Written by: Andrew R
After an entertaining week at home in the opening round of the HNL, three of our very own clubs set off on their European qualification journey this week. Dinamo faced FC Astana of Kazakhstan in a Champions League qualification match on Tuesday. Both Osijek and Rijeka played Thursday in Conference League qualifying. Osijek faced Hungarian side ZTE while Rijeka played against Dukagjini in Kosovo.
Dinamo vs Astana (4-0)
Dinamo entered their European match on Tuesday looking for revenge. After losing a derby match to Hajduk that could have gone their way, Dinamo made no mistake on letting the game slip from underneath them. Dinamo started early with their offensive might and didn’t look back. Some may point out their missed shots early in the game but once Špikić netted the first goal with the ball deflecting off a Petko shot, the flood gates opened for Dinamo. In just eight minutes, Dinamo scored three goals. Ivanušec stood out after recording a hat trick in the match with two goal coming from outside the box. With a four-goal advantage, Dinamo look to be safe heading into their trip to Kazakhstan, but just like last season with Osijek, Croatian clubs should be wary of what kind of setbacks Kazakhstani clubs can overcome.
Osijek vs ZTE (1-0)
Osijek demolished Slaven Belupo in their first ever game at the Opus Arena. Thursday marked another new chapter in the history of Opus Arena as it hosted its first European match. While Osijek yet again dominated the match offensively, piling on 18 shots in the game, they couldn’t get goals to follow with the attempts. Despite what the opening match of the HNL made Osijek’s offense seem, it wasn’t quite the same Thursday. Opus was not done though creating entertainment as a 90+ minute goal in the last gasping breaths of the match allowed El Toro aka Ramon Mierez to get another goal at Pampas. Osijek survived with a goal to their name heading into the second leg, a game that would have been very disappointing if they didn’t score given all their intensity and domination in the match.
Dukagjini vs Rijeka (0-1)
In the last European match of the week for Croatian clubs, Rijeka went on the road to Kosovo to face Dukagjini. While many people wrote this game off as a walk in the park for Rijeka, as results have shown in the past, Kosovan clubs are never afraid to punch above their weight in Europe. Just like Mierez, Niko Janković carried his form into Thursday’s match netting him the only goal of the night. Rijeka were definitely disappointed to not walk out with more goals as Dukagjini winger Altin Merlaku saw red off a double yellow in the 61st minute. Despite the extra man advantage, Rijeka couldn’t get any more goals to come their way. With a home leg coming up next week and the advantage of Armada backing them at home, hopefully not capitalizing on the man advantage will not come back to haunt Rijeka.
Overall, three wins out of three this week is exactly what we love to see out of our clubs to help boost the HNL’s coefficient and recognition. With the second legs approaching next week, what do you think our clubs will do with their advantages? What teams do you believe have the best chance to go all the way to the group stages in their given path?
Well-deserved win by Hajduk over Rijeka. This could be the year, especially if Ivanusec, Sutalo, Petkovic and Livakovic leave Dinamo once they finish their Champions League qualifying matches.
Hajduk win. Start planning the parade???
Hajduk has a Toronto maple leafs feel overall now that I think on it
Playing off the last podcast
Which by the way I personally enjoyed
I’m going with Lebo sp? Prediction of Osijek!
Zvonimir Ivisic
https://youtu.be/_4_y6GSJbyA
Kentucky will get you ready for the NBA draft.
Hezonja should have went to Kentucky as well to work on his “swinging door” no handle ball skills.
Rebić still brings a power and pace to Croatia.
He did well in 2018 for our historic silver medal.
Let him rock out in Turkey.
Never count out the nogometaš.
If he starts going ballistic in the final third then I would definitely call him up.
Who has more power and pace than him?
He he looks Lanky tho powerful. And moves well for such a big kid
I’m sure he will add a bit of muscle and will be tough to play against
What is a better route? College in the states or to play In Europe overall for our young Croats?
I can’t imagine he will actually get a degree as what will play a year or two max in college?
He’s obviously gonna at least get drafted and make better bank
Hoping we can get a true stud to take back our 90s basketball dominance
Rebic sigh
Could have been more
Hopefully the kids use him as an example as much as they use luka
Learn from mistakes of others
Zvonimir Ivisic Who is this kid?
I don’t know much about basketball but he is supposed to be going to Kentucky
I know they’ve always been a
Big name college team
Anyways hopefully he works out
I hope this Ivisic kid doesn’t break my ❤️with the hype train like bender hezonja and zizic did …all highly touted first rounders who bombed in the big show.
It’s ironic how the less touted guys like ZU and bojan have turned into far better players even though they were drafted far later…then again the joker was a second rounder.
That’s the crap shoot of drafting though.
He’s from Vitez in BiH.
Die hard Croats, smack right in the center of Bosna.
Slaven’s late goals brought me much glee. But, Moniz has a lot of work to do.
Rebic Croatia career officially over
Pretty embarrassing w/ all the Saudi $$$ transferring around
They move him for token fee just to get his salary off the books
Sounds like Rebić’s bad attitude at work once again?
I read that Rebic and Stefano Pioli had a deteriorated relationship.
I am not saying that it wasn’t also the manager that played a part in it, but that the common denominator in repeated incidents for Ante is him.
Regarding Rebic.
Not much of a surprise to me, he shit the bed in so many ways. He had the speed, if he kept his head down and was a little more humble, and was willing to work harder, things may have been different. Had he been willing to work on his weaknesses and ball control he could have been a decent player but that will never happen for him now.
Unfortunately, when your ego tells you that you know everything, and that you’re the greatest, your mind becomes closed to any and all ideas that will help you improve.
If playing three years w/ Zlatan didn’t fix him – nothing will
Can only imagine Zlatan tried to take him under his wing and show him the way
Anyone know of good links fir Dinamo game tomorrow or app ? I’m in Canada.
I can usually find something on YouTube. It’s not always a good stream though.
Thank you Eric.
I have watched a few matches and highlights in the Women’s WC and the quality has improved a lot especially among the top nations.
However, one thing that has also caught my eye is the number of suspicious looking players. I reckon there is possible cheating going on ? I have seen a dozen or so players that look suspicious when it comes to gender, mostly from Asian and African nations.
There have been cases in the past where some (male)players have been caught out masquerading as females.
There are a lot of sociopaths and psychopaths in the world (around 1% of the population) and many are perfectly fine with doing whatever it takes to win.
Whether it’s taking PEDs or Hormones, they don’t care what damage it does. They’ll do it.
Although they’re not in the HNL, we Croatians had a fourth team playing in Europe this week. Zrinjski Mostar were very unlucky to lose 1-0 at home to Slovan Bratislava, and had a shot off the post that should have drawn the match. Josip Corluka in particular had a strong game for Zrinjski. Slovan had the Canadian Borjan in goal – the jeers and whistles across the stadium whenever he had the ball were deafening.
They were unlucky with the goal, it looked like a push in the back before the Slovan player headed the ball into the net. VAR had a look it, but the goal stood. The decision could have easily gone the other way.
Agreed, I’d forgotten about that push in the back… Even if Zrinjski don’t get through after next week’s return leg in Bratislava on Champions League qualifying (2nd qualifying round), they’ll still get another shot by dropping down to the Europa League qualifying rounds.
Dinamo vs Astana game was complete domination by Dinamo. If Ivanusec continues to score goals and play this way then the guy deserves to play in any league he wants to. He’s come back from a long injury and then was fighting poor form while even telling Dalic, if he was in charge he wouldn’t have called himself to the National team…that’s the mentality of a winner and someone I want on my team.
We haven’t yet seen the new look of Dinamo. Apparently there could be 7 or more players leaving…including Livakovic, Sutalo, Ivanusec…good for the rest of the league but bad for Dinamo.
Whatever happens, i really hope this season is closer and not won by Christmas break…I’d prefer it going down to the wire for once.
I saw a good portion of the Osijek game today and the score did NOT tell the story. They hit two posts within two minutes of each other and they looked goooooddd for long portions of the game. I never expected this from Osijek and let me just say…I love it! Now maybe this is because they’re playing lower quality teams in these last two games but regardless, this Osijek is exciting to watch and they work hard…Mierez is two for two (2 goals in 2 games) and he’s looking very energetic all game long. I really hope they can pull off some surprises this season!
I saw the match and yes Osijek were unlucky and should have won by a bigger margin. I’m hoping that 1 – 0 is enough? to see them through to the next round of qualifying.
I also watched the Osijek game, and I loved their attacking style. They were so unlucky not to have scored two or three goals. I’m not sure if a higher level of competition would punish them on the counters, but this team is exciting to watch. Its too early to predict, but Stjepan Tomas seems to be on the right track so far. Its also great to see this brand new stadium packed with supporters. Hopefully our other clubs will become envious, and push to finally get their stadiums rebuilt.