26 years later: Zagreb ends an incredibly long streak against Salzburg

There was a big celebration in Zagreb after the match in Salzburg.

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Won 2-0 with Dinamo Zagreb at Red Bull Salzburg From the perspective of the Croats, this took on historic proportions. For the first time since November 25, 1998 – when Zagreb won 1-0 at Ajax Amsterdam thanks to a goal from Josip Simic – the country’s most successful club was able to celebrate an away victory in the Champions League. “Salzburg is a very good team, but they lost against a better team today,” coach Nenad Bjelica said after the match.

The 53-year-old, who has only been working at Dinamo since the end of September, was praised by Croatian journalists. “Bjelica has done a miracle, these people cause a lot of problems,” wrote for example 24 hours. And Vecernji Table he said: “Dinamo played a smart, patient game and earned a deserved win as the better team.”

22 CL away games in a row without a win

Naturally, his accompanying fans cheered even more at the rare sense of achievement in a foreign land. Before the match in Salzburg, Dinamo had remained winless in 22 consecutive away matches in the top class. The Croatians succeeded only three times, and in the remaining 19 games they lost – sometimes heavy ones. This was also the case on the first match day of this year’s league level: The 9-2 defeat at Bayern Munich even cost Sergej Jakirovic his job.

Although it was only about a month ago, it seems that this gossip was long forgotten. After the 2-2 draw against AS Monaco and the away win in the city of Mozart, one can now even dream of the demolition stage in Zagreb. Bjelica’s team is currently 22nd in the table – and thus twelve places ahead of Salzburg, who are still without points and still waiting for their first goal in the top class.