Rijeka vs Gorica Prediction: Can the hosts continue their good run?

Starting at 19:10 on Sunday, Rijeka and Gorica will complete the 21st round of the SuperSport HNL at Rijeka's stadium known as “Rujevica”. Both teams are in the lower part of the table, but Rijeka are more focused on moving up where they really belong, while Gorica are struggling all season long and I don’t see any way how they can avoid relegation at the end of this season.

Rijeka is one of the biggest clubs in Croatian football, but they are not financially stable like, for example, Dinamo, and that is why they have to sell players and restructure the team every summer. In the midst of such major changes, mistakes are always possible. Last summer, a good selection was not made, which, along with the solution on the coaching bench, resulted in one of the worst half-seasons in the club's history. During the winter break, Sergej Jakirovic takes over the reins, bringing in new reinforcements with an emphasis on the experienced Emir Dilaver, and Rijeka finally wakes up. In the three rounds after the break, a total of seven out of nine points were won, which moved them away from the bottom of the table, and as they currently look, we would not be surprised if they joined the fight for European places. At the moment Rijeka is in 8th place with 22 points.

After the initial momentum, Gorica again fell into the abyss. In the first two rounds, they managed to snatch points from Dinamo and Varazdin in matches where the handwriting of the new coach Zeljko Sopic slowly appeared, but then a big disappointment followed in the crucial match in Osijek. The cart continued to roll downhill after a heavy home defeat of even 3:0 against Sibenik. Such a result immediately brings back memories of the old Gorica from the first half of the season when they looked desperate, so today they desperately need at least one point to end the black streak. Aware of their inferiority in relation to their opponent, today they announced an approach with a more closed guard and a dense defensive block. All that difficulty will be enough for them to survive the “Armada” and Rujevica, where if we include the winter break, Rijeka did not play for over three months. Gorica is last placed team in the table with only 9 points.

Who would have thought that the clash between Rijeka and Gorica in the 21st round would be a derby in the lower part of the table. However, we all know that the host's modest eighth place does not reflect the true state of affairs in their camp. Rijeka are without doubt big favorites in this match and since they are thirsty for a home win I will go with a home win with over 2.5 goals in this match.