijeka and Hajduk to falter. Hajduk most likely will falter but I’m not so sure about Rijeka ?
Head-to-head also does not favor Dinamo. If teams end up on the same points it is head-to-head that determines the champions. They cannot overtake Hajduk in this regard having lost 2 and drawn one match. Against Rijeka they have one big loss 4 – 0 and two draws. So, to overtake Rijeka in their last match they need to win by 5 goals margin, and I cannot see that happening ?
Currently Rijeka is 7 points and Hajduk 6 points ahead of Dinamo. However, hypothetically when taking into account Head to Head they are effectively 8 points behind Rijeka and 7 behind Hajduk with 36 points left for grabs.
Rijeka is playing well, but they’re still a bit thin.
Both Hajduk and Rijeka have an over reliance on their key players. One injury or card suspension and it could cost them. Livaja, I believe, is out next match, but luckily for Hajduk it’s against Gorica I believe.
Also, when it comes to the “Big 4” teams…
Hajduk still has four of these games left (and have to play Rijeka twice, along with Dinamo once and Osijek once). Same goes for Rijeka.
But Dinamo only has three of these games left.
Also, I have a feeling that both Rijeka and Hajduk are going to lose points against Istra. Istra seems to be their kryptonite.
It will be close I think.
We had four goals in this match, two red cards for Dinamo (both deserved) and about 10 minutes of stoppage’s due to pyrotechnics from both set of supporters.
Dinamo was leading 2 – 1 when Ristovski deservedly got sent off for second yellow with 30 minutes left on the clock. There was 12 minutes of time added on when Krovinovic superbly headed in from a Durdov cross to make it 2 – 2.
Deep in injury time Galisic for Dinamo received a straight red after VAR intervention for lifting his leg high and connecting with the head of Hajduk goalkeeper Lucic who was bloodied but very lucky not to have a broken jaw. All in all, 16 minutes of injury time was played but Hajduk was unable to score.
On balance of play 2 – 2 was a fair result.
These are “must win” games for Dinamo. Its far from over, but it seems like the title is Hajduk or Rijeka’s to lose.