Another fascinating weekend of the 2021-22 Prva Liga season is in the books! The round featured a shocking defeat for Dinamo, clutch performances from Hajduk’s youngsters, and another demolishing display from Osijek. A solid 10 goals were scored in the five matches played this weekend, along with four shutouts thanks to some impressive defensive performances.
Slaven Belupo 1 – 2 HNK Gorica
Gorica hosted Slaven Belupo to kick off Round 15 of the 2021-22 Prva Liga season. Slaven opened the scoreline in the 43rd minute, thanks to a deflection goal scored by 20 year-old Marin Laušić. Laušić has been in great form, scoring in his last two matches. 16 year-old Lovro Zvonarek, on loan from Bayern Munich, assisted the goal in his first start for Slaven since coming back from an injury. Zvonarek, the youngest player to score in a Prva Liga match (16 years, 4 days), is projected to become a star for the Vatreni one day. Against the run of play, Gorica answered two minutes later in the 45th minute as Anthony Kalik neatly headed a set piece cross into the back of the net. Kalik struck again in the 62nd minute, heading another cross into the net to give Gorica a 2-1 lead. Although Slaven continued to create decent scoring chances in the second half, Gorica’s defensive line held strong to see out the victory. Gorica now sit only three points behind Hajduk, and six behind Dinamo.
CroatianSports’ Man of the Match: Anthony Kalik
NK Osijek 3 – 0 NK Istra 1961
Nenad Bjelica’s crew are now unbeaten in their last 10 matches after smoking Istra at home on Saturday. The Bijelo-Plavi began the destruction early on in the match, as Mihael Žaper finished a perfect set piece cross from Petar Bočkaj in the fifth minute of play. Mihret Topčagić added another goal onto the scoreboard for Osijek in the 59th minute, making Istra pay for a costly defensive error. Ivan Fiolić tallied a third for Osijek in the 75th minute, sealing the match at Gradski Vrt. Petar Bočkaj collected his second assist of the match, and finished with an impressive 9.0 match rating. Dion Drena Beljo, arguably the most in-form attacker in the Prva Liga, was limited to an awful 5.7 match rating by Osijek’s defense. Osijek are serious title contenders this season, and are very fun to watch.
CroatianSports’ Man of the Match: Petar Bočkaj
Hajduk Split 2 – 0 NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac
Hajduk earned themselves a much-needed three points against a struggling Dragovoljac side on Saturday night. 19 year-old striker Marin Ljubičić opened the scoreline for Hajduk in the 29th minute, heading in a terrific cross from 18 year-old Stipe Biuk. Scoring and assisting in his last two matches, Biuk is finally catching fire after a sloooooow start to the season. Hajduk’s lead doubled in the 67th minute, as Emir Sahiti’s shot took a massive deflection off Dragovoljac’s center-back Stipe Vulikić and landed in the back of the net. 17 year-old prodigy Marko Brkljača saw the pitch for Hajduk in the dying minutes of the match, one of Croatia’s top midfield talents. Hajduk finished the match with a 2-0 victory, an expected result against the Prva Liga’s last-placed team.
CroatianSports’ Man of the Match: Stipe Biuk
NK Lokomotiva Zagreb 1 – 0 GNK Dinamo Zagreb
WOW. In the most surprising result of the weekend, Lokomotiva Zagreb held reigning champions Dinamo Zagreb to zero goals and earned a crucial three points in their fight for a spot in European competition. Lokomotiva shocked Dinamo early on in the match, as Mateo Marić finished a terrific low-driven cross from Branimir Cipetić in the eighth minute of play. In an opportunity to equalize the match in the 38th minute, Bruno Petković’s penalty was saved by Lokomotiva’s Krševan Santini, only the 11th penalty save of his career. After the missed chance, it all went downhill for Dinamo. Following a cancelled penalty call for Dinamo in the 81st minute, Dino Perić thought he had scored the equalizer in the 93rd minute of play, only for it to be disallowed by VAR. Lokomotiva won the Zagreb Derby 1-0, a huge result for the Lokosi. Dinamo’s star players such as Mislav Oršić, Luka Ivanušec, and Bruno Petković must step their game up in order for the Modri to have a shot at the title this season.
CroatianSports’ Man of the Match: Krševan Santini
HNK Šibenik 0 – 1 HNK Rijeka
Rijeka handled Šibenik in boring fashion in the final match of the weekend. It took the visitors 45 minutes to open the scoreline, as Hrvoje Smolčić wonderfully headed the ball into the back of the net on the stroke of halftime. Rijeka failed to score another goal in the match despite attempting 15 shots. Šibenik’s offense was unable to finish any of their 13 shots, five of which landed on target. After starting the season in convincing fashion, Šibenik’s stars Antonio Marin and Marin Jakoliš have been in poor form in their last few matches.
CroatianSports’ Man of the Match: Hrvoje Smolčić
This is the year for “anybody but Dinamo”. With them still so preoccupied with European tournaments, this has to be the time for Rijeka, Osijek and Hajduk to strike. Honestly, it’s theirs to lose this year. If you can’t take advantage of their busy schedule and their slip ups like this, you don’t deserve to win.
…and this is what makes me nervous. I’ve been following Petkovic for a while now and in my opinion and even at the opinion at his club, he’s not suited to be a striker, his strengths are playmaker and playing behind the striker.
“Petković u špici, a ne iza napadača
”Što se tiče pozicije, ono što Petković igra u Dinamu, tu mi imamo najbolje igrače na svijetu, Luku i Broza. Mi ga trebamo u špicu, pred suparničkim golom, mora zabijati golove.”
So, how do we lineup with what is the “most likely lineup”? Does this mean Petkovic plays striker, Krama behind him or are we going to see Krama on the right side…or will he not play (which I think is impossible to keep him out of the lineup at the moment).
No matter how we look at this situation, Vlasic MUST NOT start…he’s been on the bench and injured, so he shouldn’t be part of the lineup.
Does this mean we see Petkovic as striker, Perisic on the left and Majer on the right…Krama behind Petkovic?
We can’t just name a bunch of unlikely scenarios… without Kovacic, will Modric play further back?
Dalic calling up Majer and petkovic makes me think Dalic doesn’t have Vlasic in mind for starting or even as a sub for these up coming qualifying matches.
I don’t remember the last time Vlasic started for West Ham and unfortunately recently he’s been injured. Not a good idea to start him.
Calciomercato.com writes how Rebic is back three weeks after sustaining an ankle injury during the 3-2 victory over Hellas Verona and he is more ‘angry’ than before. In just over half an hour he changed the game for Milan thanks to his willingness to battle in the final third, his dribbling and the ‘ferocious determination’ that he always shows.
Rebic!!
Antonio Marin should’ve had 2 assists today. From what I saw, he looked decent.
Hello, Markus
Hello
………………..Kramaric………
Perisic……….Majer………Juranovic
…………Brozovic…Modric…….
Sosa…Gvardiol..Caleta…Stanisic
……………………Grbic…………………..
Unfortunately, I think Dalic will start Pasalic instead of Majer, and Ivanusec on right wing.
He rates Pasalic to much, if you ask me. Pasalic should be a fringe player at the moment. Pasalic never played a game in his entire career, the way Majer did today. Not even close.
If Majer starts playing like this on a regular basis, we may have a new Dejan Stojkovic. Those through balls are priceless. I say start the kid against Malta. He’s better than Vlasic at the moment, and much better than Pasalic for sure!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc-ZnXO_JBQ
Do the write-ups for HNL every week please.
We will 😁
Pretty sure they do most of the time
They are great, very detailed and really get a feel for who is staying relevant in the repka picture and who is coming up the ranks
Majer looked like he was all over the place on those highlights
Great to see
He also looked to be on that right side a lot
I don’t see one for last week or before week 11 but weekly going forward would be great.
For me, it is not about who is or who will be on the national team. It’s about enjoying the play, players and teams in the league.
I see I am the minority in this as most comments on the HNL write-ups link to the national team.