2020–21 Croatian First Football League

The 2020–21 Croatian First Football League (officially Hrvatski Telekom Prva liga for sponsorship reasons) was the 30th season of the Croatian First Football League, the top national championship for men's association football teams in Croatia, since its establishment in 1992. The season started on 14 August 2020 and finished on 22 May 2021.

Hrvatski Telekom Prva liga

Season	2020–21
Dates	14 August 2020 – 22 May 2021
Champions	Dinamo Zagreb
Relegated	Varaždin
Champions League	Dinamo Zagreb
Europa Conference League	Osijek Rijeka Hajduk Split
Matches played	180
Goals scored	456 (2.53 per match)
Top goalscorer	Ramón Miérez (22)
Biggest home win	Dinamo Zagreb 6–0 Lokomotiva
Biggest away win	Varaždin 0–5 Dinamo Zagreb
Highest scoring	Gorica 3–4 Dinamo Zagreb Gorica 3–4 Rijeka
← 2019–20 2021–22 →

The season began with games being played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[1]

Teams

On 20 May 2020, Croatian Football Federation announced that the first stage of licensing procedure for 2020–21 season was complete. For the 2020–21 Prva HNL, ten clubs were issued a top level license: Dinamo Zagreb, Gorica, Hajduk Split, Istra 1961, Lokomotiva, Osijek, Rijeka, Slaven Belupo, Šibenik and Varaždin. All of these clubs except Šibenik and Varaždin were also issued a license for participating in UEFA competitions.^[2] In the second stage of licensing, clubs that were not licensed in the first stage could appeal on the decision. On 17 June 2020, Croatian Football Federation announced that the licensing procedure for 2020–21 season was complete. Inter Zaprešić and Orijent 1919 were also issued a top level license after appeal process.^[3]

Stadia and locations

Dinamo Zagreb	Gorica	Hajduk Split	Istra 1961
Stadion Maksimir	Gradski stadion Velika Gorica	Stadion Poljud	Stadion Aldo Drosina
Capacity: 35,123	Capacity: 5,000	Capacity: 34,198	Capacity: 9,800
Lokomotiva	Dinamo Lokomotiva Gorica Hajduk Split Istra 1961 Osijek Rijeka Slaven Šibenik Varaždin Locations of teams in 2020–21 Prva HNL		Osijek
Stadion Kranjčevićeva			Stadion Gradski vrt
Capacity: 5,350			Capacity: 17,061
Rijeka	Slaven Belupo	Šibenik	Varaždin
Stadion Rujevica	Stadion Ivan Kušek-Apaš	Stadion Šubićevac	Stadion Varteks
Capacity: 8,279	Capacity: 3,205	Capacity: 3,412	Capacity: 8,850

Team	City	Stadium	Capacity	Ref.
Dinamo Zagreb	Zagreb	Maksimir	35,123	[4]
Gorica	Velika Gorica	ŠRC Velika Gorica	8,000	[5]
Hajduk Split	Split	Poljud	34,198	[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]
Šibenik	Šibenik	Šubićevac	3,412	[12]
Varaždin	Varaždin	Stadion Varteks	8,850	[13]

• ¹ Lokomotiva host their home matches at Stadion Kranjčevićeva. The stadium is 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	Koprivnica-Križevci	1	Slaven Belupo
	Osijek-Baranja		Osijek
	Primorje-Gorski Kotar		Rijeka
	Split-Dalmatia		Hajduk Split
	Šibenik-Knin		Šibenik
	Varaždin		Varaždin
	Zagreb		Gorica
	Istria		Istra 1961

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Sponsors
Dinamo Zagreb	Damir Krznar	Arijan Ademi	Adidas	Lana grupa
Gorica	Siniša Oreščanin	Aleksandar Jovičić	FCG	—
Hajduk Split	Paolo Tramezzani	Lovre Kalinić	Macron	Tommy
Istra 1961	Danijel Jumić	Slavko Blagojević	Kelme	Croatia Osiguranje
Lokomotiva	Samir Toplak	Josip Pivarić	Adidas	—
Osijek	Nenad Bjelica	Mile Škorić	2Rule	DOBRO, Stadler
Rijeka	Goran Tomić	Franko Andrijašević	Joma	Sava Osiguranje
Slaven Belupo	Tomislav Stipić	Goran Paracki	Adidas	Belupo
Šibenik	Sergi Escobar	Marko Bulat	Jako	Krka National Park
Varaždin	Zoran Kastel	Marko Stolnik	Legea	Radnik, Derma

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Istra 1961	Ivan Prelec[14]	Contract expired	14 July 2020	Danijel Jumić (caretaker)[15]	16 July 2020	Pre-season
Hajduk Split	Igor Tudor[16]	Signed by Juventus	21 August 2020	Hari Vukas[17]	8 September 2020	3rd
Istra 1961	Danijel Jumić (caretaker)	Signing of Budicin	26 August 2020	Fausto Budicin[18]	26 August 2020	10th
Osijek	Ivica Kulešević[19]	Sacked	4 September 2020	Nenad Bjelica[20]	5 September 2020	8th
Hajduk Split	Hari Vukas[21]	Sacked	4 November 2020	Boro Primorac[22]	4 November 2020	6th
Varaždin	Samir Toplak[23]	Sacked	7 December 2020	Zoran Kastel	7 December 2020	9th
Gorica	Valdas Dambrauskas[24]	Signed by Ludogorets	3 January 2021	Siniša Oreščanin[25]	3 January 2021	3rd
Lokomotiva	Goran Tomić[26]	Resigned	9 January 2021	Jerko Leko[27]	9 January 2021	8th
Hajduk Split	Boro Primorac	Removed from position	18 January 2021	Paolo Tramezzani[28]	18 January 2021	5th
Istra 1961	Fausto Budicin[29]	Sacked	11 February 2021	Danijel Jumić[30]	11 February 2021	10th
Rijeka	Simon Rožman[31]	Resigned	27 February 2021	Goran Tomić[32]	1 March 2021	4th
Lokomotiva	Jerko Leko[33]	Removed from position	13 March 2021	Samir Toplak[34]	14 March 2021	10th
Dinamo Zagreb	Zoran Mamić[35]	Resigned	15 March 2021	Damir Krznar[35]	15 March 2021	1st
Šibenik	Krunoslav Rendulić[36]	Sacked	23 March 2021	Sergi Escobar[37]	30 March 2021	6th

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Dinamo Zagreb (C)	36	26	7	3	84	28	+56	85	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Osijek	36	23	8	5	59	25	+34	77	Qualification for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round
3	Rijeka	36	18	7	11	51	46	+5	61
4	Hajduk Split	36	18	6	12	48	37	+11	60
5	Gorica	36	17	8	11	60	47	+13	59
6	Šibenik	36	9	8	19	32	47	−15	35
7	Slaven Belupo	36	7	13	16	36	53	−17	34
8	Lokomotiva	36	7	9	20	29	60	−31	30
9	Istra 1961	36	7	8	21	27	52	−25	29
10	Varaždin (R)	36	6	10	20	30	61	−31	28	Relegation for the 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).^[38]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated

Results

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

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

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

Statistics

Top goalscorers

As of 22 May 2021^[39]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Ramón Miérez	Osijek	22
2	Mario Gavranović	Dinamo Zagreb	17
3	Mislav Oršić	Dinamo Zagreb	16
4	Kristijan Lovrić	Gorica	15
5	Franko Andrijašević	Rijeka	13
6	Deni Jurić	Šibenik	11
7	Mijo Caktaš	Hajduk Split	9
	Ognjen Mudrinski	Gorica
	Bruno Petković	Dinamo Zagreb
10	Ivan Krstanović	Slaven Belupo	8
	Robert Murić	Rijeka

Awards

Annual awards

Award[40]	Club	Winner
Player of the Season	Bruno Petković	Dinamo Zagreb
Manager of the Season	Nenad Bjelica	Dinamo Zagreb
Young Player of the Season	Joško Gvardiol	Dinamo Zagreb

Team of the Year[40]
Goalkeeper	Dominik Livaković (Dinamo Zagreb)
Defence	Igor Silva (Osijek)	Mile Škorić (Osijek)	Joško Gvardiol (Dinamo Zagreb)	Rasmus Lauritsen (Dinamo Zagreb)
Midfield	Lovro Majer (Dinamo Zagreb)	Arijan Ademi (Dinamo Zagreb)	Luka Ivanušec (Dinamo Zagreb)	Mislav Oršić (Dinamo Zagreb)
Attack	Bruno Petković (Dinamo Zagreb)		Ramón Miérez (Osijek)