Hajduk Split beat Raków Częstochowa 3-2 away in the 2nd leg of the UEFA Conference League play-off round. Ron Raci opened the scoring in the very first minute of the match. But typically, Hajduk wasn’t able to hold on to or double that lead despite having some good looks on goal. Diaby scored the equaliser from the penalty spot in the 61st minute. Hajduk would again take the lead just five minutes later through Michele Šego after that Raków goal. However, Mahir Emreli again showed up, this time in the 86th to send the game to extra time.
In the 4th minute of extra time, another corner for Hajduk, where the ball was all over the place and eventually Rokas Pukštas headed the ball into the net. Rakow was unable to find an equaliser for the 5th time this tie, and ‘Bili’ qualified for Europe for the first time in 16 years!
Rijeka were eliminated from the Conference League by Midtjylland after losing 1-4 at home, 1-6 on aggregate at the end. An early own goal from Martin Erlić gave Rujevica hope, but it was quickly shut down by the Danes. The less said about this match and Rijeka’s set-piece defendng, the better.
Last night, Dinamo Zagreb also lost in their UEFA Champions League play-off vs. Viking in a very disappointing match, as the ‘Modri’ had multiple chances in the first leg and in Norway to settle the tie but failed. A lot of individual mistakes over the two legs cost Dinamo at least €12.9 million in UEFA revenue. In my view, this loss isn’t solely on the hands of Mario Kovačević or the players. Boban and the sporting sector brought almost zero players who were ready to play this match. Only Smail Prevljak and Mislav Oršić played in this tie and were brought this summer; Prevljak barely. Everybody else is either injured or not match fit. Consequently, Dinamo now falls down to the Europa League.
The Europa League and Conference League draws are on Friday at 13:00 CET in Nyon, France. The league phase begins on the 15th of October. Down below are the pots for the two draws. Dinamo is in Pot 2 for the UEL, and Hajduk is in Pot 5 for the draw. Reminder: the Europa League has 8 matches, so Dinamo will draw two opponents from each pot, while Hajduk will draw just one opponent from each pot, as the Conference League has just six matches in its league phase.
Draw on Friday at 13:00 hrs Croatian time.
Ideal draw would be:
Kopenhagen, Pafos, Lincoln Red Imps, Uni Craiova and Kaunao Zalgiris.
potential Hajduk vs Zvezda matchup in Conference league???
Took you guys long enough. Lol
Bravo za Hajduk.
Great news, well done to Hajduk !
Bravo Hajduk.
Well deserved victory.
Rakow was playing physical and were flopping for large parts of the game, and the ref rewarded them with free kicks, stoppages at key moments, and a PK for their flopping efforts…but it was still not enough to beat Hajduk.
Hajduk dominated extra time, deservedly scored the winner, and Rakow were lucky not to concede more.
Rakow actually finished 2nd place last year in Conference League in group standings and narrowly lost in the knockouts to Fiorentina.
This is a big step up for Hajduk, who were losing to nobodies these past two years. Will be great for their coefficient ranking and we can build on this.
Self-hating Croats are on suicide watch.
Hajduk wins against all odds, and their beloved Zvezda (who had a 4-1 aggregate lead on Viktoria Plzen) just lost 1-5 and are out of Europa.