These Games Push The Limits On Harshness

On Saturday, Dinamo starts a decisive battle to defend the champion title with the traditionally unpleasant away game in Rijeka.

To Dinamo chief strategist, the tension that builds up before games such as the one between Dinamo and Rijeka is nothing out of the ordinary.

- I expect a fanatic and aggressive game from Rijeka, maybe one bordering on harshness, which is normal, since the tension and the additional motives are high, so that that boundary is often crossed. Rijeka will do everything to try to defeat us, but their game will largely depend on ours. The bad turf will not affect our team or our game in the least, because I think that the better team adapts to all possible and impossible conditions on the field much more easily. For as long as I am the Dinamo coach, the primary goal will be our style of the game, with due respect given to the opponent, maybe to certain individuals, but this will depend on the game and our team's condition. Our philosophy will not change and, in particular, it will not change to adapt to the opponent.

The victory in Rijeka would ensure Ivankovic the necessary peace of mind before the match with Hajduk next week.

- We have done all we could to start this championship with maximum readiness. We are obviously  not counting on the players who have problems with injuries. In any case, I would like to express my satisfaction with the work we did during preparations, when the players did an excellent job in my opinion. We played seven games and I found those we played in Turkey particularly satisfying to my way of thinking and to me as a coach. Our ambitions do not require special mention. There is, of course, the double crown which, as far as short-term goals go, means that we are going into tomorrow's game against Rijeka with maximum level of ambition, which means to win and to then meet our biggest rival, Hajduk, in a more pleasant atmosphere.

Youth is the strength that Dinamo coach is counting on:

- You can tell that this is a young team. You have two players, Mamic and Vugrinec, who are over 30 and everyone else, 80 percent of them, are between 19 and 22 years of age. Therefore, the primary and basic goal is to maintain the level of the score and the quality of the game that is befitting to Dinamo. The other goal is easy to define; to standardize and recognize these players so that, over the next six months, they become capable of satisfying Dinamo's goals and ambitions in European matches as well. At the same time, there is the creation of the game, the additional quality of team work, of the coordination and cohesion of the team. You already know that the team has been pretty renewed, there are six new players, the sixth week of preparations is coming to an end and the period ahead of us is not long enough for us to achieve an automatized game, but this is not an alibi to us. I have not even mentioned the five injured players nor those who cannot play against Rijeka, who would practically be in the top eleven – I am talking about Chaga, Etto, Buljat, Carlos, and Mikic. That is why it is fortunate that we have done an excellent job in the transitional period by bringing in players who satisfy Dinamo's criteria in these conditions, players in whom I have a lot of confidence, and who will leave their heart and everything that matters in order to win at the Kantrida stadium tomorrow.

Branko claims that he is familiar enough with the atmosphere in the Rijeka club

- I know what the situation is like in Rijeka best because I worked there for two years. It is a club we can safely call the third best club in Croatia, after Dinamo and Hajduk, and one which has, in the last three years in particular, achieved the best results in the history of our league. They won the cup twice. They grew stronger. Now, they are a team that will be seeking recovery because their results in the last part of the championship were weaker, and one should not doubt that they will do everything they can to defeat us. There is no question that we treat every opponent with respect and utmost seriousness. I am not interested in history and the tradition of Dinamo playing exceptionally difficult games at Kantrida because we have our goal and our way of thinking, but that we respect Rijeka deserves no special mention. That is not courtesy of any kind, that is the truth. They solidified the team with the two players they had been missing in their concept of the game, Ivanov and Novakovic. I think they lost a lot with Mikic, but we have a better, higher quality team and there is no reason for us not to put ourselves in the role of the favourite, with equal fighting spirit, level of engagement, and fanaticism.

Before the trip to Rijeka, Dinamo will have one more training on Friday and, on Saturday, they will also train in Rijeka at 11 AM. The players will not be spared either on the day of the game or the day after because Ivankovic has also scheduled a training session on Sunday.