Written By: Andrew R
On Friday the 2023/24 HNL campaign kicked off with a bang and didn’t stop going all weekend. While some results are leaving fans shocked and stunned, one thing everyone seems to agree is that this season will certainly be competitive and entertaining.
Hajduk vs Dinamo (2-1)
The Eternal Derby is the most coveted derby in Croatian soccer and it was only fitting for this game not only to be the season opener but be full of twists and turns. After constant pressure in the first half from Dinamo, Croatian international Bruno Petković scored in the 35th minute to become the first goal scorer this season. The pressure continued from Dinamo into the second half until a missed penalty from Petković gave Hajduk new confidence. Not even ten minutes later, on the back of new found confidence for Hajduk and an error from Livaković, Hajduk star man Marko Livaja leveled the game for Hajduk. The remaining 15 minutes of the second half were a back and forth battle until added time. In the dying breaths of the match, American youngster Rokas Pukstas scored the game winning goal for Hajduk in the 93rd minute of play. Hajduk started their season off better than they could have wished for and will look to continue their form against Rijeka in another top-4 match early on this season.
Rijeka vs Rudeš (4-0)
Rijeka came in hot this season, opening off their campaign in a straightforward 4-0 win over newly promoted side Rudeš. While expectations were high for Croatian legend Robert Prošinečki and his Zagreb based side, they failed to prove in the opening game that they belong in a very competitive HNL. Rijeka played brilliantly and while it did take most of the first half to crack Rudeš’ defense after a penalty kick goal from Niko Janković in the 40th minute, Rijeka did not look back. Janković went on to score another goal and record an assist in the 4-0 victory against Rudeš. Former Gorica talent, Toni Fruk, debuted for Rijeka in the HNL with an impressive goal and assist to his name. While Rijeka did excellent to score goals their offensive performance did become slightly overlooked by a match that happened later on in the day. Overall Rijeka’s impressive 4-0 loss may have been overlooked but it was certainly still impressive.
Osijek vs Slaven Belupo (6-1)
The buzz of the Slavonija region was the opening game at Osijek’s Pampas Project which has just been recently named the Opus Arena. In front of nearly 10,000 fans, Osijek created memories for years to come with a 6-1 thrashing of Slaven Belupo. Osijek were written off early this year by many fans and pundits who thought without names like Beljo, Kleinheisler, and Ivušić that Osijek would fall down the table as low as 5th place. However, like in seasons prior, Osijek thrive off their underdog mentality and nature. Having scored six goals from six different shooters is a statement of Osijek’s new style of play. Stjepan Tomas wants his Slavonski side to be an offensive threat and they became just that. With a European qualification coming up on Thursday, Osijek have yet another opportunity to show they are a side to be taken seriously and write the wrongs of last season’s European campaign.
Gorica vs Varaždin (1-1)
After pulling off the great escape last season to stay in the top flight, Gorica showed Croatian fans that despite losing key players they are still competitive and a good side in the league. Vujnović opened the scoring in the game on the back of a first half that was all Gorica. Varaždin piled on the pressure in the second half and brought momentum to their side which eventually resulted in a goal from Fran Brodić to level the game 1-1. Varaždin looked shaky without Tonio Teklić but were able to rebound off the back of their new core players Brodić and Šego. This game showed very little of what we can expect about either team’s run throughout the season.
Istra 1961 vs Lokomotiva (1-1)
In the final game of week, two evenly matched teams battled it out in what could be a battle for 5th place or possibly a break into the top four. Similar to a boxing match, both teams traded blow for blow and strike for strike but eventually it was Lokomotiva who lost out in settling for a one all draw. Despite the early goal from Ante Erceg most of the offense came from Lokomotiva. The Lokosi had 16 shots compared to Istra’s 7 and had more on target as well. The interesting choice to not start Kačavenda could have also played a role in the disappointing result. Lokomotiva moves on to face another Zagreb based club, Gorica, next week in a more telling match about the quality of their side.
With such an eventful week what do you make out of this upcoming season, do any of these results change your predictions for how the HNL will end this year?
Impressive goal by Livaja, but it’s not the types of chances he gets in National Team games and tends to get lost in those matches.
Livakovic looked like he wanted Livaja to give him a piggyback ride
That goal took a lot of skill. First, he positioned himself in such a way as to neutralize the goalkeeper, using his extraordinary strength (yes, Livaja is extraordinarily strong) to keep the net open. Then, he took the ball down in an absolutely controlled manner. Next, he turned and blasted it perfectly with his “weak” foot. Is Livaja actually becoming a better player with each season? If he hadn’t lost his temper at a fan, is this something he might have done to earn Croatia the Nations League trophy?
looking back to our conversations on here last year I’ll bring up a point I was trying to make. the HNL is actually interesting/exciting and definitely worth watching if you care much about our country and our current talent. I recall someone …cough…Ante….mentioning the league wasn’t worth watching except for Hajduk vs Dinamo so I’ll chime in again. this is the first round and it brought some surprises that can be considered both good and bad…ie….Rudes was terrible while Osijek and Rijeka surprised me in a good way…and then Gorica, Varazdin, Istra and Lokomotiva all locked horns (tied) on their opening days…this makes things exciting if you ask me.
with regards to Hajduk vs Dinamo result. look, Hajduk was extremely fortunate to have gotten that result. its the old rule of the game… if you don’t score, anything can happen and in that game, Petkovic strolled up to take a pk and he looked like a complete fool, basically tapping the ball towards the net and demonstrating why guys like him still play in the HNL. then Livaja makes a monstrous play while carrying Livakovic on his back…he easily holds him off while shielding the ball and BOOM, rockets one in the back of the net. full marks to Livaja who was barely even noticeable in the game but he did his job and breathed life into Hajduk’s chances after they were completely dominated for the entire game…Hajduk had 33% of the play and even at that, they kept losing possession of the ball almost as soon as they gained possession.
I can watch and EPL game (but I prefer HNL because of my interests) and see the play going a thousand miles per hour, tons of longer passes, tons of duels, tons of chances and yet, only teams like Liverpool, Tottenham and Man City interest me for various but obvious reasons. I can’t watch teams like Sheffield or Brighton, Burnley, Nottingham…and give more than half a shit about them when I can watch teams that matter to me, playing in a selo atmosphere half the time and yet, we end up competing in bigger tournaments with players mostly made up of our own kids that come from those teams…ie…Juranovic, Brozovic, Sutalo, Majer, Ivanusec…and of course our current hero’s in Perisic, Modric, Kovacic and so on…these guys started here in this HNL and they played in these smaller towns that look like the absolute best manicured farm towns…soo clean, soo organized and pure fans going to support their teams wearing sweat pants and a button up shirt…attending these makeshift stadiums that don’t have wifi or restaurants but do have beer and cevapi…this is us, this is what our people have produced and its our culture….I never get caught up in the tv show, I want the small town with primitive surroundings…because thats where my parents come from and thats where most of our families still exist…we are the same people as these young kids like Kacavenda, Beljo, Frigan, Baturina….I don’t see the point in focusing on some kid playing on a below average EPL team that comes from Morrocco or some African Nation…I’d prefer to support my own kind…we are a good futbal Nation, it has to start at some level so why not watch whats coming next from our own league…its not as bad as some people say it is…its actually decent or better than decent in many cases. the upsets and jostling for position from 2nd through 8th is more than interesting if you compare to the EPL, in my opinion!
Well done analysis Slavonac. I enjoy watching our HNL and wish more on here would as well. I find some comments ignorant on this site.
As for Petković I love what he does for Dinamo and that goal vs Brazil warrants a statue of him ? but he should never ever take another penalty kick again for club or country. He and Livaja are not penalty kickers.
“As for Petković I love what he does for Dinamo and that goal vs Brazil warrants a statue of him ? but he should never ever take another penalty kick again for club or country. ”
hahaha…yup, exactly!
I 100% agree as well, I think the HNL goes under the radar all the time when there really is a lot of competitive players and teams in this league. I hope in writing posts like this that we can get more recognition for the league not only on the website but across Europe. The quality jump in even the last 4 seasons of teams is becoming more and more noticeable, hopefully European media attention comes along with that!
European media will only notice when our clubs start performing in European competitions. I think a lot of foreigners know about Dinamo because of them playing in CL and Europa frequently.
Petkovic, should not be ever taking penalty kicks for the national team.
Thanks for the article Andrew!
Please try to keep this up for the entire season, its a great read.
Ante…great work with Modric…two legends just having a chat;)
You made the Croatian Media again:
https://gol.dnevnik.hr/clanak/rubrika/nogomet/video-pitao-modrica-hoce-li-igrati-na-svjetskom-prvenstvu-2026-u-sad-u-evo-sto-je-luka-rekao—793976.html?itm_source=TopNews&itm_medium=Dnevnik&itm_campaign=Naslovnica&_gl=1*1r6wr2z*_gcl_au*MTMzNzMzMTQzOS4xNjg5Nzg1NTA0
Absolutely, I will definitely keep this up for all match weeks + European games and Hrv. Cup games as well. No spoilers yet but expect more HNL content beyond just match reviews ?
From twitter- Fabrizio Romano:
EXCL: Fiorentina have submitted official opening bid to Dinamo Zagreb for Josip Sutalo, club sources confirm ????
Understand proposal is worth €12m for Croatian centre back who’s also in the list at Ajax and more clubs.
Pfft.
Although Fiorentina are good at developing players, it’s such a crappy offer. Ajax just now offered the same amount.
Dinamo shouldn’t bother calling these teams back.
No kidding!
I read a headline that popped up today on my phone, which stated Man City upped thier offer for Gvardiol to 85 million pounds, plus add ons. that is less than 1 % short of the 100 million Euros Leipzig is asking for.
As a comparison:
Transfermarkt has Gvardiol with a market value of 75 Million Euros,
Sutalo is listed as being worth 18 million Euros.
Gvardiol has an offer (if what I read is true) of 133% of the Transfermarkt valuation.
Sutalo at 133 % of the Trasfermarkt valuation would be almost 24 million Euros, and the Italian clubs are lowballing him at 50 % of that- truly insulting.
Had he started for us at the World Cup instead of Lovren, then he would have easily been sold for 20 million Euro.
He’s only played some Nations League games and two Euro qualifiers. It’s good, but not enough exposure.
At least the added exposure secured Lovren a solid transfer back to the French league (after being in Russia).
Dinamo should just hold on to Sutalo until after the Euro2024.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CvICDhcK7ml/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Here’s the punishment. No fans at the next home game.
Becar not sure how good is your understanding of Croatian language? but that is not the way I’m reading it.
We can have crowds at our home matches; however, we have been placed on a 2-year good behavior or probation if you like. If there is any trouble from our fans in the next two years, the ban on home fans will be enforced. Knowing the mentality of our fans or should I say stupidity there is no chance that we will avoid playing one or more of our home matches with no crowd in the next two years. I would not be surprised if some idiots will deliberately cause trouble so that the ban comes about.
@ARMADA87 and Maminjo
My response to your earlier post… cheers.
https://croatiansports.com/official-josko-gvardiol-joins-manchester-city/#comments/497437
You could also argue that Westerlo paying a high price will guarantee him a starting spot because they can’t afford to bench him.
I have no idea where Westerlo suddenly got these funds for such a small club. Google search says Turkish businessman Oktay Ercan bought them a few years back and is apparently ambitious. We’ll see.
Not a small club. Yearning for greener pastures. Het Kuipje is a money machine
Dinamo looked the goods in 4 – 0 win over Astana. This should be enough to see them through to the next qualifying round against Aek Athens.
Ivanusec with a hat trick looked very impressive. The whole team played well except Baturina who had a disappointing game and was subbed in the second half.
Ivanusec is a perfect example of why we shouldn’t sell players too soon.
He seemed like he was going sideways, but he was still developing and now he’s looking pretty good for both Dinamo and the National Team.
Yes, I agree with you. Now is the time for Ivanusec to leave and play in a higher standard competition. Feyenoord is keen on him, and I hope that the two clubs can come to an agreement. Dinamo wants 10 million, and I think the Dutch are offering 8.5 million. He needs a new challenge and stronger comp for his further development.
Ivanusec is above the Dutch league
Exactly. Dutch league is not a big enough “step up” for him. He should stay put for now, and showcase his skills in the Champions or Europa league with Dinamo. If he keeps up his current form, there will be better offers from better leagues in the future.
Yeah, Osijek looked good. Great opening for the new Arena.
On another note, from what I’ve read, we did get fined for fan behavior in Holland and I heard we were going to play some qualifiers without our fans.
Is the game against Turkey in jeopardy for fans in October ?
I was planning to go to that game as I will be in the vicinity.
We will be sanctioned, but I have not come across anything yet in the media.
Hvala.
I believe it’s only away games we’re banned from
OK that’s good. Hvala vama
Heard on HRT news.
We have been fined 150 K Euro and no away fans for the match against Armenia in September.
Also placed on a good behavior bond for the next two years.
Any similar incidents and we will be playing with no crowds at home.
Who’s the guy most likely not on Dinamo or Hajduk to surprise and have a break out season??
Maybe not even a surprise but an outside hajduk Dinamo top talent to emerge?
I like Ante Crnac from Slaven Belupo
For the sake of the Croatian National team and Livaja and Petkovic, Dalic please don’t call them up. Let them be the stand-out and club legends that they probably are right now.