Marked for Antonio Ćaćić
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.27, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Antonio Ćaćić: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lucko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vilim Šeketa is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match17 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Talha Tabaković. 3‑1 against Djakovo Croatia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Lucko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mykyta Shevchenko is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Lucko
Toni Ruso and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
Lucko supporters have found a favourite in Lovro Stanić
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Lovro Stanić has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Lovro Stanić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Lucko
Kristijan Blaževski and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match3 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Lucko against Bjelovar
0‑2 to Bjelovar, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 124% of the Lucko income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Niko Cindrić, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Bruno Cop to a room that had heard them before.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Tin Karamatić is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
When it matters, Mario Babić plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Talha Tabaković at 21 — 8.15
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Talha Tabaković did not need any: 8.15, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Toni Ruso’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Lucko.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Mykyta Shevchenko falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lucko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Bruno Cop could afford to be generous.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Antonio Ćaćić
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 22 in, 1 out at Lucko
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Lucko
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mykyta Shevchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Segesta have kept their man, and Lucko go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A loan move for Gentrit Salihu is in the works
Lucko have made the call to Lokomotiva Zagreb. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Lucko
Ivan Vasiljević was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of David Tabak
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Antonio Ćaćić has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad7 Sep 2026
No place for Luka Puljić in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Lucko are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Tin Karamatić is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Aug 2026
Lucko bow out of the cup
Segesta go through and Lucko go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $40.2K — a club that wants Đivo Pregelj enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$41.0K was the most the club would pay and Kustosija were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Lucko asked and Slaven Belupo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Lucko
David Tabak and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Bruno Cop faces the questions
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Bruno Cop after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.