Ulyanik put two clean sheets on the board against Dugo Selo in the second National League, turning in a 3-0 victory on Friday evening. The hosts had already won their opening fixture and came into this one sitting second on the table, while Dugo Selo were fifth with a win and a draw under their belt. By then the visitors had shown they could grind out results, but this was a different sort of evening altogether.
T. Zikovic opened the scoring in the twenty-eighth minute, and the game settled into a rhythm Ulyanik were happy to dictate. The visitors tried to hold their shape but the pressure told, and Dugo Selo were reduced to ten men after a red card in the sixty-sixth minute. And here's the thing — the dismissal didn't break the hosts' momentum so much as confirm what was already happening on the pitch.
The goal difference widened quickly after that. A penalty was awarded in the sixty-eighth minute but the spot-kick was missed, which would have been a cruel twist if it had gone in. Instead Ulyanik struck twice more, adding another in the sixty-eighth and closing things off in the eighty-fifth to make sure the result held.
We had backed the home side at 54 per cent confidence going into this one, and the performance justified that call. The hosts didn't just win — they controlled the tempo, stretched Dugo Selo's back line, and turned a precarious away trip into a statement. The visitors had looked solid in their previous games, but they were caught in possession more often than not after the break.
On the table, Ulyanik now sit on six points from two matches, unbeaten and with both wins coming at home. Dugo Selo remain on four points but the gap is opening up, and a trip to the second-placed side was always going to test their resolve. To be fair, they didn't collapse — they just couldn't find a way back into a game where the wheels had already come off.