NK Osijek 3-0 NK Slaven Belupo ( att : 0 ) - 2020/21 Croatia 1.HNL

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 4^th 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 4^th, 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 3^rd, 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 7^th last season.

Slaven went into today’s match in 5^th 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 22^nd 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 26^th 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 4^th 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 53^rd 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 88^th 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

 

 

 

Gaz Metan Medias 1-1 Academica Clinceni ( att : 0 ) - 2020/21 Romania Casa Liga

January 30, 2021

It was a Saturday 12.15 lunchtime kick-off local time in Romania ( 10.15am in the UK ) for this Round 20 Casa Liga 1 encounter being streamed on Bet365.com and featured a battle between 10^th and 5^th. Academica comfortably won the reverse fixture 2-0 in the September sunshine but the forecast for today was for dry weather with a high of 5 degrees. However, that would be much better than the minus temperatures and snow some of the Romanian games in January have been played in !

The home side play in the self-named 7,814 capacity Gaz Metan Stadium in Medias, in Sibiu County, Transylvania. Medias, is 330km north-west of Bucharest and is situated on the site of the largest natural gas field in Romania. Its football club are sponsored by Romgaz, the 70% state owned largest supplier of natural gas in the country.

At the winter break Gaz Metan lay in 12^th place in the league table, having had an up and down first half of the season, recording wins at Cluj, Arad and Politehnica Iasi but lost 4 times at home. In their four matches after the resumption they recorded two 2-1 home wins ( over FC Voluntari and Politehnica Iasi ) extending their winning home run to three. However, away from home they drew at Arges Pitesti ( 1-1 ) and controversially lost 1-2 at Dinamo Bucharest with the winning goal involving the Gaz Metan keeper being bundled into the net off the ball by a Dinamo forward, and a handball penalty not being awarded in their favour late in the game. Nevertheless, they had risen to 10^th place at the start of the day.

The coach of Gaz Metan is Jorge Costa, the Porto and Charlton Athletic Portuguese International centre back who won 50 caps for his country. He was famously part of the Young Fish Costa Fortune Charlton Premiership backline in 2001/02 !

Three members of Gaz Metan’s large foreign legion were offloaded during the short winter break, with Czech forward Tomas Smola being loaned to Opava, ex Nottingham Forest & Napoli Italian forward Nicolao Dumitru moving to South Korean side Suwon Bluewings and ex Crawley Town Dutch midfielder Moussa Sanoh signing for Maltese side FC Balzan. Ten foreign players remain on their books though.

The departed Nicolao Dumitru tops their goalscoring chart with 7 goals with Ronaldo Deaconu the best of the players still at the club on 5 goals.

Gaz Metan made two changes from their midweek loss at Dinamo Bucharest, with Comoros midfielder Nasser Chamed coming in for Guinea-Bissau international Francisco Junior ( 3 caps ) and midfielder Paul Costea replacing centre forward Luis Nitu. As a result of this change, Portuguese Ricardo Valente moved from a wide role to a more forward central position.  

In addition to Chamed and Valente, three other foreign players started : Yuri Matias ( Brazilian centre-back ), Ondrej Baco ( Czech centre-back ) & Bryan Alceus ( Haitian midfielder – 13 caps ) whilst the substitutes included Ze Manuel ( Portuguese winger ), Yves Pambou ( Congolese midfielder – 2 caps ), Roberto Romeo ( Italian winger ) and Idrisa Sambu ( Portuguese forward ).

Clinceni is a village 16km south-west of Bucharest with a population of less than 5,000 inhabitants. This makes them the smallest location in Romania to host top flight football. In 2013 the club was relocated to Clinceni from Buftea, 20km north-west of Bucharest, but moved again the following season to Pitesti, 120km north of Bucharest. However, one season later the club was repurchased by the local commune and moved back to Clinceni !

As the club’s name might suggest, the club have a large youth academy, with reportedly 700 players in its ranks.

Academica started the season slowly, with only one win in their opening 7 encounters but 5 wins and three draws thereafter saw them move up to 5^th by the end of 2020. They had lost just twice, both at home ( Cluj 1-2, FCSB 0-2 ) and were unbeaten in all seven away matches, although that include five draws.

However, the restart saw the end of the unbeaten away record, with defeats at CFR Cluj ( 1-3 ) and  Chindia Targoviste ( 1-2 ). At home, a 0-0 draw with FC Hermannstadt and 2-1 win over FC Botosani were registered to keep them 5^th in the table.

The coach of Academica is Ille Poenaru, and having been appointed in 2018 he is currently the longest serving coach in Liga 1.

Academica also made two changes from their previous starting XI, a midweek win over Botsani, with Slovak Denis Ventura and Razvan Andronic coming into midfield in place of Andrei Cordea and Argentine Juan Cascini. Keeper Octavian Valceanu remained ever present this season.

Bulgarians Asen Chandarov and Tsvetelin Chunchukov started upfront, with Chunchukov the joint top scorer so far with 3 goals. Two other foreigners made the starting XI, French midfielder Thibaut Moulin and Austrian centre-back Mladen Jutric. The other joint top scorer, veteran Moldovan midfielder Eugeniu Cebotaru ( 64 caps ) was on the bench alongside ex Romanian internationals Florin Gardos ( ex-Southampton centre-back – 13 caps ), and midfielder Raul Rusescu ( 10 caps ). 13 different players have found the net for Academica this season.

Reflecting the likelihood of a close match, Academica started as narrow 31/20 favourites with Bet365, with Gaz Metan at 15/8. The draw was 21/10.

At kick-off it was a bright but breezy day although the pitch looked a little uneven and already with a sign of a few divots. Both goalmouths also had bare, muddy patches and although the match was being played behind closed doors, a handful of home fans were visible watching over a wall !

Gaz Metan were playing in all white, with Academica in all blue. However, the visitors were without a shirt sponsor and did not have the players names on the back of their shirts.

It took just 2 minutes for the first yellow card to be brandished, when Ventura cynically brought down Deaconu near the halfway line. The home side dominated possession in the early stages but without creating any danger and the pitch was already quickly cutting-up, no doubt as a result of the unusual seasonal play in the rain, snow and cold of a January winter.

Both sides were forced into substitutions in the first 20 minutes, with Costea going off to be replaced by Ze Manuel for Gaz Metan and Longher being replaced by the podgy Adrian Popa for the visitors.

The play became scrappy as Academica started to get a hold in the match but neither goalkeeper had much to do apart from gather over hit long balls or collect mis-directed crosses. The first half-chance went to Gaz Metan in the 28^th minute but Matias’ header from a corner was well wide, and the home side should have taken the lead 3 minutes later when Butean’s long throw was flicked on by Matias but Valente unmarked 6 yards out could only scoop the ball over the bar.

Academica’s first dangerous threat came 3 minutes before half-time when Andronic made space inside the penalty area and delivered a low cross. Fortunately for Gaz Metan, Butean was alert to the danger and was able to slide in, block the cross for a corner and deny Chandarov a tap-in.

It got better for Academica in added on time when the home side were reduced to 10 men. Centre-back Baco appeared to be first to a long ball and played the ball back towards his keeper. However, Chunchukov fell over his outstretched leg and rolled over a couple of times, and Baco was adjudged to have brought down the last man, An incredibly poor decision from the referee, but there is no VAR in Romania !

The first half ended without a single shot on target, but with Gaz Metan having to play the second half with a man less, their odds increased to 15/4 with Academica shortening to 11/8.

Four minutes into the second half Gaz Metan made a tactical change to shore-up their defence, bring on a Ionut Larie as a replacement centre-half to substitute the substitute Ze Manuel. Larie had been ever present up until Christmas so it was hardly weakening the side but unfortunately for Gaz Metan Larie’s first contribution was a decisive impact to give Academica the lead four minutes after his introduction. A long through ball looked harmless enough but Larie and keeper Plesca got in each other’s way, perhaps due to a nudge by Chunchukov, leaving the Bulgarian clear and he rolled the ball into the unguarded net from a fairly tight angle for his 4^th goal of the season.

Gaz Metan seemed to be deflated by this and for a while Academica were content to keep possession. In a rare foray forward Popa made a threatening run into the Gaz Metan area only to fall to floor without being challenged. The referee pointed for a goal kick.

Academica’s intent to sit on their lead was further underlined by taking off their goal scorer, and Gaz Metan responded by bringing on two forwards. This positive approach was rewarded with their first meaningful attack of the half with 8 minutes left on the clock.

Deaconu took a left footed free-kick close to the right-side touchline midway into the Academica half, and the ball was allowed to sail unchallenged towards the far post into the 6 yard box. With keeper Valceanu rooted to his line, substitute Idrissa Sambu made enough contact to divert the ball in the opposite direction to leave the keeper helpless as the ball trickled into the corner.

Academica were unable to respond, and it was the home side who came closest to snatching a winner, but a spectacular overhead kick from Matias was pushed away by Valceanu and gratefully cleared for a corner by a defender.

With the match finishing 1-1, both sides stayed in the same place in the table. After playing the second half with 10 men, Gaz Metan will probably be more satisfied with the result, and a point each was probably a fair outcome.

Gaz Metan : Plesca – Butean, Baco, Matias, Trif – Horsia ( Nitu ), Alceus, Deaconu, Chamed, Costea ( Ze Manuel, Larie ), - Valente ( Sambu )

Academica Clinceni : Valceanu – Achim, Jutric, Patriche, Dobrescu – Ventura, Moulin ( Cebotaru ), Andronic, Longher ( Popa ) – Chunchukov ( Markovic ), Chandarov ( Rusescu ).

Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYs9i8bfYeU