Review : Croatia 1.HNL 2021/22 – Week 21

January 28, 29 & 30, 2022

Friday January 28, 2022

NK Istra 1961 2-1 HNK Gorica ( att : 262 )

Perkovic ( 58 ),  Beljo ( 74 ); Jovicic ( 36 )

Saturday January 29, 2022

NK Osijek 1-2 NK Slaven Belupo ( att : 2.072 )

Caktas ( 74 );  Zvonarek ( 49 ), Bozic ( 68 )

HNK Sibenik 1-3 HNK Hajduk Split ( att : 1,156 )

Curic ( 25 ); Livaja ( 16 pen & 45 pen ), Krovinovic ( 68 )

Sunday January 30, 2022

NK Lokomotiva Zagreb 2-1 NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac ( att :  231 )

Dabro ( 45 ), Ibrahim ( 46 ); Hodza ( 22 )

GNK Dinamo Zagreb 2-0 HNK Rijeka ( att : 4,174 )

Sutalo ( 21 ), Orsic ( 42 )

GNK Dinamo Zagreb were the biggest movers in the first week-end after the winter break resumption, buoyed by talisman Mislav Orsic turning down a reported £10M move to Burnley, and the signing of winger Petar Bockaj from rivals Osijek for 2.7m Euros. Joint leaders HNK Rijeka had been weakened in the interval by the departures of centre-back Nino Galovic to Portuguese side Arouca and full-back Ivan Tomecak to Cypriot side FC Pafos. In their place, Serbian defender Sava-Arangel Cestic was signed for 1.FC Koln.

Having held 3-0 leads against Dinamo in their previous two meeting this season before being ultimately held to 3-3 draws, Rijeka were surprisingly tentative in the first half and fell lamely to 0-2 behind at the break as Dinamo dominated. The opening goal arrived in the 17^th minute, after Orsic’s in-swinging cross was met by Serbian forward Andric, and although his close range header was blocked by keeper Labrovic, Sutalo was in the right position to head home the rebound.

Dinamo had to wait until three minutes before half-time to double their lead. Andric shrugged off defender Velkovski to get on the end of a long ball out of defence to bear down on goal, and despite Cestic’s despairing lunge he was able to square to the unmarked Orsic, who clinically finished first-time with the one-on-one with the keeper.

Dinamo pressed for a third goal and Ivanusec should have capitalized on a poor pass out from the back by Labrovic, but screwed his shot wide. Pavicic nearly grabbed a consolation goal a couple of minutes from time, when his shot from 8 yards was partially saved by Livakovic, who then clawed the ball away from the goal, but before VAR could judge whether or not the ball had crossed the line, a raised flag for offside against Drmic ensure no goal would be awarded.

Third place and joint-leaders NK Osijek had been busy in the transfer market in January. In addition to losing Bockaj to Dinamo, midfielder Marin Pilj left to join Slovene side Olimpija Ljubljana. However, centre-back Yevgen Cherberko’s loan from Austrian side LASK had been converted into a permanent deal for 500K Euros, experienced left back Marin Leovac had been purchased from Dinamo for 300K Euros, and ex-Hajduk leading scorer Mijo Catksas returned to Croatia after a short spell in Saudi Arabia.

In a dis-jointed display, Osijek slumped to a 1-2 home defeat to NK Slaven Belupo, for whom 16 year old wonder-kid Lovro Zvonarek, who was signed by Bayern Munich in August for 1.8M Euros and loaned back to Slaven for the rest of the season, gave another impressive display and scored the opening goal with a fine individual finish. After Bozic doubled their lead with a header from a corner, Catkas came off the bench and scored his first goal for Osijek after only being on the pitch for 6 minutes, tapping home from a couple of yards. However, it wasn’t enough to prevent Osijek from falling to an unexpected defeat but Slaven were worthy winners.

Fourth placed HNK Hajduk Split continued their recent good form, and further closed the gap on the top three with an emphatic win at HNK Sibernik. There was no place though in their match-day squad for new signings right-back Dino Mikanovic from Kairat Almaty for 75K Euros and Austrian midfielder Lukas Grgic from LASK. Sibernik had suffered the loss of top goal scorer Marin Jakolis who had his season long loan from Hajduk cancelled and sold to Ligue 1 side Angers.

Two first half penalties from Marko Livaja, taking him to 15 goals for the season, gave Hajduk the lead at the break. Both were awarded by VAR, the first after a soft tumble in the area, the second for a handball at a corner, and both were converted Jorginho style. Livaja had also hit the post from a few feet out after Katic’s header had crashed back off the bar.

In-between, Curic’s low left footed strike from the edge of the area had brought the home side level.

A long distance curler into the top corner from from ex-WBA and Nottingham Forest midfielder Filip Krovinovic secured the victory for Hajduk.

Fifth places HNK Gorica continued their spluttering form from the end of last year, slipping to a 1-2 loss in Pula to NK Istra 1961. They took a first half lead after Kristijan Lovric’s in-swinging corner wasn’t dealt with and Jovicic forced the ball over the line. However, after the break Istra ran out deserved winners with a header from Perkovic and a 7^th of the season from Beljo. After their failure to sign Mislav Orsic, Burnley are now reportedly attempting to sign mercurial winger Lovric…………….

In the final match of the weekend, a much changed NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac put up a spirited display before ultimately falling to NK Lokomotiva Zagreb. Joint top scorer Vinko Petkovic had left to join Osijek and Luka Viduka, son of the ex-Leeds legend, returned to Lokomotiva at the end of his loan. However, 6 youngsters had signed on loan from Rijeka and winger Lovre Cijak signed from Israeli side Hapoel Afuca. Giving their turnover over in the past couple of year, Lokomotiva were remarkably inactive in the winter break with no significant signings.  

Dragovoljac caused a surprise by taking the lead mid-way through the first half via a deflected shot from Hodza, but goals a minute either side of half-time, including a 9^th of the season for Marko Dabro were enough to give Lokomotiva the points. A second yellow card to Dragovoljac’s Basic had little impact on the final score.

Review of Azerbaijan Premier League 2021/22 Season at the Winter Break

January 28, 2022

The Azerbaijan Premier League went into its mid-season break after the completion of round 14 on December 16^th, with the season scheduled to resume on Monday 7^th February. However, the clubs will be active before then, with the first legs of the quarter finals of the Azerbaijan Cup being played the week before, with the last 8 in that competition being the 8 sides in the Premier League.

These diaries have previously covered some of the action in Azerbaijan during the 2021/22 season, with an overview of the league, a match-by-match round-up of round 14, and then a report on a game between FK Zira and Neftchi Baku. Despite a victory for Zira that day, Neftchi recovered to go on to win the league for their first title since 2012/13 after a final day 1-0 victory over Qarabag, thanks to a goal in the 89^th minute to overtake Qarabag and win the title by 2 points. This ended Qarabag’s run of 7 consecutive titles.

Meanwhile, Zira had looked secure in third place, but a run of just one win and 7 draws in their last 11 games enabled Sumgayit to overtake them on the final day, and take the final European place.

The 8 sides in the division play each other four times for a 28 game competition, so the break after 14 rounds is indeed half way through the season, something not that common compared to the timing of winter breaks in other leagues !

So far Qarabag have made a strong bid to regain their title, leading the table by 7 points at the half-way stage, but their closest challengers are Gabala, who finished a poor 7^th in 2020/21. Champions Neftchi lay 11 points behind Qarabag in third place, level on points with Zira but ahead on their head-to-head record. Sumgayit had won only three matches, to be in a poor 7^th place, a staggering 21 points of the leaders.

Club By Club Summary

Leaders Qarabag FK were originally from Agdam in the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region but haven’t played there since 1993 due to the conflict with Armenia, with Agdam now being a ruined ghost town. They are now located in Baku.

Their started the season with a 1-1 draw at Zira, and then they won their next three matches, including a 2-1 victory at champions Neftchi before being held to a 1-1 draw at Kesla. Their only defeat of the season came in round 8, surprisingly falling to a 1-3 loss at bottom of the table Sabail. They bounced back with a 4-0 home win over Neftchi, and the only dropped points for the rest of the year came in a 0-0 draw at Gabala ( which was goal-less despite Oscar winning performances from keeper Mahammadaeliyou and Gabala’s Isganderov  ! ). Qarabag finished the year with a 100% home record from 7 games.

During the close season Qarabag lost Mahir Emreil, last season’s joint top scorer, to Legia Warsaw and fellow striker Ghanaian Owusu Kwabena left to join Turkish side Ankaragucu. Senegalese forward Ibrahima Wadji was signed from Norwegian side Haugesund for 600K Euros as a replacement.

However, their outstanding player remains Croatian born, Azeri naturalized ex Spartak Moscow and Hajduk Split midfielder Filip Ozobic, who has followed up his 18 goals last season with 7 so far this time around. Ex-Hibernian French winger Abdellah Zoubir has 6 goals to his credit, the same number as newly capped Azeri international striker Musa Gurbanli, whilst Wadji has chipped in with 4 goals.

Qarabag have been active in the transfer market during the winter break. Portuguese midfield Leandro Andrade cost 250K Euros from Bulgarian side Cherno More, and they paid out a reported 200K Euros for Azeri International striker Rustam Ahmadzada from FK Minaj.

Gabala FK are the only side who play outside of the greater Baku conurbation, being located 220km west of Baku, and have Tony Adams amongst their former managers.

After a distant 7^th in 2020/21, they started the season with a 2-2 draw at champions Neftchi. Three wins on the trot followed, and after a 0-0 draw at Sumgayit they were joint leaders with Qarabag after 5 rounds. A 2-0 defeat at Qarabag saw them relinquish the joint leadership, and another loss, 1-3 at home to Sabah so them slip to third after 9 rounds. However, 11 points were taken from their final 5 matches at the end of the year, with the dropped points coming from draws with Qarabag and Neftchi.

Striker Isganderov is their leading goalscorer with 5 goals, whilst Albanian midfielder Isnik Alimi has 4 to his name. Jordanian wing back Omar Hani was signed from APOEL Nicosia and made 12 appearances. Brazilian winger Patrick has been signed on loan from Austria Wien during the winter break.

Champions Neftchi PFK have made a disappointing defence of their title so far. Matters were not helping before the start of the season by losing Namik Alasakarov, the league’s leading scorer with 19 goals, to Turkish side Bursaspor for a reported 50K Euros, and ex-Genk and Brest French winger Steeven Joseph-Monroe signed for Greek side Xanthi. Japanese midfielder Keisuke Honda left to join Lithuanian side FK Suduva and Guinean forward Mamadou Kane was sold to Olympiakos for 690K Euros in late August, but loaned back to Neftchi for the rest of the season. The only noteworthy signings were Paraguayan midfielder Cesar Meza Colli from fellow Azeri side Kesla and ex-Pakhtakor Tashkent Brazilian Tiago Bezarra.

Despite this the Oilmen actually started the season well, and after round 8 they jointly lead the table with Qarabag, with their only defeat coming at home to Qarabag. However, a 0-4 thumping in the return with Qarabag was then followed by unexpected losses at Kesla ( 2-3 after taking a 2-0 lead ) and at home to Sabah ( 1-2 ), to leave Neftchi 9 points behind Qarabag. Although Sabail were overcome in their next fixture, two more draws followed to end the year, 0-0 at home to Sumgayit and 0-0 at Gabala. Tiago was the top scorer with 4 goals.

The winter break activity has seen the signing of Croatian keeper Ivan Brkic from Latvian side Riga FC and Brazilian forward Pato but the squad was further weakened by Argentine winger Juan Correa leaving for Greek side Volos, Moroccan midfielder Sabir Bougrine was sold to Esperance de Tunis for 450K Euros, and French midfielder Romain Basque left for Chateauroux.

Nevertheless, captain and International midfielder Emin Mahmudov ( 25 caps ) is rated the most valuable player in the league by Transfermrkt with a value of 1.2M Euros.

Zira FK had a tough start to the season, with matches against Qarabag and Neftchi albeit both at home, and took just one point from the 1-1 draw with Qarabag. However, they were unbeaten in their next 5 matches, before suffering another 1-2 reverse to Neftchi. Ten points were taken from the next 4 matches to leave Zira in second place 5 points behind Qarabag after round 12, but defeats in their final two matches ( Gabala 1-2 at home and Qarabag 2-0 away ) saw the title aspirations fade.  

Georgian striker Davit Volkov is the league’s top goal scorer with 10 goals and one interesting signed was Belgian winger Loris Brogno from Beerschot, who featured in these diaries in April !

Sabah FC were 5^th last season, which is where they are at the moment, but this doesn’t adequately describe their season so far. After the first quarter of the season they had gathered just one point from 7 matches, which resulted in the sacking of coach Ramin Guliyev. Under new coach, Russian Murad Musayev, the second quarter saw a dramatic turnaround where they won 5 and drew one of their 7 games, with just a loss at Qarabag. The highlights included victories at Gabala and Neftchi.

Ex-MVV and Alemania Aachen winger Joy-Lance Mickels has 7 goals to his name, whilst midfielder Aleksey Isayev has 4 goals. Keeper Aleksandr Nechaev has been signed in the winter break from Rukh Brest.

Kesla FK are on course to repeat their 6^th place from last season. They started the season with 4 consecutive defeats before unexpectedly opening their account with a draw with Qarabag, which was followed up with victories over Sabah and Sabail. Only one win came in the next 5 games, which was another unexpected result in beating Neftchi, before ending the year with a convincing 3-1 win at Sumgayit.

Ex-New York Red Bull Cameroonian International striker Anatole Abang is their top scorer with 4 goals together with ex-Maribor Brazilian winger Felipe Santos. Kesla have made one interesting signing in the international break, Argentinian centre-back Fernando Flores has been signed from Honduran side CD Real Espana, after featuring in these diaries in December !

The season has so far been a disaster for Sumgayit FK with just three wins after their third placed finish last season. As a result coach Aykhan Abbasov was sacked during the winter break, and replaced with Belarussian Aleksei Baha, who guided Shakhtyor Soligorsk to the 2021 Belarus title, having previously won Championships for Lithuanian side FK Zalgaris and BATE Borisov.

With naturalized Iranian born striker Ali Ghorbani and naturalized Russian midfielder Rahim Sadikhov, both now full Azeri internationals, Baha is not short of talent to work with, and it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise if a few Belarussians arrive at Sumgayit to play for Baha. Sumgayit have only scored 9 goals all season, three of which came from Sadikhov, but Ghorbani has only found the net once, and is bound to improve on that in the second half of the season.

Sabail FK won the wooden spoon in 2020/21 and look favourites to repeat this again. They actually won two of their first three matches, at Sabah and at home to Sumgayit, but the only subsequent victory was a huge 3-1 upset at home to Qarabag. Unfortunately, they were unable to follow this up, and took only one point in their final 6 matches before the break. Experienced South African midfielder Hendrick Eckstein left in August to return to South Africa. Ex-Union St Gilloise Slovenian winger Nicolas Rajsel has scored twice and Lithuanian International midfielder Domantas Simkus ( 30 caps ) was ever present.

Attendances

After a season of behind closed doors football, there have been no limitations of the crowds for 2021/22. The highest attendance was 3,300 for Neftchi vs Qarabag, with the next best being 1,600 for Qarabag vs Gabala and 1,500 for Sabah vs Neftchi.

Neftchi have the best average with 1,086, with Qarabag averaging 865 and Sabah with 857. Zira have the lowest average with 421, whilst the league average was 794.

 

European Competition

Champions Neftchi navigated the first qualifying round of the Champions League with home and away 2-1 victories over Dinamo Tbilisi, thanks to goals from Mahmudov and Alaskarov in both matches. However, Greek Champions Olympiakos were too strong in the second round, winning both ties 1-0. Dropping down to the Europa League, Neftchi’s European campaign ended at the hands of HJK Helsinki, with a 0-3 loss after a 2-2 home draw in the first leg.

Runners-Up Qarabag caused a minor upset in eliminating Israeli side FC Ashdod in the second qualifying round of the Europa Conference. After a 0-0 home draw in front of a crowd of 8,231, Ozobic’s early goal in the return in Israel was enough to secure progress. Their run continued against Cypriot side AEL Limassol, when Kady’s 87^th minute goal in front of 12,251 spectators gave Qarabag a 1-0 second leg victory after a 1-1 draw away from home.

Aberdeen were the opposition in the play-off round, and after a narrow 1-0 home win, Qarabag marched into the group stages with a comprehensive 3-1 victory in Scotland. Even better was to follow in the Group stages, when Qarabag easily clinched second place in their group to qualify to the knock-out rounds. Starting with a 0-0 home draw with FC Basel, a 4-1 in Cyprus over Omonia Nicosia and 2-1 wins home and away over Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan secured qualification with two games to spare. A subsequent 2-2 draw at home to Omonia and a 0-3 loss in Basel prevented them from winning the group, and sent them into the last 32 rather than the last 16, where they will face Marseille. All three of their group matches were watched by crowds in excess of 17,000. Brazilian Kady was their top scorer in the European campaign to-date with 4 goals and Frenchman Zoubir had 3 goals.

Cup Winners Kesla were eliminated in their only Europa Conference tie, losing both legs to Sochi from Russia to go out 2-7 on aggregate. Sumgayit achieved a 0-0 in Serbia against Cukaricki, but slumped 0-2 at home to exit the competition.

Azerbaijan Cup Quarter Finals, First Leg

Tuesday February 1^st, 2022

Qarabag vs Kesla

Neftchi Baku vs Sabah

Wednesday February 2^nd, 2022

Zira FK vs Sabail

Sumgayit vs Gabala

Returns February 12^th & 13th

Round 15

Monday February 7, 2022

Kesla vs Zira

Neftchi Baku vs Qarabag

Tuesday February 8, 2022

Sabah vs Gabala

Sabail vs Sumgayit

Chinnor 27-29 Birmingham Moseley ( att : 477 ) – 2021/22 National League One

January 22, 2021

Since these diaries covered Chinnor’s home loss to Bishop’s Stortford in mid-December, they have played only one more fixture. The eagerly anticipated Friday Night Lights pre-Christmas derby at Rams was postponed due to an outbreak of Covid in the Chinnor camp, and it was their turn for the blank weekend at the start of the New Year. Flanker Max Clementson left the club to become part of the England 7s squad and prop Rob Hardwick, on loan from Wasps, had been called in the England Under 20 squad.

When they finally set foot on the field of play, they achieved an outstanding 31-24 win against the big beasts of Cinderford in the Forest of Dean to continue a remarkable sequence of results of winning at Dockham Road, whereas Cinderford have a strong record at Chinnor. It was only the Forrester’s second home loss of the season. As a result, Chinnor moved back upto 6^th in the National League One table 9 points behind second placed Caldy, but with two games in hand.

Moseley are one of the famous names of English club rugby having reached the John Player Cup final in 1972 and 1979 and sharing the title in 1982 after a 12-12 draw with Gloucester. My first awareness of the club was flanker Nick Jeavons being selected to play for England, winning 14 caps, and being an injury call-up for the 1983 British Lions tour to New Zealand.

Moseley were relegated from the Championship in 2015/16, after which the name of the club was changed to Birmingham Moseley. Since relegation their highest position in National League One was 5^th in 2016/17, and in 2018/19 and 2019/20 they flirted with relegation. Since Chinnor’s promotion to National League One the sides have only met once at Kingsey Road, when relegation threatened Moseley produced a stunning display to win 41-7 to more or else ensure their survival. In contrast, the sides have met three times at Billesley Common, with Chinnor emerging victorious on all three occasions, including a 29-22 win earlier this season.

Moseley went into today’s encounter in 11^th position, 4 points above the relegation zone with 6 wins and 9 losses. They started the season with three consecutive victories before succumbing to Chinnor in round 4. Whilst being solid at home, their away form was 2-0-6, with the wins coming at Caldy ( 24-0 ) in September and Blackheath ( 24-17  ) in January.

Included in the Moseley line-up today was lock/flanker Kailus Hutchinson, who made one substitute appearance for Chinnor in 2017/18 whilst on loan from Coventry.

The weather at kick-off was dry with a temperature of 6 degrees but the breeze was chilly and the floodlights were already on. Two coaches from Birmingham were parked in the car park so there was a sizeable support for the visitors, nearly all of whom stayed on the side of the ground where the bars are !

Moseley were in a pink and black strip rather than their usual red and black hoops, and from the kick-off Chinnor immediately put them under pressure. An early penalty was kicked to the corner, and when the rolling maul was held up, the ball was spun wide, but a great covering tackle by full-back Benjamin prevented wing Hodson from scoring in the corner.

As a sign of things to come, Moseley won a scrum penalty, but they then conceded a penalty for crossing. Chinnor opted to go for the posts but Bourton’s kick from around 35 metres in front of the posts sailed to the right. However, the play remained in the Moseley half and from a line-out near to the 22 yard line, Chinnor’s rolling maul rumbled over the try line with hooker Eliot Chilvers credited with the try. Bourton’s simple conversion made it 7-0 after 12 minutes.

The Moseley kick-off was the first time they had entered the Chinnor half, and a hack through took play into the Chinnor 22, but the covering defender was able to clear, and play was soon back in the Moseley half. However, Chinnor were unable to convert into points, and wing Bulumakau made a great break down the touch line and fed Benjamin to go over close to the posts. With Bale’s conversion the score was 7-7 after 22 minutes.

Chinnor’s response was immediate, and after full-back Nick Smith made a good break, the ball went through several hands before flanker Willie Ryan crashed over. With the conversion from Bourton being missed it was 12-7 after 24 minutes.

Chinnor continued to press, and fly-half Caolan Ryan’s chip from the edge of the Moseley 22 bounced away from covering defender Tonks for Worrall to claim and dive over the line. With a conversion from close to the posts it became 19-7 after 28 minutes.

At this point it looked a question of how many Chinnor would win by, but the Moseley pack then started to assert themselves at the scrum. Winning a scrum penalty on the Chinnor 22, they kicked to the corner for a 5 metre line-out, but after a series of drives a knock on from Hutchinson ended the move. Moseley were soon back on the attack though, and after another scrum penalty, they opted for another scrum rather than a 5 metre line-out. Another scrum penalty was won and a yellow card was shown to Chinnor hooker Terry. At the next scrum Moseley looked to be heading over the Chinnor line, but control of the ball was lost. However, another penalty was awarded in their favour, and this time the inevitable penalty try was awarded to make it 19-14 after 39 minutes.

There was still time for Chinnor to win a penalty on the Moseley 10 metre line for offside, and with half-time imminent, they opts to go for the posts, and Bourton added the three points from around 40 metres to make the half-time score 22-14 to the home side.

After being outplayed in the opening 30 minutes, Moseley had come back strongly in the last 10 minutes, and their strength at the scrum was starting to look ominous for Chinnor.

The second half started brightly, first with Chinnor’s backs making a good break down the left wing only to be halted by a knock-on, before Moseley wing Tonks made a great break from his own 22, and a try looked certain only for the referee to bring play back for a forward pass.

In the 44^th minute, Chinnor lost control of the ball at a scrum, but after a bit of pin-ball, scrum-half Walsh gathered and kicked ahead for winger Goss to claim and race to the line. Again, the conversion was wide, but Chinnor’s lead was now 29-14.

There then followed a series of plays which would have delighted fans of Pontypool in the 1980s. After a penalty, and 5 meter line-out rolling maul had comfortably been quelled, Moseley won another penalty but again opted for a scrum. After three consecutive scrum penalties were awarded, a yellow-card was shown to again reduce Chinnor to 14 men. From the next scrum, scrum-half Walsh illegally prevented a try, and with another yellow card, Chinnor were down to 13 !

The next scrum needed to be reset, but at the next, remarkably Moseley lost control of the ball and Chinnor were able to hack clear into the Moseley 22. Chinnor won the line-out and as their rolling maul inched closer to the try line, they were joined by all but 2 of their players still on the pitch, but Moseley were able to hold up the drive. From the next move, Chinnor looked likely to score in the corner but substitute Aquile Smith slapped away the pass for a deliberate knock-on, which now made it 13 vs 14.

When it then becoming 14 vs 14, Moseley were now under pressure, and after committing another infringement at a ruck, Chinnor were back at their 5 metre line. Following a Moseley knock-on, Chinnor lost control at the scrum and the ball was kicked into the Chinnor 22, but Goss won the foot-race and cleared to half-way.

With 8 minutes remaining centre Isaac McNulty went on a scintillating run, beating three defenders to score out wide, but the conversion attempt hit the bar so the score become 27-19.

Another good move between Worrall and Hodson saw Chinnor back in the Moseley 22, and a knock-on from the line-out gave Chinnor a scrum 8 yards out. Predictably though, Moseley won a penalty at the scrum, and dissent gave them another 10 yards to clear.

Moseley continued to press, and after another series of penalties, good defence by Chinnor prevented them from crossing the try line, and with the referee advising there was still 2 and half minutes left to play, the visitors opted to take the easy three points on offer to get within losing bonus point range, with still the hope of winning the match. Allsopp kicked the penalty.

Shortly after the restart, Isaac McNulty went on another tremendous run to take play back to the Chinnor half, and when Chinnor transgressed, Moseley kicked to the corner. The Moseley rolling maul again had little impact but when the ball was spread wide, a penalty was awarded against Chinnor. Predictably Moseley opted to scrum again, and after more penalties another yellow card was awarded against Chilvers, his second and hence a red card, and eventually another penalty try was awarded to end the game with a 29-27 victory to Moseley.

Overall it was a slightly bizarre match, with Moseley becoming the latest side to exposure Chinnor’s weakness at the scrum, and unusually opting to scrum at every opportunity rather than go for 5 metre line-outs and rolling mauls, which Chinnor were able to easily defend. For Chinnor, it was yet another home defeat after being in a winning position. By picking up 2 points from the match, they remained in 6^th place in the table, and now 11 points off second place with two games in hand.

Highlights : https://www.chinnor-rfc.com/videos/trylights--chinnor-27-birmingham-moseley-29-175613.html

FC Arges Pitesti 2-1 Dinamo Bucharest 1948 ( att : 2,500 ) – 2021/22 Romania Casa Liga

January 21, 2022

The Romania Casa Liga recommenced after its winter break with a meeting between Arges Pitesti and Dinamo Bucharest. Arges started the day in 8^th place, 4 points from a top 6 place but with a poor 3-2-5 home record, and an average home attendance of 3,600.

The Arges starting XI showed 4 changes from the starting line-up which lost 0-1 at Cluj in December, with Turdan, Palic, Dimitrascu and Fatai coming in, and Boldor, Viana, Arias and Raynov dropping down to the bench.

Dinamo sat second from bottom, having lost all ten away matches so far. However, their starting line-up showed 8 changes from the side that began the 0-2 home loss to Farul just before Christmas, with only left side midfielder Antonio Bordusanu, ex-Udinese, Granada and Espanyol midfielder Andrei Torje, and North Macedonian International striker Mirko Ivanovski remaining in the side. Midfielder Catalin Itu had returned to league leaders CFR Cluj at the end of his loan and Razvan Popa had been released from his contract. However, the biggest impact was the sale of star forward Deian Sorescu to Polish side Rakow Czestochowa for a reported 800k Euros, which no doubt eased some of their alleged financial problems.

In their place were French defensive midfielder Balthazar Pierret from US Boulogne, centre-back Razvan Patriche from bottom side Academica Clinceni, having made 17 appearances for them in the first half of the season, right-back Marius Tomozei, who joined after three appearances for UTA Arad and was playing out of position at left-back, and journeyman Alin Buleica was signed as a free agent. Dinamo only named 5 substitutes whereas Arges had 9 players on the bench.

The weather at kick-off was dry but close to freezing, and Bet365 made the home side 3/5 favourites, with the draw at 12/5 and Dinamo at 17/4

Arges dominated the first half in terms of possession, having 56%, but failed to create any clear-cut chances in a cagey half of football that rarely grabbed the attention. Dinamo came closest to getting the opening goal, but Ivanovski’s neat chip was correctly chalked off for a narrow offside in the 24^th minute. Neither goalkeeper was unduly troubled, although Dinamo keeper Oncescu did make a bit of a dog’s dinner in saving Latovlevici’s long range bouncing cross-cum-shot.

Arges came out strongly after the interval and took the lead in the 50^th minute. A corner from the left sailed beyond the far past to be headed back across goal by Turda, where Isfan, with his back to the goal, controlled with one touch and then was able to turn past Patriche and volleyed athletically into the far corner from around 8 yards.

Dinamo thought they had equalized in the 57^th minute when Cosmin Matei controlled a long ball over the defensive back-line and finished well, but the goal was disallowed, perhaps for a slight push on Miguel ? It looked a poor decision, with Miguel appearing to have mis-judged his attempted header without any impediment by Matei, and one that Dinamo would complain bitterly about afterwards.

Arges then extended their lead in the 69^th minute thanks to an unnecessarily conceded penalty by Dinamo, Patriche putting an elbow into face/shoulder of substitute Dumitru when trying to deal with a cross but the Arges forward made enough of a meal of it to win the award. After a VAR review, Serban drilled the penalty into bottom right-hand corner.

Dinamo responded strongly and in the 85^th minute Bordusanu made a strong run down right and delivered a low cross to Ivanovski, who was allowed the time and space to turn and fire home across goal from 10 yards to bring renewed hope to the visitors.

However, despite being pegged back and 4 minutes of added on time being played, Arges saw out the end of the match without any undue alarms.

In their first game under coach Flavius Stoican, their third manager of the season, Dinamo fell to yet another away loss,. However, their performance in the second half would have been encouraging as they had most of the play after falling behind, and the possession statistic for the whole game was 51% in Dinamo’s favour. They were also harshly treated by the disallowing of what appeared to be perfectly good goal, which didn’t seem to be even checked by VAR.

Arges though moved closer to the top 6 and a place in the Play-Off round.

FC Arges Pitesti : Greab – Tofan, Turdan, Miguel, Latovlevici – Isfan ( Tanase ), Meza Colli, Palic ( Raynov ), Serban ( Said ), Dimitrascu ( Dumitriu ) – Fatai ( Arias )

Dinamo Bucharest : Oncescu – Buleica, Ehmann, Patriche, Tomozei  ( Radu )– Bordusanu, Pierret, Matei, Rauta ( Bani ), Torje - Ivanovski

Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ooLhnUE-UQ&t=361s

Review of Hungary OTP Bank Liga 2021/22 Season at the Winter Break

January 21, 2022

Round 17 of the Hungarian OTP Bank Liga completed on December 19^th, and the season resumes on January 27^th  with a catch-up match from round 4 between Puskas and Ferencvaros, with round 18 being played the following weekend.

These diaries reviewed 2019/20 season and more details of each club can be found in that article.

 https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2020/07/review-of-201920-hungary-otp-bank-liga.html

Ferencvaros have won last 3 championships, the last by 20 points and losing only one match in the process. The league looks like being a much closer contest this time round with the top three sides currently only separated by 4 points.

The champions unexpectedly lost 1-2 at home to Kisvarda in the opening round, after which they won 6 matches on the trot including an important 1-0 win at Fehervar, but slipped to another 1-2 home loss, this time to Zalaegerszegi TE. Their stuttering home form continued with a 0-0 draw with MTK, but they then reeled off 4 more wins before being held 1-1 at home by rivals Puskas Academy. Their 100% away record ended in a 0-2 loss in Debrecen. Albanian international attacker Myrto Uzuni is rated by Transfermrkt as the league’s most valuable player at 3.5M Euros, and he has contributed 7 goals. However, ex-Standard Liege Belgian Morocco Ryan Mmaee is the leading scorer with 8.

In the winter break Fradi have signed Nigerian striker Fortune Bassey, who scored 9 goals in the Czech Fortuna Liga for Ceske Budejovice, for 1.5M Euros, and young Croatian striker Roko Baturina has returned from a loan spell at Lech Poznan.

Kisvarda, located close to the borders with Slovakia and Ukraine in the north-east of the country, have been the surprise of the season to sit in second place one point behind Ferencvaros, albeit from a game more. They followed up their unexpected opening day win at Ferencvaros by winning 6 out of their first 7 matches, including another impressive win, at title contenders Puskas, with a 1-2 loss at Fehervar the only blemish, before a second loss, at Honved where they conceded the winner in added on time after being reduced to 10 men.

Draws with Ujpest and Paksi followed, before they lost in convincing fashion at home to Ferencvaros, although three of the goals in a 0-4 defeat came after they had again had a player sent-off. They finished the year on an unbeaten run of 5 games, including an important 2-1 home win over Fehervar.  Bosnian forward Jasmin Mesanovic has scored 6 goals, followed by Romanian Claudiu Bumba and Czech Jaroslav Navratil, who both have 5 from midfield.

Kisvarda have been active during the winter break, signing midfielder Rafal Makowski from Slask Wroclaw and keeper Mykhaylo Gotra from Ukrainian side FK Uzhgorod.

Puskas Academy are probably the most unpopular club in the OTP Bank Liga. There is little connection to Puskas, the club are hardly an academy, producing very few players of their own, they play in a village with a population of around 2,000 ( Felcsut ), President Orban was involved in the financing of the club, and there have been allegations of the club receiving Governmental funding.

They suffered a dramatic 1-6 loss at home to Paksi in the second match of the season and also lost their next home match 0-1 to Kisvarda. After a 0-0 draw at Fehervar, 4 wins on the trot were clocked up before another hammering at the hands of Paksi, 1-4, for their first away loss of the season. They finished the year unbeaten in 4, albeit 3 of these were drawn although this included holding Ferencvaros in Budapest. Three midfielders top their scoring charts with 4 goals, namely Czech Jakub Plsek, and Romanians Marius Corbu and Alexandru Balata.

Fehervar, from the town of Székesfehérvár, were champions in 2017/18 and have finished in the top three in the subsequent three seasons, so a 4^th place position at the winter break would be a disappointment. They had the best home record in the division losing only to Ferencvaros and drawing with Puskas Academy, but won only once away from home ( at MTK ), with losses at Ujpest, Ferencvaros and Kisvarda. Scoring goals have been a problem for Fehervar, with only 3 sides having less than their 23, although Bosnian ex- Athletic Bilbao forward Kenan Kodro scored 9 of them.

Zalaegerszegi TE were in 5^th place, but a distant 6 points off Fehervar. Their best result was winning at Ferencvaros, but they shipped 5 goals at Kisvarda and at home to Paksi. They finished the year unbeaten in 5 matches, which saw them move up from 8^th. Mark Koszta was the top scorer on 9 goals. Winger Alen Skribek has returned to parent club Puskas Academy after featuring in all 17 games, and has been replaced by two youngster on loan from Fehervar.

Mezokovesdi SE started with two wins but they went on a run of two points from 6 matches. A run of 5 matches unbeaten followed, before finishing the year with 3 defeats in their last 4 matches, although these were against Ferencvaros, Kisvarda and Fehervar. Just 19 goals were scored, with 5 for Bosnian Marin Jurina. They have been busy in the transfer market, with the arrivals including centre-back Andrej Lukic from Croatian side Dragovoljac, Albanian defender Amir Bilali from Romanians Academica Clinceni  Albanian midfielder Kamal Qaka from North Macedonian side Shkendija and winger Benjamin Babti joined from ZTE. On the other hand, forward Jakub Vojtus has left to join Rapid Bucharest and defender Janos Szepe went to MTK.

Paksi FC, from the small town of Paks located 100km south of Budapest have had a roller coaster of a season so far, having both the most goals scored and conceded. The highlights include two wins over Puskas Academy by a margin of 10-2, a 5-2 win at ZTE and a 4-1 at MTK. Other high scoring matches include a 3-3 draw at home to Debrecen,  a 2-3 home loss to Honved and a 3-4 defeat at Ujpest. The lowest point though was probably their loss at Gyirmot. Unsurprisingly, they have the division’s leading goals scorer, portly ex-Kaposvari striker Martin Adam leads the way with 15 whilst Mate Sajban has 7 goals.

After a 10^th place finish in 2020/21, Honved FC have shown signs of improvement this season. After losing their first two games, 4 wins and a draw in the next 6 took them up to 4^th but 6 losses in the last 9 matches saw them slid down the table. Their best result was probably the 2-1 home win over Kisvarda. After a glut of goals for TSC Backa Topola in the Serbian Superliga, Nenad Lukic has led the line with 12 goals so far this season. Ex-Red Star Belgrade and Spartak Moscow full-back Marko Petkovic has joined during the break, also from TSC Backa Topla, who are located in a Hungarian speaking part of Serbia, and defensive midfielder Oleksandr Petusenko has signed from Ukrainian Premier Liga side FK Minaj.

After their unexpected last day relegation at the end of the 2019/20 season, Debreceni VSC regained their top-flight status by winning NBII last season and were expected by a number of pundits to be pushing for a European place this year, so to be sitting in 9^th at the winter break has to be a bit of a let-down. Their home form has been solid, with a 4-2-2 record, but they have been let down by a 1-3-5 away record.  Hopes must have been high after a startling 4-1 win at Honved in the opening round but their form thereafter has had little consistency. 

The highpoints of their season so far were the comfortable 2-0 win at home to Ferencvaros, a 5-0 thumping of Gyirmot and another goal-fest against Honved ( 5-3 at home ). Striker Roland Ugrai has found the net 9 times whilst ex-PSV and Dynamo Moscow veteran Balasz Dzsudszak has scored 6 goals. Their major signing in the winter break to-date has been paying a reported 100k Euros for North Macedonian centre-forward Dorian Babunski from Botev Vratsa, who joins his brother David who was already at the club.

Ujpest FC, Cup winners in 2020/21 have had a poor first half to the season, although three wins in their last 5 matches saw them move off the bottom of the table. They had to wait until their 10^th match of the season to claim their first victory, upsetting Fehervar 1-0, and wins over Debrecen ( 3-1 ), Honved ( 2-1 away ) and Paksi ( 4-3 ) eventually followed. Ex-Lokeren Georgian winger Georgi Beridze has scored 5 times, whilst former Leuven and KV Mechelen French midfielder Yohan Croizet has chipped in with 4 goals. Serbian left-back Nemanja Antonov has been ever-present.

After a 7^th placed finish last season, MTK Budapest have disappointed so far in the current campaign. With just 5 points from 8 games they have the worst away record in the division, 4 of which came in their first two trips, which helped them to 7 points after 4 rounds and second place in the table. It has been downhill since, with their last 10 matches yielding just one win ( 2-1 at home to Ujpest thanks to a 96^th minute penalty ), with their earlier victories being  1-0 at home to Honved & Mezokovesdi, and at Ujpest ( 2-1 ).

Only 13 goals have been scored, of which 22 year old North Macedonian international Bojan Miovski ( 2 caps ) has claimed 7 of them, with ex-Romanian International Gheorghe Grozav getting 4 of the other 6. Ex-Manchester United and Bolton midfielder James Weir played 14 matches after signing from Slovakian side FK Pohronie in the summer, and MTK have signed ex-Portsmouth, Leicester and Blackpool forward Marko Futacs from Olimpia Ljubljana at the start of January in a bid to improve their potency in front of goal. Slovak left-back Branislav Sluka has also joined from MSK Zilina.

Gyirmot FC, from a suburb of the city of Gyor in the North-West of the country close to Slovakia, were promoted as runners up in NBII and have predictably struggled. Since an opening day draw at home to MTK Budapest they have been in the bottom three all season. Consecutive wins were registered in October, at Ujpest ( 3-1 ) and at home to Paksi ( 2-1 ), with a further success coming at MTK ( 3-0 ) at the start of November. They ended the year with just two points from the final 5 matches. Striker Barnabas Vargas has scored 6 times, and in an effort to avoid relegation, Slovak midfielder Denis Ventura has just been signed from Romanian side Academica Clinceni, the talented Belarus international Vladislav Klimovich has joined from Dinamo Minsk, and ex-Oxford United & Slavia Prague winger Nino van Gessel has also been recruited.

Attendances

Attendances so far have generally been unaffected by Covid limitations. Ferencvaros have been the best supported side so far, with an average of 8,216, followed by Debrecen with 4,063 then Honved with 2,829. Not surprisingly, the worst supported side was Puskas Academy with an average of 756, with an overall average for the division of 2,526.

The highest attendance was the 17,349 who attended the Ferencvaros vs Ujpest derby.

European Campaigns

Ferencvaros had a decent run in the Champions League, but failed to get through the final qualifying round. Wins were achieved over Kosovan side Prishtina ( 6-1 on aggregate ), Lithuanians FK Zalgiris ( 5-1 ) and Czech Champions Slavia Prague ( 2-1 ) but two 2-3 defeats to Young Boys Berne saw them exit the competition.

Dropping down to the Europa League group stages, Ferencvaros lost their first 5 matches before an academic 1-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen in their final match. Matches had been lost to Real Betis ( H 1-3, A 0-2 ), Celtic ( H 2-3, A 0-2 ) and Bayer Leverkusen ( A 1-2 ). Ryan Mmaee was their top scorer in Europe with 5 goals.

Cup-Winners Ujpest started their Europa Conference campaign with two wins over Liechtenstein side FC Vaduz ( 5-2 on aggregate ) but FC Basel were too strong in the next round with a 0-4 loss in Switzerland resulting in a 1-6 aggregate loss.

Fehervar fell at their first hurdle in the Europa Conference, crashing out to Armenian side FC Ararat after a 0-2 away loss meant elimination 1-3 on aggregate.

Puskas Academy fared even worse, crashing out to Latvian side RFS Riga 0-5 over the two legs.

Round 4

Thursday 27^th January, 2022

Puskas Academy vs Ferencvaros

Round 18

Saturday 29^th January, 2022

Paksi SE vs Zalaegerszegi TE

Debreceni VSC vs Kisvarda FC

Budapest Honved vs Gyirmot FC

Sunday 30^th January 2022

Puskas FC vs Fehervar FC

Mezokovesdi SE vs MTK Budapest

Ujpest FC vs Ferencvaros TC