An impressive first season in Croatia saw Trebor Mahtal focus on youth and lead HNK Rijeka to 2nd place in the Croatian First League. And that meant an unexpected return to the Champions League – in which they stood absolutely no chance.
Rijeka came into the new season with a decent amount of money. But that was massively boosted by another club record sale as Darko Sutic moved to Spurs for a massive £25m – more than doubling the previous record of £10.5m set last summer. As a result, Mahtal had a £40m transfer kitty to work with. He replaced Sutic with Australian striker Dimitris Panourgias on a free transfer from Chelsea. He also signed two 18-year-olds in exciting full back Rodrigo Bello for up to £7.25m from Nacional and centre back Nikola Cenic for up to £6.75m from Teleoptik. Noticing a severe lack of wingers he later added Oscar Fuglsang and Petr Jícha for £4.7m and £7m from his former sides FC Midtjylland and Slavia Praha.
Mahtal stuck with his 4-2-4 formation but slightly tweaked the approach to play wider. He also shifted to two wingers and deployed the second holder as a regista.
Slow But Steady Start To Season 2
The bookies didn’t like Mahtal’s summer business as they pipped Rijeka to finish 6th with title odds of 50/1. Osijek, who spent another £20m in the summer, including £12m on former Rikeka loanee Matej Borosima, are runaway 1/2 favourites followed by Dinamo (11/4), Hajduk (15/1), Lokomotiva (33/1) and Gorica (40/1). But Mahtal thought they’d got that very wrong, as usual.
Panourgias had a dream debut with two late goals to nick a 2-1 win at Sesvete. That was followed by a huge first home game as they welcomed champions Osijek and started brightly as Panourgias crashed a shot against the post. Osijek probably edged the game and moved in front through their £73k-a-week striker, but Rijeka held in there and Panourgias teed up midfielder Vladimir Tankovic to slide a shot past the £105k-a-week goalkeeper. They then nicked a 0-0 despite being battered at Dinamo before exciting striker Kale Vostinic got the opener in a 2-1 win over Slaven Belupo, in which they lost goalkeeper Dirk Breiden to a broken collarbone so 17-year-old Armando Kola got thrown in for two months.
A slightly stuttering start continued with a dreadful performance in a 3-0 loss at Gorica, in which Jícha got sent off on debut. But they bounced back with last season’s top scorer Domagoj Vukovic scoring twice in a dominant 3-0 win at Hajduk, who’d started the season terribly. Their form picked up, spearheaded by going to Osijek and nicking a 1-0 victory through Vukovic’s early header. Winger Stefan Stevens ended his rotten start to the season with a hat trick as they thumped Sesvete 6-0 and backed it up by scoring the opener in a 2-1 home win over Dinamo.
A big game in mid-December saw Rijeka host Osijek and struck the first blow as Vukovic sent Panourgias in to coolly finish. Osijek had more chances without creating anything overly threatening and Stevens punished them with a calm finish on 64 minutes before Panourgias doubled his tally with a powerful 20-yard strike. Osijek scored late on from a corner then got another to skew the nature of the match, but Rijeka claimed a huge victory to go into 2060 with an 8-point lead.
Tough European Challenges
Rijeka went into the Champions League third qualifying round against Mahtal’s former side Crvena zvezda. An entertaining first leg saw Rijeka throw away a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 but were much improved to edge a 2-1 win in Serbia thanks to Panourgias’ late winner. But they got Porto next and went out 6-3 on aggregate to drop into the Europa League.
Mahtal’s focus was very much on domestic matters, and the league phase began with Vukovic earning a 1-1 in Koln before a heavily rotated side lost 4-1 at Partizan and 2-1 at home to Lazio. They finally got on the board with a 3-1 win at Austria Wien and rotated teams defeated Leeds 2-1 and drew 2-2 with Basel. But they lost 1-0 at Baník Ostrava and 4-0 at home to Maccabi Petach-Tikva to finish 29th.
Elite Striker Boosts Title Push
Mahtal was keen to add to his squad in January 2060, but largely struggled to find players through his scouts’ recommendations. So he took the matter into his own hands. The first player to arrive was a familiar one in his former Kobenhavn striker Yannick Wiegand, who aged 36 has declined physically but brings crucial experience to the club. He was joined by Slovenian left winger Robert Ristic for up to £5.5m from Maribor.
Wiegand made his debut in a trip to Sesvete but didn’t impress and was replaced by Panourgias, who grabbed the winner to secure a 2-1 victory. Rare Jícha and Aguilar goals nicked a 2-2 at Dinamo and they went on to draw four of the next six – but so did Osikek to leave Rijeka with a 9-point advantage going into the final round of nine games. That final round began with a trip to Osikek and Rijeka again got a flying start through Vukovic’s cheeky chip. The hosts immediately hit the bar, eventually levelled up from a near post corner and piled on the pressure late on, but Rijeka held on for a potentially vital point.
Rijeka backed that up by dominating Sesvete 3-0 then got the same result at home to Dinamo, who didn’t even manage a shot on target, and at Slaven Belupo thanks to Panourgias’ early goal and Vukovic’s second-half brace. Osijek kept pace thanks to a 93rd-minute winner at home to Lokomotiva, which kept Rijeka 9 points clear going into the final five games.
Game 1 – HNK Gorica (6th, home): The run-in began with Aguilar and centre back Lubos Urban earning a comfortable 2-0 win over Gorica. Osijek also won 4-0 at hoe to Dinamo, who dropped to 5th.
Game 2 – Dubrava (9th, away): Rijeka ran riot at struggling Dubrava as Vukovic scored twice inside half an hour, Panourgias added two more either side of half time and Vukovic bagged two more to seal a 6-2 thumping. That saw Vukovic set a new league-record four-goal haul and become Rijeka’s all-time leading league goalscorer with 144 in 291. The next day, Osijek won 3-0 at Slaven Belupo, which surprisingly saw Rijeka crowned as Champions of Croatia for just the third time – thanks to the league being decided by results between teams rather than goal difference.
Rijeka went on to hammer Hajduk 4-2, nick a 2-1 at Varazdin and beat Lokomotiva 2-1 at home. That wrapped up the title by 9 points from Osijek with just 1 defeat plus 27 wins and 8 draws, scoring 89 and conceding just 29. Vukovic was again the league’s top scorer with 28 in 34 followed by Panourgias’ 20 in 36. Panourgias led the way with a new league record 18 assists, followed by Aguilar’s 11, and a 7.66 average rating.
Celebrating Croatian Success
Trebor Mahtal lifted the 24th league title of his glistening career in dominant fashion led by a lethal strikeforce. The impressive Vukovic topped the goalscoring chart with 34 in 41 followed by Panourgias (24), Aguilar (11), Stevens (9), Matic (6) and Jícha and Urban (4). Panourgias had been a superb free signing, leading the way with 21 assists followed by Aguilar (13), Stevens (10) and Jícha and Vukovic (9).
A good sign of the promise at Rijeka was three of their players being named in the 2060 NxGn. The excellent Bello came 2nd and Ristic and Jícha were 44th and 47th, but the winner was another Croatia-based player in Lokomotiva striker Campo Elías Mayo.
However, Mahtal would not be around to oversee that potential as his time in Croatia was done. Upon winning the plaudits of the Rijeka fans and the Croatian media Mahtal, now aged 76, stood down to go in search of his 25th job in football management.
Where would Mahtal end up next on his European adventure? Join us tomorrow to find out!
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