T-Com Prva HNL

Season	2008–09
Champions	Dinamo Zagreb 11th Croatian title 15th domestic title
Relegated	None
UEFA Champions League	Dinamo Zagreb
UEFA Europa League	Hajduk Split Rijeka Slaven Belupo
Goals scored	522
Average goals/game	2.64
Top goalscorer	Mario Mandžukić (16)
Biggest home win	Dinamo 6–0 Cibalia (17 August 2008)[1]
Biggest away win	Varteks 1–6 Dinamo (26 April 2009)[2]
Highest scoring	Rijeka 6–2 Slaven Belupo (8 goals) (26 April 2009)[3]
← 2007–08 2009–10 →

The 2008–09 Prva HNL season was the 18th since its establishment. It started on 27 July 2008 and ended on 31 May 2009. Dinamo Zagreb were the defending champions, having won their 10th championship title the previous season.

Contents 1 Promotion and relegation 2 League expansion 3 Stadiums and locations 4 Managerial changes 5 League table 5.1 Relegation play-off 6 Results 6.1 First and second round 6.2 Third round 7 Season statistics 7.1 Overall 7.2 Home 7.3 Away 7.4 Clean sheets 8 Top goalscorers 8.1 Hat-tricks 9 Transfers 10 See also 11 References 12 External links

Promotion and relegation []

Međimurje were automatically relegated to Druga HNL as they finished last in the previous season, while Croatia Sesvete were automatically promoted from Druga HNL after winning the 2007–08 title. In a two-legged playoff between Inter Zaprešić and Hrvatski dragovoljac, the former kept their Prva HNL status by beating Hrvatski dragovoljac with 2–0 on aggregate (2–0, 0–0).

League expansion []

In June 2007 Igor Štimac, president of Association of Prva HNL clubs, proposed a future expansion of Prva HNL from 12 to 16 clubs, starting from 2008–09 season.^[4] However, although a majority of club representatives supported that proposal, no strict agreement or final decision was made. On HNS meeting in late August 2007 it was decided to postpone the decision for late 2007 or even 2008 and that the expansion would not be possible before the 2009–10 season.^[5]

For more than a year nothing explicit was stated on that matter. Finally, on a regular HNS meeting in February 2009 HNS Secretary Zorislav Srebrić stated that club licensing would decide whether the 2009–10 season would feature 12 or 16 teams. Theoretically, if only 15 teams obtained Prva HNL license, league would have featured 12 teams. The deadline for submitting the license was 1 May 2009.^[6] On 8 May 2009 HNS declared that all 19 clubs that applied for the license were awarded with it and would be in possibility to enter the league in 2009–10, now expanded to 16 clubs.^[7] Also, on 26 May 2009 HNS received official confirmations from all 19 clubs in which they expressed their will to compete in next year's Prva HNL, what means that none of the clubs would withdraw from the league.^[8] However, despite their guarantee to compete in Prva HNL, Slavonac eventually withdrew although they finished fourth and earned direct access to Prva HNL 2009–10. Their place was taken by Međimurje while sixth-placed Hrvatski dragovoljac competed in a relegation play-offs.^[9]

Stadiums and locations []

After the death of Hrvoje Ćustić during a game played at Zadar's Stanovi Stadium in March 2008, it was decided that the stadia for the 2008–09 season would have to pass a closer inspection to be deemed fit for first-league football. Since only 9 stadia managed to meet the requirements and obtain first-league license from the Croatian Football Federation, it was announced in May 2008 that some of the teams (Cibalia, Croatia Sesvete, Zadar and NK Zagreb) would have to share stadia and temporarily play their home games at other venues.^[10] Just before Round 1 kicked off, Cibalia managed to bring their stadium to standard, and in August, just before round 5, Zadar secured the licence to play their games at Stanovi Stadium.^[11]

Team	City	Stadium	Capacity
Cibalia	Vinkovci	Stadion Cibalia	10,000
Croatia Sesvete	Zagreb	Kamen Ingrad Stadium	10,000
Dinamo	Zagreb	Maksimir Stadium	37,168
Hajduk	Split	Gradski stadion u Poljudu	35,000
Inter	Zaprešić	Stadion NK Inter Zaprešić	10,000
NK Osijek	Osijek	Gradski vrt	19,500
NK Rijeka	Rijeka	Kantrida Stadium	12,000
Slaven Belupo	Koprivnica	Gradski Stadion u Koprivnici	5,000
HNK Šibenik	Šibenik	Stadion Šubićevac	8,000
Varteks	Varaždin	Stadion Anđelko Herjavec	10,000
NK Zadar	Zadar	Stanovi Stadium	5,860
NK Zagreb	Zagreb	Stadion Kranjčevićeva	12,000

Managerial changes []

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
NK Zagreb	Miroslav Blažević	Mutual consent	10 May 2008 [12]	Luka Pavlović	11 May 2008 [13]	Pre-season
Dinamo Zagreb	Zvonimir Soldo	Resigned	14 May 2008 [14]	Branko Ivanković	20 May 2008 [15]	Pre-season
Slaven Belupo	Krunoslav Jurčić	Resigned	14 May 2008 [16]	Mile Petković	26 May 2008 [17]	Pre-season
Hajduk Split	Robert Jarni	Sacked	24 May 2008 [18]	Goran Vučević	25 May 2008 [19]	Pre-season
Croatia Sesvete	Zlatko Kranjčar	Resigned	18 June 2008 [20]	Ljupko Petrović	2 July 2008 [21]	Pre-season
Rijeka	Zlatko Dalić	Sacked	1 July 2008 [22]	Mladen Ivančić	7 July 2008 [23]	Pre-season
Osijek	Ilija Lončarević	Sacked	26 September 2008 [24]	Tomislav Steinbrückner	26 September 2008 [24]	10th
Zadar	Dalibor Zebić	Resigned	28 September 2008 [25]	Ivica Datković	9 October 2008 [26]	12th
Rijeka	Mladen Ivančić	Resigned	8 October 2008 [27]	Robert Rubčić	13 October 2008 [28]	7th
Inter Zaprešić	Milivoj Bračun	Resigned	20 October 2008 [29]	Borimir Perković	20 October 2008 [29]	11th
Hajduk Split	Goran Vučević	Resigned	26 October 2008 [30]	Ante Miše	21 November 2008 [31]	3rd
Cibalia	Srećko Lušić	Sacked	10 November 2008 [32]	Stanko Mršić	14 November 2008 [33]	11th
Dinamo Zagreb	Branko Ivanković	Mutual consent	24 November 2008 [34]	Marijan Vlak	24 November 2008 [34]	1st
Croatia Sesvete	Ljupko Petrović	Resigned	7 December 2008 [35]	Zlatko Kranjčar	30 December 2008 [36]	10th
Zadar	Ivica Datković	Mutual consent	21 December 2008 [37]	Dalibor Zebić	30 December 2008 [38]	12th
Croatia Sesvete	Zlatko Kranjčar	Resigned	21 February 2009 [39]	Milan Đuričić	3 May 2009 [40]	10th
Dinamo Zagreb	Marijan Vlak	Sacked	5 March 2009 [41]	Krunoslav Jurčić	5 March 2009 [41]	2nd

League table []

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Dinamo Zagreb (C)	33	23	5	5	71	26	+45	74	2009–10 UEFA Champions League Second qualifying round
2	Hajduk Split	33	21	5	7	59	25	+34	68	2009–10 UEFA Europa League Third qualifying round
3	Rijeka	33	17	5	11	50	44	+6	56	2009–10 UEFA Europa League Second qualifying round
4	Slaven Belupo	33	16	7	10	46	39	+7	55	2009–10 UEFA Europa League First qualifying round 1
5	NK Zagreb	33	13	8	12	38	39	−1	47
6	Šibenik	33	13	7	13	44	35	+9	46
7	Osijek	33	10	11	12	40	41	−1	41
8	Cibalia	33	10	8	15	33	53	−20	38
9	Inter Zaprešić	33	9	9	15	41	50	−9	36
10	Varteks	33	10	5	18	41	55	−14	35
11	Zadar	33	7	8	18	28	49	−21	29
12	Croatia Sesvete (O)	33	6	8	19	31	66	−35	0252	0 Relegation play-off0

Source: prva-hnl.hr (Croatian)
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
¹Because both cup finalists, Dinamo and Hajduk, qualified for Europe through their league positions, all three UEFA Europa League spots were given to teams according to their league positions, what means that fourth-placed Slaven Belupo also earned a spot in Europa League.
²Croatia Sesvete were deducted 1 point due to unpaid debts to Imotski over player Darko Vučić.^[42]
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Relegation play-off []

Due to the expansion of Prva HNL to 16 clubs in the 2009–10 season, four clubs from Druga HNL 2008–09 were automatically promoted. Those should have been top four clubs, but since Slavonac withdrew^[9] their direct access spot was taken by fifth-placed Međimurje. Therefore, the 12th placed Croatia Sesvete played a two-legged relegation play-off against the 6th placed team of Druga HNL, Hrvatski dragovoljac. Croatia Sesvete won 2–1 on aggregate and thereby earned a spot in the 2009–10 season.

11 June 2009 18:00 CEST	Hrvatski dragovoljac	0 – 0	Croatia Sesvete	Maksimir, Zagreb Attendance: 2,000 Referee: Domagoj Ljubičić
	Ercegović  58', 84'	Report (Croatian)

---

14 June 2009 20:00 CEST	Croatia Sesvete	2 – 1	Hrvatski dragovoljac	Kranjčevićeva, Zagreb Attendance: 2,500 Referee: Ivan Bebek
	Vojnović  10'  41', 62' Čižmek  90'	Report (Croatian)	Janjetović  67'

Results []

The schedule consisted of three rounds. During the first two rounds, each team played each other once home and away for a total of 22 matches. The pairings of the third round were then set according to the standings after the first two rounds, giving every team a third game against each opponent for a total of 33 games per team.

First and second round []

Home \ Away[1]

CIB

CRS

DIN

HAJ

INT

OSI

RIJ

SLA

ŠIB

VAR

ZAD

ZAG

Cibalia

3–1

1–1

1–1

4–3

0–3

3–1

0–0

2–0

1–0

1–0

0–1

Croatia Sesvete

1–1

0–1

1–0

1–3

1–1

0–1

0–0

0–0

4–0

3–1

1–4

Dinamo Zagreb

6–0

6–1

0–2

3–1

1–0

2–0

1–0

3–0

2–1

2–0

3–1

Hajduk Split

2–0

1–0

2–0

3–3

3–1

2–0

3–1

1–0

1–1

1–0

4–0

Inter Zaprešić

1–2

3–2

1–3

0–4

0–1

2–2

0–0

2–3

2–3

3–1

1–1

Osijek

2–0

4–2

0–2

1–2

2–1

2–2

0–0

1–3

2–1

3–0

0–2

Rijeka

1–0

2–1

1–0

3–1

0–1

0–0

2–0

0–1

2–1

2–1

0–1

Slaven Belupo

1–0

4–0

2–0

1–2

1–0

4–2

2–1

3–1

2–3

2–1

2–0

Šibenik

4–0

0–1

2–2

1–2

1–1

1–1

3–0

3–0

2–0

1–0

1–1

Varteks

3–0

2–1

0–1

0–2

1–0

0–02

3–3

2–3

2–1

2–0

2–1

Zadar

2–1

1–2

2–3

1–0

1–1

2–2

0–3

1–1

1–0

1–0

2–1

NK Zagreb

0–0

1–1

2–2

3–0

0–1

2–1

1–1

2–0

0–4

0–3

0–0

Source: prva-hnl.hr (Croatian)
^{1 ^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
²The match was suspended after 82 minutes due to heavy fog. However, since more than 80% of the game was played it was officially registered with the score at the moment of suspension (0–0).^[43]
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Third round []

Home \ Away[1]

CIB

CRS

DIN

HAJ

INT

OSI

RIJ

SLA

ŠIB

VAR

ZAD

ZAG

Cibalia

3–0

3–4

1–1

2–1

2–1

Croatia Sesvete

0–4

0–3

1–1

0–1

2–1

Dinamo Zagreb

1–0

0–0

4–0

2–0

2–0

0–1

Hajduk Split

2–0

5–0

2–2

2–0

0–1

2–0

Inter Zaprešić

0–0

0–2

3–0

1–0

2–2

Osijek

1–0

1–1

1–2

1–2

1–0

Rijeka

2–0

3–2

2–1

6–2

4–1

2–0

Slaven Belupo

1–1

5–1

1–1

1–0

2–1

2–1

Šibenik

0–2

4–0

2–1

0–1

0–0

2–1

Varteks

1–6

0–1

2–3

2–2

0–0

1–2

Zadar

3–1

1–1

0–3

3–1

0–1

NK Zagreb

4–0

0–0

1–0

1–0

3–1

Source: prva-hnl.hr (Croatian)
^{1 ^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics []

• First goal of the season: Goran Mujanović for Varteks against NK Zagreb, 8th minute (27 July 2008).^[44]
• Most goals in a match: 8 goals – Rijeka 6–2 Slaven Belupo (26 April 2009).^[45]
• Widest winning margin: 6 goals – Dinamo Zagreb 6–0 Cibalia (17 August 2008).^[46]

Overall []

• Most wins – Dinamo Zagreb (23)
• Fewest wins – Croatia Sesvete (6)
• Most losses – Croatia Sesvete (19)
• Fewest losses – Dinamo Zagreb (5)
• Most goals scored – Dinamo Zagreb (71)
• Fewest goals scored – Zadar (28)
• Most goals conceded – Croatia Sesvete (66)
• Fewest goals conceded – Hajduk Split (25)

Home []

• Most wins – Dinamo Zagreb (14)
• Fewest wins – Inter Zaprešić and Croatia Sesvete (4)
• Most losses – Varteks, Inter Zaprešić and Croatia Sesvete (7)
• Fewest losses – Hajduk Split (1)
• Most goals scored – Dinamo Zagreb (38)
• Fewest goals scored – Croatia Sesvete (15)
• Most goals conceded – Varteks and Inter Zaprešić (26)
• Fewest goals conceded – Dinamo Zagreb (7)

Away []

• Most wins – Dinamo Zagreb (9)
• Fewest wins – Zadar (0)
• Most losses – Zadar (13)
• Fewest losses – Dinamo Zagreb (3)
• Most goals scored – Dinamo Zagreb (33)
• Fewest goals scored – Cibalia (6)
• Most goals conceded – Croatia Sesvete (44)
• Fewest goals conceded – Hajduk Split (16)

Clean sheets []

• Most clean sheets – Hajduk Split (16)
• Fewest clean sheets – Zadar and Croatia Sesvete (6)

Top goalscorers []

Source: prva-hnl.hr (Croatian)

16 goals

• Mario Mandžukić (Dinamo Zagreb)

15 goals

• Nikola Kalinić (Hajduk Split)

14 goals

• Anas Sharbini (Rijeka)
• Bojan Vručina (Slaven Belupo)
• Ermin Zec (Šibenik)

12 goals

• Senijad Ibričić (Hajduk Split)
• Ahmad Sharbini (Rijeka)

11 goals

• Goran Mujanović (Varteks)
• Ilija Sivonjić (Inter Zaprešić (8) / Dinamo Zagreb (3))
• Davor Vugrinec (NK Zagreb)

Hat-tricks []

Player	For	Against	Date	Report
Mario Mandžukić	Dinamo Zagreb	Cibalia	17 August 2008	Sportnet.hr (Croatian)
Nikola Kalinić	Hajduk Split	Slaven Belupo	23 August 2008	Sportnet.hr (Croatian)
Ilija Sivonjić	Inter Zaprešić	Cibalia	24 August 2008	Sportnet.hr (Croatian)
Pedro Morales	Dinamo Zagreb	Croatia Sesvete	9 November 2008	Sportnet.hr (Croatian)
Ermin Zec	Šibenik	Inter Zaprešić	22 March 2009	Sportnet.hr (Croatian)
Miroslav Slepička	Dinamo Zagreb	Croatia Sesvete	19 April 2009	Sportnet.hr (Croatian)
Anas Sharbini	Rijeka	Slaven Belupo	26 April 2009	Sportnet.hr (Croatian)
Miroslav Slepička	Dinamo Zagreb	Varteks	26 April 2009	Sportnet.hr (Croatian)
Dodo	Inter Zaprešić	Rijeka	31 May 2009	Sportnet.hr (Croatian)

Transfers []

• List of Croatian football transfers winter 2008–09

See also []

• 2008–09 Croatian Cup
• 2008–09 Druga HNL
• 2008–09 NK Dinamo Zagreb season
• 2008–09 HNK Hajduk Split season
• 2008–09 NK Osijek season

References []

External links []

• 2008–09 in Croatian Football at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
• Official website (Croatian)