The Year Of Croatian Comedy

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No one really expects big things out of the Prva HNL, Croatian’s top division, unless they’re looking to poach from the diamond reserves commonly referred to as the youth teams at Dinamo Zagreb & Hajduk Split. It’s a great league to watch but not quite football’s “elite” – not to mention it’s a bit La Liga-esque top two heavy. The two dominant powers have won all but one of the league’s titles since 1992 whilst rolling out gem after gem from the academies. This year, along with those gems, they’ve been rolling out football’s versions of ROFL, too, if such a thing does exist.

From this weekend above is what you’re likely to find splattered across the internet as “the greatest own-goal ever”, and it might be. The turn, the technique, the placement, the power…all on show as Hajduk’s Goran Rubil puts one past his stunned and slightly offended teammate.

As you’ve probably figured out by now, Hajduk lost the game 2 to 1, proving once and again: exquisite finishing and execution simply wins football games – the trick is finding the right net.

Going back a few months on the other side of The Eternal Derby, Dinamo Zagreb made headlines because Ilija Sivonjic couldn’t, not only managing to miss a sitter which was trickling laterally across the goal line, but also keeping it out when it was probably going in anyway.

That match ended 1-1. Because the gods, buncha killjoys that they are, don’t smile kindly upon comedy.

These two despise each other with venomous hate most days, but perhaps today they can finally come together, cowering under an umbrella of the world’s bellowing and finger-pointing. Who says football rivalries fail to promote love and friendship?

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Category: Europe