The status quo prevailed this weekend with all of the top four clubs earning convincing victories. The interesting connection being five out of six matches this weekend ended with final scores of 3-1. The exception being Hajduk’s 3-0 victory over Lokomotiva.
All winning clubs scored three goals this weekend, but only one team saw all three goals scored by one player. NK Istra were on the right side of the scoreline with a 3-1 victory over Varaždin, thanks to the effort from striker Mario Čuže.
Čuže, a 20-year-old striker who has come up through the ranks of Dinamo’s youth system, is on loan to Istra from Dinamo II until the summer of 2020. The young striker has played two full matches for Istra this season and has already tallied five goals, already surpassing last season’s total of four goals in in 21 appearances.
Varaždin remain winless early in this season, but were able to showcase a familiar veteran; Leon Benko was the loan Varaždin goal scorer against Istra. The 35-year-old scored 21 goals last season in the 2.HNL and is playing in his 15th season and for his 10th club.
Dinamo Zagreb’s young stars shone brightly in their 3-1 win over HNK Gorica on Friday. Goals came from Dani Olmo, Nikola Moro and Amer Gojak were more than enough to defeat Gorica.
Hajduk Split took care of NK Lokomotiva with the greatest of ease in their 3-0 victory at Poljud. Mijo Caktaš scored his second of the season while youngster Darko Nejašmić scored his first goal of the season. Nejašmić scored one goal total in 21 appearances last season for Hajduk.
Rijeka is keeping pace with the top of the table and remain unbeaten through three matches this season. 36-year-old Ivan Krstanović scored the lone goal for Slaven Koprivnica, but it was merely a consolation after Rijeka dominated the game in front of 4,200 fans.
NK Osijek rounded out the weekend with a 3-1 victory of Inter Zaprešić. Petar Bočkaj scored his first goal of the season.
I would say the tale of the tape for this game is the missed chances. Dinamo will have to be sharper in front of goal next week, but I think they can do it. Definitely a missed opportunity today. But a single away goal next week is more than doable.
Hungarians seem to have our number this year
Quite a few golden chances missed by Dinamo. Reminds me of their final Europa league game vs Benfica. Good youth news, Majer came onto the pitch as a sub and played pretty great in my opinion. But Moro was a little quiet.
1-1 final they have their work cut out in Hungary next week
Dinamo up 1-0 early thanks to Olmo. If anyone wants to watch that doesn’t have Croatian TV, you can look up the game on YouTube and you will find a few live streams. Not the best quality but it works.
Bravo
https://www.croatiaweek.com/croatian-hockey-team-wins-gold-in-gibraltar-at-european-champs/
Happy Oluja day everybody
According to TransferMarkt, it looks like Rebić to Inter Milan is almost a done deal. Conte has been starting Perišić as a left striker alongside Italian youngster Sebastian Esposito pretty much every game during Inter’s preseason. Rebić will probably replace Esposito meaning that Inter will have Perišić and Rebić as their strikers. If that is the case, Inter will be fun to watch with those two up top and Brozo in the back. Thankfully it seems like Rebić’s move to Athletico Madrid is not going to go through. In my opinion, Rebić is definitely ready for the move to a big club.
@anon I am LA area and I have not heard of any good places to watch it although it would be fun to watch with a group. I’m not too big on fighting but I am excited to watch Miocic.
Any event going on for the Stipe Miocic fight in two weeks?
Who’s watching in LA and where?
Cuze must be a mighty dalamatinac yeah
Dinamo fired the first shot with a victory on Friday…and Hajduk and Riejka returned fire with victories of their own. Hopefully, this is an interesting title race.
And Dinamo, if they beat the Hungarian team will play Maribor/Rosenburg. So there exists a navigable path to the Champions League.
We’ll see plenty of Moro, Majer, Marin, and Baturina if Dinamo make it to a European club competition. As Beljica will be forced to rotate players to keep them fresh for domestic and european campaigns.
Wow, I’m glad to see Ćuže shining in the early stages of the season. Glad to see Moro up there with 2 goals as well. Now we just gotta hope that those two can be consistent, and hope that Dinamo plays guys like Marin, Baturina, etc. and like mentioned in the last thread, see Hajduk play Teklić, Šego, Vusković, etc. I was hoping that Šibenik would make it to the Prva Liga because of their young star Marko Bulat. I think I’ve mentioned him before. He’s 17 and had a remarkable season in the 2. HNL. Another young gun to put on the radar.