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.