HNL Week 21 – 104 Years of Hajduk, Osijek Wows with Goals *Updated Videos*

Hajduk Split celebrated its 104th birthday by playing to a close match with Slaven Belupo on Sunday at Poljud, but escaped with three points at home.

It was a near-instant start for the birthday boys thanks to an eighth-minute goal by Sandro Gotal.

Hajduk has been going through some big changes in the recent days, first losing their tenured coach, Igor Tudor, and now are amid rumors of their leading scorer, Jean Evard Kouassi will be on his way to China and did not play in the match.

The team has been lead by interim coach, Hari Vukas, but it is said that he may be retaining the position until for the remainder of the season.

The team has won both matches under the control of Vukas in 2015, defeating Vinograder in the first leg of the cup quarterfinals last week.

Hajduk continued their good form in the match Sunday by going up 2-0 thanks to a goal from the young Nikola Vlašić.

Vlašić became the youngest player to ever score for Hajduk when he scored in his debut in July of 2014 at 16 years of age. Now at the age of 17, he is becoming a staple in Hajduk’s plans for successes.

Slaven Belupo has been under the command of veteran leader, Ante Čačić since 2014 and has vowed to return Slaven to a competitive club which is what he has been doing.

Slaven have since been a much more formidable opponent. Still sitting in only seventh place, they are a mere two points behind RNK Split for sixth place and only five points out of fifth place.

The Pharmacists had high hopes for their chances in Split, but came just short. Their loss was not in vein as they still showed how they have improved as a team and kept the score close after Goran Parački scored a wonder goal for the ages in the 56th minute.

Paracki smashed the ball with his toe from 30 yards out to score in the upper 90 of the goal.

Rijeka was unable to break down Igor Pamić’s side, NK Istra 1961 in Pula on Saturday and came out with a disappointing scoreless draw.

Three points would have been crucial in their plans to keep pace with Dinamo, but they have fallen behind nine points which could be detrimental to their hopes of finishing at the top of the league.

Istra primarily focused heavily on defense and Rijeka could not figure out how to crack the code.

There were several chances for Rijeka to score, but they were stopped by either the goalkeeper Ivan Brkić or the crossbar.

In the end, Istra came out with a sense of victory as opposed to Rijeka’s disappointing aura of failure.

Rijeka will have a chance to redeem itself on Wednesday when they face Hajduk Split in a make-up match for last week’s cancellation due to snow.

The biggest surprise of the weekend surely came from Osijek’s performance at Gradski Vrt against RNK Split.

Despite the lopsided amount of possession by Split, Osijek dominated on the scoreboard and won 4-0.

Goals from Antonio Perošević, Mile Škorić, and Aljoša Vojnović were enough to make all the highlight reels and Škorić put away a second goal from the spot to seal the deal for Osijek.

Lokomotiva handed NK Zagreb one of their worst defeats in recent memories on Saturday, scoring six goals and allowing none at Kranjčevićeva.

In the Kranjčevićeva Derby, Zagreb so graciously share their stadium with the essentially homeless Lokomotiva, and their stadium-mates paid them back with an absolute thrashing that started in the third minute.

Marko Kolar scored in the third minute, scoring with a shot from nearly 20 yards out.

Kolar would find the back of the net once again in the 44th minute, leaving Zagreb down by two at the half.

The scoring clinic was just beginning as another goal came in the 63rd minute, and own goal from Dominik Kovačić. The goals kept coming, this time from Jan Doležal, then from Šime Grzan and then Mirko Marić.

Lokomotiva are in possession of the fourth place, four points ahead of Zagreb.

Dinamo Zagreb finished off match week 21 on Monday with a routine 2-0 victory over NK Zadar in front of a crowd of 941 fans at Maksimir.

Zadar has been struggling and recently hired Igor Stimac in attempt to add some life to the squad, but to no avail.

Junior Fernandez scored first for the Modri in the 40th minute while Leonardo German Sigali scored his first goal in a Dinamo jersey since joining the club last July.

The two goals were more than enough to get Dinamo all three points and retain a 12-point lead in teh league.