Gorica vs Rijeka Prediction: Tough test for Rijeka

The winter break from first league football lasted a short time, just a little over a month, and the players of Gorica will already welcome Rijeka on Wednesday, starting at 7 p.m., at the City Stadium. It will be a somewhat special match, because Zeljko Sopic, the main creator of last season's survival of Gorica in the first league, will return to this city for the first time. This time he will be on the Rijeka’s bench, and his staff has recently included Josip Pausic, a former long-term analyst of HNK Gorica, a real “master of his craft”, a studious and hard-working guy, who deservedly made an additional step forward in his career by going to Rijeka.

Form: DLWWL

Tractors and shovels are in full operation as the snow-covered everything in Velika Gorica because on Wednesday from 19:00, Gorica starts the continuation of the season with the postponed game of the 4th round against Rijeka. After the great first half of the season, Gorica are hoping to continue in the same way and qualify for some European competition. They are in 5th place with 27 points. In the last 5 matches in the league, they have a win, two draws, and two defeats. This match is very important for them, and they will go after all 3 points in their stadium.

Form: DDLWW

Even if there were many doubters, Rijeka proved everyone wrong, and they are considered as one of the main title contenders alongside Hajduk Split. They are in 2nd position with 35 points, 6 less than Hajduk but with a game in hand. In the last 5 matches in the league, they have two wins, two draws and a defeat. During this transfer period, there weren’t any major changes in the squad, and it’s expected this team to continue to play at a high level and stay in the title race until the end of the season.

Both teams showed different faces during the friendly matches they played this winter. However, they were mainly matches against local teams and many youngsters got a chance to prove themselves. In the last five matches between these teams, Rijeka won 3 times, Gorica won once and one match ended in a draw. Rijeka are favorite in this match as well, but I don’t think that they will have an easy challenge. The weather and the pitch in Velika Gorica aren’t ideal, and that will affect the match. I expect both teams to score a goal and play an entertaining match.