Osijek beat Slaven Belupo 3-0 at Opus Arena on 30 August in the fifth round of the HNL regular season. The hosts opened the scoring through J. Jezic in the tenth minute, then doubled their lead before half-time when N. Omerovic found the net in the thirty-seventh. Slaven Belupo's manager brought on L. Banovec immediately after the break in a bid to change the game, but Osijek's third goal came early in the second half through Jezic again, this time in the fifty-first minute.
By then the match was effectively over, and Osijek began turning over players with some frequency. They brought on Jezic himself in the sixty-first minute, along with Omerovic, who had scored twice. The visitors responded with a flurry of changes: D. Bosak, I. Dolcek, and R. Jurisic all came on between the seventieth and seventy-second minutes, while Slaven Belupo's yellow card for Adetunji Rasaq Adeshina in the seventy-ninth offered little consolation.
Osijek ended a barren spell, to be fair, after last week's heavy defeat to Hajduk Split. The statistics tell a story of control rather than domination: 66 per cent possession, 152 attacks compared with 119, and six shots on target against two. They created two big chances each, but the conversion rate tells its own tale — 33 per cent shooting accuracy for the hosts against just 22 per cent for the visitors.
The away side struggled to find rhythm. Five dribbles attempted against fifteen from Osijek, eight key passes to fourteen, and only 34 per cent possession. Slaven Belupo's goalkeeper made three saves to one, but that was hardly a reflection of sustained pressure. The visitors managed just two shots on target all afternoon, and one of those came from outside the penalty area.
The result leaves Osijek top of the table with twelve points from five games, having won four and lost once. Slaven Belupo sit ninth with three points, one win and four defeats. The gap between them is now nine points, and if Osijek win their next two fixtures they will hold the tie in their own hands.
