Almost five months after his sacking at Union Berlin, Nenad Bjelica has found a new job. He is returning to Dinamo Zagreb, where he is expected to make up for two bitter defeats.
Dinamo Zagreb has found a successor to coach Sergej Jakirovic: Nenad Bjelica, who was dismissed by 1. FC Union Berlin at the beginning of May, is expected to stabilize the Croatian record champions both nationally and in the Champions League after turbulent weeks. The 53-year-old Croatian, who signed a “multi-year” contract according to the club, is thus taking on his second term at Dinamo.
The traditional club had “amicably” agreed to part ways with Jakirovic last week, after he got off to a double false start: the reigning champions and cup winners were only third in the domestic league at the time, and they suffered a 9-2 defeat at Bayern Munich in the Champions League opener, after which the club took action.
Sandro Perkovic, previously Jakirovic’s assistant, initially stepped in on an interim basis, but was unable to stop the misery. Although they recently managed a 4-1 victory in the cup against the lower-league NK Banjole, they suffered a disastrous 4-1 defeat in the league at bottom-of-the-league Slaven Belupo, which means that Dinamo are now already four points behind the still unbeaten competitors HNK Rijeka and Hajduk Split in the table.
Bjelica ended a 49-year drought at Dinamo
Bjelica therefore has some work ahead of him. When he first worked in Zagreb between May 2018 and April 2020, he had won a national cup and two championships, but above all, he had impressed in Europe. In 2018/19, after successfully making it through the Europa League group stage, Dinamo spent the winter in a European competition for the first time in 49 years and only bowed out in the last sixteen against Benfica Lisbon (1-0/0-3 a.e.t.). A year later, Bjelica’s team made it into the Champions League via the qualifiers, starting with a furious 4-0 win over Atalanta Bergamo, but still missing out on the knockout phase in the group with Shakhtar Donetsk and Manchester City.
On Wednesday, Bjelica, who took time out during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, returns to the Champions League against AS Monaco, when Borussia Dortmund will also be guests on November 27. Before that, the league derby against second-from-last in the table Lokomotiva Zagreb is coming up on Saturday (8pm).
