MaxTV Prva Liga Week 22

Dinamo met with a stubborn Osijek team on Sunday in front of 4,000 fans at Gradski Vrt and came out with a 1-1 draw.

Osijek is coming off a huge win against Split last week and was still feeding off the high momentum they gained.

After Domagoj Pavačić scored the opening goal of the game in the 26th minute when he beat Zvonimir Mikulić with a one on one, Osijek tightened up their already stingy defense to make sure Dinamo would get no more scoring opportunities.

The tighter defense was a success and frustrated the Modri, forcing them to take shots form long range and set pieces, which failed them in their quest to score a second goal.

Osijek ended the match with a more physical presence than they had in the previous 80 minutes of play.

Angelo Henriquez and  Nikola Mataš were both shown yellow cards for pushing and shoving but the physicality paid off for the hosts.

Jasmin Mešanović scored the game-tying goal for Osijek in the 84th minute and were able to salvage points against the mighty Dinamo Zagreb.

Hajduk Split faced a tough week when they traveled to Zagreb to visit NK Lokomotiva and lost 2-1 in front of 3,100 at Kranjčevićeva.

Lokomotiva overtook sole possession of third place with the win and furthered the turmoil that Hajduk has been facing.

Former Hajduk Split player, Franko Andrijašević put the Lokosi ahead very early on with his sixth minute goal.

Andrijašević won the ball in the air and put the goal away with a header to take the early lead.

Hajduk was able to equalize with a goal of their own thanks to some clever passing from  Elvir Maloku and Nikola Vlašić who sent the ball to Anton Maglica who put the ball away past goalkeeper, Simon Šluga.

But Šime Gržan broke the draw with a goal in the 52nd minute.

Hajduk would push for an equalizer, and thought they found it – twice – but twice the goals were called back due to offsides by Sandro Gotal both times.

Lokomotiva would finish the match with only 10 men thanks to a second yellow card shown to Tomislav Mrčela, but Hajduk could not capitalize on the advantage.

With Dinamo drawing in Osijek and Hajduk losing in Zagreb, it was a prime opportunity for Rijeka to gain some ground on the league leaders.

But Matjaz Kek’s side failed to capitalize on the opportunity.

Rijeka was shown first hand how difficult it is for a team to gain three points playing at Split’s Youth Park.

The difficulty of the match was elevated due to horrendous field conditions after a month’s worth of rain fell the previous day.  A game-time decision was made to go ahead with the match despite the conditions.

Rijeka was given a chance early on when Bekim Balaj stepped up to the penalty spot but missed the penalty wide and the score remained 0-0.

Mario Kvešić scored for Split in the 27th minute after Henri Belle sent a long cross across the face of the goal.

Sokol Cikalleshi nearly doubled the lead for Split in the opening minutes of the second half, but Andrej Prškalo, who is still in net for the ill Ivan Vargić, made the big save to keep his team only down by one.

Balaj made up for his missed penalty earlier in the game with the game-tying goal that eventually led to the point gained by Rijeka.

Ivan Tomečak sent in a cross much like Belle’s in earlier in the evening that Balaj struck solidly with his head to score the goal.

Anas Sharbini was gunning for a goal of his own, but struck the post in the dying minutes and the match ended 1-1, forcing the team to split the points.

The draw marked Split’s 13th consecutive match undefeated at home.  The last match they lost at Youth Park was against Rijeka in August.

300 fans braved the wet conditions and attended the match.

Slaven Belupo’s coach, Ante Cačić vowed earlier in the week that nothing but victory for his team would be acceptable.  His team seemed to have taken his words to heart and beat the visiting Istra 1961 with a score of 2-1.

Slaven scored first in the 17th minute off a free kick that was sent in by Peter Mišić and was met by the head of Mato Grgić.

Istra responded immediately with a goal fro Jo Alvarez only minutes later, but Istra could not hang on and gave up the game winning goal late in the first half.

After a comically abysmal clearance attempt by the Istrian defense, Marko Mirić was there to clean up the garbage and scored Slaven’s second goal of the game.

Istra played a much stronger second half, but the defense of Slaven was strong and protected their lead.

NK Zadar and NK Zagreb played to a thrilling match in Zadar in front of 1,000 lucky fans that were fortunate enough to watch the skillful display in person.

Bernardo Matic scored the lone goal in the match for Zagreb in the eighth minute to gain three points for the Poets with the minimum result required.

Zagreb sit very comfortably in fifth place, 13 points ahead of Split and only two points behind Hajduk and four points behind Lokomotiva.