February 2, 2021
With a convenient and attractive looking fixture being streamed on Bet365, Croatia becomes the 25 country to have its football featured in these diaries !
The 2020/21 season of the Croatian First Football League, also referred to as 1.HNL, has reached the halfway stage. The 10 sides in the division play each other 4 times, and today is the start of the second round of fixtures. For sponsorship reasons the league is named the Hrvatski Telekom Prva liga,
Osijek is located in Eastern Croatia, some 280km east of the capital Zagreb, and is the 4th largest city in the country with a population of just over 100,000.
It’s football side play at the Gradski vrt stadium, which has hosted 12 full international matches of the Croatia national side. Of these matches, three have been against Wales, who have lost on each visit. Neither of the stands have any roofing, perhaps an indication that it doesn’t rain very often in Osijek during the football season ! However, all matches this season in the 1.HNL have been played behind closed doors, so no-one would have been inconvenienced by this.
NK Osijek are the surprise packet of the season, going into today’s match as joint leaders but in second place on goal difference behind current champions Dinamo Zagreb. Last season they finished 4th, 18 points behind Dinamo who won the league by a 15 point margin, but it looks like Dinamo have some serious competition for the title this season. Osijek have never won the league, with their best finish being 3rd, which they have achieved 6 times. They have played in all 29 seasons of the 1.HNL since its formation following independence in 1992.
Osijek started the season poorly, taking just one point from their first three matches. After the 1-4 defeat at Dinamo coach Ivica Kulesevic was sacked and replaced by former player and ex-Dinamo coach Nenad Bjelica. The impact of the change has been sensational, with just one loss in 15 matches since, including 7 consecutive home wins, to give the side the best home record in the league. A 2-0 victory over Dinamo was recorded in November.
Since the winter restart, Osijek have recorded wins at Lokomotiva Zagreb ( 3-0 ) and at home to NK Istra ( 1-0 ), with Argentinian striker Ramon Mierez scoring three of the four goals. He is loan from Alaves, and with 11 goals to-date is the league’s joint top goal scorer.
However, Mierez was missing from the today’s squad and was one of 5 changes made from the victorious starting XI against Istra. Captain and centre-back Mile Skoric ( 4 caps for Croatia and a member of the most recent national squad ) returned after suspension, and there was a first start for midfielder Petar Brlek who was signed on a free transfer from Genoa during the winter break. Ante Erceg, on loan from Danish side Brondby came into the side to replace Mierez, whilst Hungarian attacking midfielder Lazslo Kleinheisler ( 29 caps ) and Brazilian defender Gutieri also took their places in the team.
Spanish centre-back Jose Caro, who was formerly with Real Betis, Vedran Jugovic and Marin Pilj all dropped to the bench, whilst in addition to Mierez, there was no place in the squad for left back Mario Jurcevic ( 1 cap for Slovenia )
The Osijek line-up today also featured keeper Ivica Ivusic, the only ever-present player for the side this season. Also appearing was Slovenian winger Damjan Bohar, was signed in the summer from Polish side Zaglebie Lubin for a reported 900K Euros, and has represented his country 11 times. He is the second highest scorer for the club this season with 4 goals.
In the short winter break Osijek also signed Austrian-Bosnian forward Mihret Topcagic, who readers of these diaries will recognise from playing for FK Suduva in Lithuania last year. However, he was not part of today’s match-day squad.
NK Slaven Belupo play in the town of Koprivnica, which is located 100km north-east of Zagreb and has a population of around 30,000. The journey to Osijek is approximately 190km, or three hours by road. The name of the club was changed in 1995 after agreeing a sponsorship deal with Belupo, a pharmaceutical company based in Koprivnica and the club are not to be confused with Slaven Bilic !
Slaven have played in 1.HNL for 23 seasons, having remained in the division since 1997/98. Their best finish was second place in 2007/08, and they finished 7th last season.
Slaven went into today’s match in 5th place, having ended a run of three consecutive losses with a midweek 2-0 home win over Varazdin. They had a respectable 3-3-3 away record, with wins at Gorica ( 1-0 ), Sibenik ( 3-0 ) and Varazdin ( 2-1 ). The best result though was probably the 3-3 at Dinamo Zagreb in September.
Slaven made only two changes from the midweek win over Varazdin, midfielder Stipe Baacelic-Gric coming in for Frano Mlinar, and defender Antonio Bosec for Bruno Goda, both of whom dropped to the bench.
Keeper Ivan Filipovic has played every minute of the season so far, whilst midfielder Nemanja Glavic had appeared in all 17 games and was joint top scorer with 4 goals, one of which was a left footed free-kick in the win over Varazdin.
The other joint top scorers are 38 year old Ivan Krstanovic and young German forward Torles Knoll, who has previously played for Hamburg and Nurnburg. Knoll was also on the mark against Varazdin.
The sides played out a 0-0 draw in Osijek on the opening day of the season in August, with the visitors failing to take advantage of having an extra man for 60 minutes after Mile Skoric had collected a second yellow card. That match was played in 25 degrees heat, although the weather for today’s encounter was not expected to get above 3 degrees. Osijek won the return fixture in Koprivnica 1-0 thanks to a stunning free-kick from Bohar.
The odds at kick-off understandably had Osijek favourites at 5/6, although the odds on Slaven had fallen from 5/1 to 16/5 in the previous 24 hours. The draw was at 5/2.
The big surprise at kick-off was the heavy fog ! Although the floodlights were on, and the orange ball was in use, the visibility wasn’t great. The bright colours of the revolving perimeter advertising shone through the gloom. However, it was possible to see huge amounts of snow that had been cleared off the pitch to enable the game to go ahead.
Osijek played in their normal home kit of blue and white hoops with blue shorts and white socks, whereas Slaven wore their change kit of all black although the names of their players was not shown on the back of their shirts. In the murkiness the numbers on both sets of shirts were difficult to make-out, so it wasn’t easy to pick out who was playing well ( if anyone ! )
It looked like Slaven were having the better of the early exchanges, with the best chance falling to Knoll in the 22nd minute. After being picked out in space 6 yards out by Bogojevic’s incisive pass, the German put his shot wide under pressure from the keeper. Ergic collected the first yellow card shortly after, a tackle from behind bringing down Lulic as Slaven were starting to get on top, so it was a bit of surprise when Osijek put the ball into the net in the 26th minute. Bohar’s intelligent back heel put Bockaj free on the left, and his cross to the far post was headed in by the diving Erceg. Unfortunately for the home side the VAR check revealed that a long way back in the move there was a handball near the half-way line, so the goal was disallowed.
Slaven responded by creating another good chance, this time Gric found Krstanovic but Skoric was alert and made a good block, and two minutes later Krstanovic was again in a similar position but the advancing keeper closed him down and block the stabbed left-footed shot.
The first goal eventually arrived in the 4th minute of added on time, with Osijek grabbing the initiative. Bockaj again crossed from the left, and as two Osijek forwards got in each other’s way, the ball fell kindly to Brlek, who fired into the keeper’s left hand corner from the edge of the penalty area.
With a flattering 1-0 half-time lead, the odds on Osijek plunged to 2/7 whilst Slaven fell to 14/1.
The fog continued to get worse, and it was virtually impossible to make out what was happening on the pitch. In the 53rd minute the Osijek players were celebrating, and the TV pictures from behind the Slaven goal revealed that a free-kick from Bockaj had hit the upright and Zaper had reacted first to head into the opposite corner with keeper Filipovic stranded.
There were more celebrations two minutes later. This time Bohar was left unmarked and although his shot was mis-hit, it was good enough to deceive Filipovic to bobble in the corner of the goal. 3-0 to Osijek.
Slaven’s reply was to make a triple substitution, although this failed to change the course of the game as the play rarely seemed to in the final third of the pitch. They best they could achieve was Bosec’s left footed shot high and handsome into row Z.
With 8 minutes to the Osijek players were again celebrating. The replay showed Gutieri had got his head to a free-kick from Bockaj, forcing Filipovic into a one-handed diving save. However, Kleinheisler was lurking beyond the back post two yards out and turned the ball into the net from a tight angle. The VAR check lasted nearly 4 minutes, and eventually the goal was ruled out for offside, possibly against both Gutieri and Kleinheisler.
The last piece of action came in the 88th minute, with Slaven substitute Etoundi, a Cameroonian striker with 10 caps, racing clear but in his attempt to round the keeper he kicked the ball too far and then fell to the ground. No penalty.
Osijek closed out the game, and made a triple substitution of their own in injury time replacing Bockaj, Bohar and Kleinheister with the points secured. The 3-0 victory took Osijek to the top of the table, perhaps temporarily, with Dinamo Zagreb still to play their match against Lokomotiva Zagreb.
Unfortunately due to the weather it was not possible to judge the quality of their performance. Watching another match from Croatia is probably on the cards !
NK Osijek : Ivusic – Milos, Skoric, Longar, Gutieri – Zaper ( Vukovic ), Kleinheisler ( Beljo ), Brlek, Bockaj ( Miskovic ) – Erceg ( Jugovic ), Bohar ( Mekic )
NK Slaven Belupo : Filipovic – Bosec, Bozic, Prce – Paracki, Bogojevic, Glavcic ( Mlinar ), Gric ( Van Bruggen ), Lulic ( Liklin ) – Krstanovic ( Etoundi ), Knoll (Ilicic )
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3qDqMWXGjM
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