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Hajduk vs. Dinamo: Croatia’s Eternal Derby Is Europe’s Fiercest Grudge Match
Published: March 21, 2014
“If you don’t become the new champion,” the crowd roars with a sad, but beautiful melody. “Torcida will mourn, will forgive you… Because all of us still know that you’re the best, and we’ll never turn our backs on you…”
Usually as final notes still echo around the stadium, melancholy turns to complete delirium, with thousands jumping and shouting in the stands. It’s a show of desperate loyalty and pride, even in times of loss and adversity—well, especially in those times.
In recent years, the Hajduk faithful have been performing this particular chant much more often than they would have liked. Their club’s adventures in UEFA competitions usually end by autumn, and domestically they have been left in the shadow of Dinamo Zagreb, their bitter rivals from the capital, for nine seasons in the row.
As Croatia’s Eternal Derby in Split approaches (Saturday, 3 p.m. CET), there’s very little hope of breaking the spell. Although Hajduk are unbeaten in the league since August, they are still 10 points behind Dinamo.
Should they win the Derby like they did in September—when Mario Pasalic, the 19-year-old midfielder who will join Chelsea (well, probably Vitesse on loan…) from next season, scored both goals in a 2-0 triumph—the title would still pretty much remain an impossible mission.
Of course, it wasn’t always like that.
In the former Yugoslavia, when both teams were members of the so-called "Big Four" (along with the Belgrade duo, Red Star and Partizan), Hajduk won nine league titles to Dinamo’s four (or also nine if you count the Zagreb side’s pre-World War II predecessor club, HSK Gradjanski). During the 1970s and 1980s, Hajduk were a real force to b...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football
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