Split leaves Hajduk still in front
Monday, April 25, 2005
Article summary
Monthly review: Croatia's top flight has divided into two groups with leaders HNK Hajduk Split still showing the way.
Article body
By Elvir Islamovic
The Croatian championship split into two leagues four weeks ago with the top six sides continuing their race for the championship and the rest striving to avoid relegation. The biggest surprise was the failure of NK Dinamo Zagreb to reach the upper section.
Difficult period
HNK Hajduk Split remain in top spot but they are not having it all their own way and were forced to endure a difficult period which ended last Saturday with a 5-1 victory over NK Inter Zaprešic.
Stimac in charge
Hajduk also made a coaching change with former Croatian international Igor Stimac taking over from Blaž Sliskovic. Stimac, 37, had been sporting director at the club for some time and decided he was the best option for the coach's role.
Early lead
It was a strange game that saw them finally overcome Inter's challenge because for 40 minutes the visitors led 1-0 but then lost Krunoslav Vidak to a red card. Five goals without reply – with new Hajduk star Niko Kranjcar scoring his first for the club - left Inter thoroughly deflated.
Three-point cushion
There are three, possibly four, teams in contention for the title and Hajduk have a three-point advantage over HNK Rijeka who were held to a 0-0 home draw by NK Slaven Koprivnica in the last round of matches.
Prosinecki quits
Inter are third, two points behind Rijeka, with NK Zagreb a further two adrift. Zagreb are the best team in the capital this season but sporting director and former player Robert Prosinecki has resigned from his post. He is disappointed with the situation in Croatian football and said he cannot continue under the present conditions.
Gap maintained
However, his departure has not affected Zagreb and their 3-1 victory last weekend over NK Varteks, where Miroslav Blazevic is in charge, saw them remain seven points behind Hajduk.
Scorless run
The lower league is interesting because of Dinamo Zagreb's continuing poor form. After defeating second-from-bottom NK Medimurje 5-1, they then had three goalless draws in succession, against NK Kamen Ingrad, NK Osijek and, latterly, NK Pula 1856.
'So weak'
"This is terrible," said coach Zvezdan Cvetkovic, who replaced Ilija Loncarevic last month. "We are so weak, we couldn't score a goal in the last three games."
Injury blow
Another problem for Dinamo is that their best striker, Croatia's naturalised Brazilian Eduardo da Silva, has a toe injury and will be unavailable for two weeks. Loncarevic, meanwhile, will take charge of Libya's national team for the next 12 months, his second spell in that position.