The Prva HNL in Croatia has already crowned its champions, but this season something different is happening in the league.
For the first time since 2001, and only the third time in history, another team will join Dinamo Zagreb and play in the Champions League qualification rounds.
In the last few years, Croatian football made huge progress, and also the results in the European competition were better. Dinamo Zagreb, the most dominant Croatian club, made a few decent performances throughout the past decade. Since 2012, they played five times in the Champions League group stage and three more in the Europa League group stage. Last season they also reached the Europa League round of 16.
These results brought Croatia to the 15th place in the UEFA ranking. It means that Croatia will have two berths for the Champions League in the 2020-21 season. The runner-up of the Croatian league will have an opportunity to play in the league path of the qualification rounds, and maybe reach the group stage in one of the continental competitions.
Battle of Four
There are four teams who compete for the spot next to Dinamo Zagreb.
The gap is just five points between the second place and the fifth place. The big-name among the four teams is Rijeka, which is currently lying in fifth place. Rijeka is the only club to win the Croatian title in the last 15 years except for Dinamo Zagreb, and they also played in the Europa League group stage in the previous seasons.
Another big club that will try to finish in the second place is Hajduk Split. This glorious club, which is currently in the fourth place, had a decent European record in the past few seasons. Hajduk made a fantastic series with losing 3 out of their previous 16 matches. Unfortunately, this season they were disappointed after being eliminated in the first qualifying round against Gżira United from Malta.
Osijek has a long tradition of success, but surprisingly, they never finished in Croatia's top 2 places. This season they look great, as they are ranked in third place. Osijek can be proud of their striker, Mirko Marić. The 25-year-old forward is currently the league's top scorer with 19 goals. On the other hand, Osijek can be worried about their record until now, as they had 11 drawn matches, more than any other team in the league.
The surprising team is Lokomotiva Zagreb, which is currently in the second place. The team had short spells in the Yugoslav top tier in the '50s, but they played in the lower leagues since then. In 2006, after they relegated to the fourth division, Lokomotiva became a feeder team for Dinamo Zagreb. Dinamo's loaned players have a chance to prove their skills in the club, and the most famous that have done so is Andrej Kramarić, who plays nowadays for Hoffenheim. Today they can be proud of Sammir, the veteran Brazilian-Croatian naturalized player. Lokomotiva didn't play in the European competition in the last three seasons, and now they can return with a ticket to the Champions League.
Four teams, one ticket. There are only four matches left, who will be the team that will make it to the main stage of European football?
Thumbnail photo by NK Osijek official Facebook page