Dinamo twice got stuck in the quarterfinals of the Youth Champions League, and after three years of waiting, we welcomed another Croatian club in this phase of the competition, which, we hope, will finally break through that wall called the quarterfinals.
Hajduk sensationally eliminated Manchester City (2-1) from the round of 16 in Poljud. And for a historic place in the semi-finals, they will fight against Borussia Dortmund, who eliminated PSG after the penalty shootout. After demolishing Shakhtar and City in their stadium, the “Bili Tiki” will have to visit Dortmund this time. The match will be played on March 14 or 15, the draw decided. Only one match is played.
We saw all the most important things in the game in two minutes. Lemina put PSG in the lead in the 39th minute, but Bamba brought the Borussia juniors back into the game in the 41st minute. The nets were at rest until the end of the regular part of the game, so penalties decided who would go to the quarterfinals. In the first four series, both of them were infallible, and the only mistake in the shootout was seen in the last series. First, Bamba scored the fifth penalty for Borussia, and then Hosni missed in drama and sent the ‘yellows’ to the quarter-finals against Hajduk.
Can Hajduk write the history of Croatian football?
They have already written the history of their club, and now they have the opportunity to make the history of Croatian football as well. Coach Marijan Budimir is doing a great job on the Hajduk junior bench. He won the title of Croatian champion twice, this season he is smiling for the third one, and this triumph against City is also the victory of his career.
Every season, the diamonds that he grinds with his own hands leave, and new uncut ones arrive. Before this match, he was without the top four, injured Dominik Prpić, suspended Luka Vušković and captain Marko Capan and Rokas Pukštas, who will play the quarter-finals of the Cup against Osijek on Wednesday with the Hajduk first team.
He patched up the team as he knew how, added several cadets to the juniors who made their Champions League debut against Shakhtar. However, despite numerous absences, he put together a machine that grinds everything in front of him in Europe. If the strong and rich City, which has camps all over the world and fields to dream of, fell, while the Hajduk players play and train on the only auxiliary, why shouldn’t PSG also fall? Croatian stubbornness has shown countless times how defiant and strong it is when they underestimate us…
Borussia is a club that has one of the best academies in the world. Their scouting networks work all over the world, every year a new talented pearl pops up from which they earn millions. And precisely some of these players who will play against Hajduk could already play in the first team next season. Borussia Dortmund is one of the clubs that develops young players, has results and still lives off their sales. Hajduk has been dreaming about something like this for years. The match will be played on March 14 or 15 on the auxiliary pitch with one stand in the Borussia training camp. I can forget about the wonderful atmosphere similar to the one in Poljud.
