It was a nightmare day for Rijeka, who finished the 1-0 loss with eight men on the field after two sending-offs and a late injury left the team depleted.
Osijek got on the board early with a penalty scored by Borna Barisic in the 18th minute. Rijeka settled into desperation mode early, losing captain Filip Bradaric to an injury in the first half, who was replaced by Mate Males. Males would exit the match early after receiving two yellow cards in quick succession in the second half. He joined Marko Veskovic who was similarly sent off in the first 45 minutes of the game after earning two yellow cards in a three-minute span.
With the loss, Rijeka sit to points behind league-leading Dinamo Zagreb ho defeated Hajduk Split on Sunday at Maksimir.
It was a long time coming, but the win was Osijek’s first of the 2017/18 season after kicking off the first three matches with draws. The team, which is also entering the play off round of the Europa League, has been surging in teh last year and are certainly contenders for the top three spots of the league.
Dinamo may no longer be the reigning champions in Croatia, but their hold over rivals Hajduk keeps the status quo intact. In their first meeting of the 2017/18 season, Dinamo showed their dominance over an injury ridden Hajduk side. Dinamo young gun Ante Ćorić got the party started in the 8th minute when he managed to stay onside and slip the ball past Hajduk goalie Dante Stipica. There wasn’t much fight from Hajduk on the night in front of solid Maksimir crowd, which saw the likes of the BBB and Torcida in full force.
Hajduk managed to get on the board and draw level with Dinamo in the 64th minute when Goran Nižić was left all alone on the back post during a corner and headed home from a low angle to put the ball into the back of the net.
Hajduk would have been happy with a draw but Daniel Olmo gave Dinamo the lead back 12 minutes from time with an impressive low shot from 24 yards out which Stipica could not get a finger on. Dinamo would add some insurance two minutes later on a messy, broken play in the Hajduk box where Stipica may have been followed after a collapse in the Hajduk backline only for Soudani to pick up the trash and fire on an open net.
Dinamo briefly jump to first place but idle Rijeka will travel to Osijek Monday night to take on the Europa League cinderellas.
Dinamo-Hajduk Match Highlights
I hear ya razbijac. Didn’t know the truth troll was trangender. Good for him . Great time to come out of the closet. Kathy g. Still putting up idiotic posts.
Go Osijek!
Go osijek. Good job!
The only foregone conclusion is questionable refereeing and controversy will call into question the result.
My favourite forgone conclusion in sports;
Dinamo over Hajduk!
And all is right in the world for a moment..
Fuctas probably blew his knee out
Crowd doesn’t sound too bad. Wonder how many in attendance?
HAJDUK 2-1 , but it will be hard missing 3 best players .
Additional streams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpJPptthfDY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3tVYEMPwdw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsPuikReu6E
My $$$ is on Dinamo 2-1
Who do you guys have winning??
Can’t wait