2019–20 Croatian First Football League

The 2019–20 Croatian First Football League (officially Hrvatski Telekom Prva liga for sponsorship reasons) was the 29th season of the Croatian First Football League, the national championship for men's association football teams in Croatia, since its establishment in 1992. The season started on 19 July 2019. It was temporarily postponed from 12 March to 5 June 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[2]

Hrvatski Telekom Prva liga

Season	2019–20
Dates	19 July 2019 – 12 March 2020[1]; 5 June 2020[2] – 25 July 2020
Champions	Dinamo Zagreb
Relegated	Inter Zaprešić
Champions League	Dinamo Zagreb Lokomotiva
Europa League	Rijeka Osijek Hajduk Split
Matches played	150
Goals scored	379 (2.53 per match)
Top goalscorer	Antonio-Mirko Čolak Mijo Caktaš Mirko Marić (20 each)
Biggest home win	Hajduk Split 6–0 Gorica
Biggest away win	Rijeka 0–5 Dinamo Zagreb
Highest scoring	Lokomotiva 6–1 Slaven Belupo
Longest winning run	6 games Dinamo Zagreb
Longest unbeaten run	13 games Dinamo Zagreb
Longest winless run	17 games Istra 1961
Longest losing run	15 games Inter Zaprešić
Highest attendance	29,580 Hajduk Split 1–0 Dinamo Zagreb
Lowest attendance	280 Inter Zaprešić 1–2 Lokomotiva
Total attendance	458,390
Average attendance	3,526
← 2018–19 2020–21 →

The league was contested by ten teams.

Teams

On 23 April 2019, Croatian Football Federation announced that the first stage of licensing procedure for 2019–20 season was complete. For the 2019–20 Prva HNL, only nine clubs were issued a top level license: Dinamo Zagreb, Gorica, Hajduk Split, Inter Zaprešić, Istra 1961, Osijek, Rijeka, Slaven Belupo and Varaždin. All of these clubs except Varaždin, who were newly promoted to the Prva HNL as champions of the 2018–19 Croatian Second Football League, were also issued a license for participating in UEFA competitions.^[3] In the second stage of licensing, clubs that were not licensed in the first stage could appeal on the decision.

Stadia and locations

Dinamo Zagreb	Gorica	Hajduk Split	Inter Zaprešić
Stadion Maksimir	Gradski stadion Velika Gorica	Stadion Poljud	Stadion Ivan Laljak-Ivić
Capacity: 35,123	Capacity: 5,000	Capacity: 34,198	Capacity: 5,228
Istra 1961	Dinamo Lokomotiva Gorica Hajduk Split Inter Istra 1961 Osijek Rijeka Slaven Varaždin Locations of teams in 2019–20 Prva HNL		Lokomotiva
Stadion Aldo Drosina			Stadion Kranjčevićeva
Capacity: 9,800			Capacity: 5,350
Osijek	Rijeka	Slaven Belupo	Varaždin
Stadion Gradski vrt	Stadion Rujevica	Stadion Ivan Kušek-Apaš	Stadion Varteks
Capacity: 17,061	Capacity: 8,279	Capacity: 3,205	Capacity: 8,850

Team	City	Stadium	Capacity	Ref.
Dinamo Zagreb	Zagreb	Maksimir	35,423	[4]
Gorica	Velika Gorica	Gradski stadion Velika Gorica	5,000	[4]
Hajduk Split	Split	Poljud	34,198	[5]
Inter Zaprešić	Zaprešić	Stadion ŠRC Zaprešić	5,228	[6]
Istra 1961	Pula	Stadion Aldo Drosina	9,800	[7]
Lokomotiva	Zagreb	Kranjčevićeva1	5,350	[8]
Osijek	Osijek	Gradski vrt	17,061	[9]
Rijeka	Rijeka	Rujevica	8,279	[10]
Slaven Belupo	Koprivnica	Stadion Ivan Kušek-Apaš	3,205	[11]
Varaždin	Varaždin	Stadion Varteks	8,850

• ¹ Lokomotiva hosted their home matches at Stadion Kranjčevićeva. The stadium was originally the home ground of third-level side NK Zagreb.

Rank	Counties of Croatia	Number of teams	Club(s)
1	City of Zagreb	2	Dinamo Zagreb, Lokomotiva
2	Zagreb County	2	Gorica, Inter Zaprešić
3	Istria	1	Istra 1961
	Koprivnica-Križevci		Slaven Belupo
	Osijek-Baranja		Osijek
	Primorje-Gorski Kotar		Rijeka
	Split-Dalmatia		Hajduk Split
	Varaždin		Varaždin

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Sponsors
Dinamo Zagreb	Zoran Mamić	Arijan Ademi	Adidas	Lana grupa
Gorica	Valdas Dambrauskas	Kristijan Kahlina	Alpas	-
Hajduk Split	Igor Tudor	Mijo Caktaš	Macron	Tommy
Inter Zaprešić	Tomislav Ivković	Tomislav Mazalović	Joma	-
Istra 1961	Ivan Prelec	Marin Grujević	Kelme	Croatia Osiguranje
Lokomotiva	Goran Tomić	Denis Kolinger	Adidas	-
Osijek	Ivica Kulešević	Mile Škorić	Nike	DOBRO
Rijeka	Simon Rožman	Franko Andrijašević	Joma	Sava Osiguranje
Slaven Belupo	Tomislav Stipić	Mateas Delić	Adidas	Belupo
Varaždin	Samir Toplak	Leon Benko	Legea	TOKIĆ

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Istra 1961	Igor Cvitanović	Sacked	11 June 2019	Ivan Prelec	15 June 2019	Pre-season
Varaždin	Branko Karačić	Contract expired	17 June 2019	Borimir Perković	22 June 2019	Pre-season
Hajduk Split	Siniša Oreščanin	Sacked	19 July 2019	Damir Burić	20 July 2019	Pre-season
Osijek	Dino Skender	Sacked	21 September 2019	Ivica Kulešević	22 September 2019	4th
Rijeka	Igor Bišćan	Resigned	22 September 2019	Simon Rožman	23 September 2019	3rd
Slaven Belupo	Ivica Sertić	Removed from position	7 October 2019	Tomislav Stipić	8 October 2019	8th
Varaždin	Borimir Perković	Sacked	8 October 2019	Luka Bonačić	9 October 2019	10th
Hajduk Split	Damir Burić	Mutual consent	19 December 2019	Igor Tudor	23 December 2019	2nd
Inter Zaprešić	Samir Toplak	Sacked	4 January 2020	Željko Petrović	4 January 2020	8th
Varaždin	Luka Bonačić	Sacked	8 February 2020	Samir Toplak	10 February 2020	10th
Gorica	Sergej Jakirović	Sacked	24 February 2020	Valdas Dambrauskas	25 February 2020	6th
Inter Zaprešić	Željko Petrović	Sacked	8 April 2020	Tomislav Ivković		9th
Dinamo Zagreb	Nenad Bjelica	Sacked	16 April 2020	Igor Jovićević	22 April 2020	1st
Dinamo Zagreb	Igor Jovićević	Sacked	6 July 2020	Zoran Mamić	7 July 2020	1st

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Dinamo Zagreb (C)	36	25	5	6	62	20	+42	80	Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round
2	Lokomotiva	36	19	8	9	57	38	+19	65
3	Rijeka	36	19	7	10	58	42	+16	64	Qualification for the Europa League third qualifying round
4	Osijek	36	17	11	8	47	29	+18	62	Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round
5	Hajduk Split	36	18	6	12	60	41	+19	60
6	Gorica	36	12	13	11	44	48	−4	49
7	Slaven Belupo	36	10	9	17	34	51	−17	39
8	Varaždin	36	9	9	18	29	50	−21	36
9	Istra 1961 (O)	36	5	10	21	27	59	−32	25	Qualification for the Relegation play-offs
10	Inter Zaprešić (R)	36	3	8	25	32	72	−40	17	Relegation to Croatian Second Football League

Source: PrvaHNL.hr
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored (at home if two teams tied); 5) Goal difference; 6) Goals scored; 7) Play-off
(Note: Criteria 2-4 and 7 is only used if deciding champion, teams to international competition or teams for relegation and in that case criteria 6 will not be used).^[12]
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated

Results

Each team played home-and-away against every other team in the league twice, for a total of 36 matches each played.

Home \ Away	DIN	GOR	HAJ	INT	IST	LOK	OSI	RIJ	SLA	VAR	DIN	GOR	HAJ	INT	IST	LOK	OSI	RIJ	SLA	VAR
Dinamo Zagreb	—	3–1	1–1	1–0	1–0	3–0	1–0	3–0	1–0	1–0	—	2–0	2–3	3–2	2–0	1–0	0–0	4–0	3–2	2–0
Gorica	2–4	—	2–1	1–1	1–1	0–0	3–1	2–0	2–0	1–0	0–0	—	3–1	1–1	3–0	1–3	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–1
Hajduk Split	1–0	3–0	—	3–1	2–0	3–0	3–2	0–4	2–0	2–0	0–2	6–0	—	2–1	2–1	1–0	0–1	2–3	2–1	2–3
Inter Zaprešić	1–2	0–2	1–1	—	0–2	1–2	3–3	1–4	3–1	2–2	0–1	0–3	1–4	—	2–0	0–2	0–1	0–1	0–2	1–2
Istra 1961	1–2	2–2	1–1	2–2	—	0–2	0–0	0–3	2–3	3–1	0–0	2–2	0–1	2–0	—	1–1	1–0	1–3	1–1	1–0
Lokomotiva	0–4	4–0	0–0	3–1	4–1	—	2–1	0–1	6–1	2–1	1–0	1–1	3–2	3–1	2–0	—	0–1	2–1	3–0	2–0
Osijek	0–0	2–1	1–0	3–1	1–0	4–0	—	3–2	2–0	2–2	1–0	2–1	0–0	1–1	2–0	1–2	—	1–0	3–2	2–0
Rijeka	0–5	1–2	1–1	1–1	2–0	1–1	1–1	—	3–1	2–1	2–0	1–2	2–0	4–1	4–2	2–2	1–0	—	1–0	3–1
Slaven Belupo	0–3	2–0	2–1	3–0	0–0	1–0	0–4	1–2	—	1–1	0–2	0–0	2–1	3–1	3–0	1–1	0–0	1–0	—	0–0
Varaždin	1–0	1–3	0–3	0–1	1–0	1–1	1–1	0–2	0–0	—	1–3	2–2	0–3	1–0	3–0	0–2	1–0	0–0	1–0	—

Source: Prva HNL (in Croatian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Relegation play-offs

At the end of the season, Istra 1961 contested a two-legged relegation play-off tie against Orijent 1919, the third-placed team of the 2019–20 Croatian Second Football League, since runners-up Croatia Zmijavci failed to apply for a top level license.

First leg

2 August 2020

20:00 CEST

Orijent 1919	0–3	Istra 1961
	Report	Gržan 8' (pen.), 64' Maganjić 90+3'

Stadion Kantrida, Rijeka

Referee: Fran Jović

Second leg

5 August 2020

20:00 CEST

Istra 1961	0–1	Orijent 1919
	Report	Iličić 49'

Stadion Aldo Drosina, Pula

Referee: Igor Pajač

Istra 1961 won 3–1 on aggregate.

Statistics

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[13][14]
1	Antonio Čolak	Rijeka	20
	Mijo Caktaš	Hajduk Split
	Mirko Marić	Osijek
4	Kristijan Lovrić	Gorica	14
5	Mislav Oršić	Dinamo Zagreb	13
6	Ivan Krstanović	Slaven Belupo	12
7	Emem Eduok	Hajduk Split	11
	Lirim Kastrati	Lokomotiva
	Marko Tolić	Lokomotiva
10	Damian Kądzior	Dinamo Zagreb	10

Awards

Annual awards

Award[15]	Winner	Club
Player of the Season	Bruno Petković	Dinamo Zagreb
Manager of the Season	Nenad Bjelica	Dinamo Zagreb
Young Player of the Season	Luka Ivanušec	Dinamo Zagreb

Team of the Year[15]
Goalkeeper	Dominik Livaković (Dinamo Zagreb)
Defence	Igor Silva (Osijek)			Mile Škorić (Osijek)	Denis Kolinger (Lokomotiva)
Midfield	Petar Bočkaj (Osijek)	Nikola Moro (Dinamo Zagreb)		Mijo Caktaš (Hajduk)	Arijan Ademi (Dinamo Zagreb)	Lirim Kastrati (Lokomotiva)
Attack	Bruno Petković (Dinamo Zagreb)			Mirko Marić (Osijek)