Marked for Kirill Kravtsov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 Feb 2027
29 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market22 Feb 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Kirill Kravtsov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Mislav Oršić 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 dugout22 Feb 2027
When it matters, Dion Beljo 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.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
Antonio Rajić’s loan is measured in nothing happening
9 clean sheets from 22 appearances at Kustosija. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
9 appearances away from home and 8 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
23 appearances at AE Kition and the goals keep coming. Dinamo Zagreb are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Market22 Feb 2027
The name of Moris Valinčić keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Dinamo Zagreb say nothing, which says plenty.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
5 shut-outs in 16 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Tai Žnuderl has been having a lot of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Feb 2027
Moris Valinčić wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad15 Feb 2027
The medical room confirms 40 days on the sidelines for Ivan Nevistić, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market15 Feb 2027
Oleksandriya are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Dinamo Zagreb will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Miha Zajc's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Mislav Oršić has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Moris Valinčić knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
The goals keep arriving from Fran Topić’s exile
7 goals in 21 games at Paralimni — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dinamo Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Market15 Feb 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Scott McKenna’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Dinamo Zagreb would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match18 Dec 2026
1‑2, and no way to dress it up. A derby defeat follows a supporter to work on Monday, and this one will follow him all week.
Match15 Dec 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Roko Ban obliged against Hrvace. 4‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Dinamo Zagreb.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Ivan Filipović out for 34 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A brace, and Roko Ban takes the afternoon — 8.68
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Roko Ban provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match18 Dec 2026
Dinamo Zagreb make home a hard place to visit
13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Market21 Dec 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Dinamo Zagreb, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Up for the corner, and Kirill Kravtsov delivers — 7.86
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kirill Kravtsov scored, was marked 7.86, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The terraces21 Dec 2026
He is 22 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.
In brief
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Player ratings
One of those days for Luka Ivanušec
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Player ratings
Moris Valinčić ran the middle of the pitch — 6.85
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The dugout
The manager has not finished forgetting Miha Zajc's mistake