February 15, 2021 - The 21st round of the Croatian First League was held from February 12 to 14, 2021. This round features the battle for first place, in which Dinamo tops Osijek, while COVID-19 rips through Hajduk, forcing the postponement of Hajduk v Slaven Belupo at Poljud.
Varazdin v. Lokomotiva (0:1)
Varazdin and Lokomotiva opened the 21st round on Friday, February 12, 2021, in Varazdin.
The only goal of the match came thanks to a penalty in the 29th minute, which Pivaric scored for 0:1. Lokomotiva's Leksic was sent off in the 2nd minute of added time at the end of the match.
Varazdin is currently in 8th place with 19 points, while Lokomotiva is in 9th with 18 points.
Gorica v. Sibenik (1:0)
Gorica and Sibenik met in Velika Gorica on Saturday, February 13, 2021.
While the first half went without goals, Babec scored for Gorica to make it 1:0 in the 71st minute, which was the final score of the match.
Gorica is currently in 3rd place with 39 points, while Sibenik is in 6th with 24.
Dinamo v. Osijek (1:0)
Dinamo and Osijek met for the highly anticipated derby on Saturday, February 13, 2021, at Maksimir Stadium.
Yet another low-scoring match, the only goal came in the 15th minute thanks to Orsic, which give Dinamo the 1:0 victory. Ristovski received a red card in the 77th minute, forcing Dinamo to play with a man down for the remainder of the match.
Dinamo is currently in 1st place with 48 points, while Osijek is in 2nd with 45.
Rijeka v. Istra 1961 (1:1)
Rijeka and Istra closed out the 21st round at Rujevica Stadium on Sunday, February 14, 2021.
Grzan gave Istra the early lead in the 6th minute, but only two minutes later, Rijeka's Muric came back to equalize for 1:1, which was the final score of the match.
Rijeka is currently in 4th place with 31 points, while Istra is in last place with 14 points.
Hajduk was ravaged by COVID-19, which forced the postponement of their match against Slaven Belupo at Poljud on Sunday. The biggest derby against Dinamo on February 21 is under question as well.
The Split club announced that it would ask for the match to be postponed because as many as 20 of the 33 members who traveled to Osijek and Rijeka have been infected. Namely, 12 players and eight staff members are COVID-19 positive.
Split epidemiologists will send samples to Zagreb on Monday to find out if it is a new strain of coronavirus, or the UK variant.
You can see the full HNL table HERE.
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