Rijeka vs Rudes Prediction: Another difficult match for Rudes

In the 19th round of the SuperSport HNL, Rijeka welcomes Rudes on Saturday (7 p.m.) at Rujevica. Rudes’ coach Davor Mladina announced his team's match against Rijeka and said that the atmosphere in the club is improved and that even though this team haven’t won yet in the league, they expect much more in the second part of the season. He emphasized that he hopes to be able to repeat the game like against Dinamo. Rijeka on the other hand are serious title contender and they are certain that they will get all 3 points today.

Form: LWDWD

Rijeka will have a special motive because in the last round, they lost at home against Slaven Belupo. Rijeka are in third place with 32 points from 17 games. Dinamo have 33 points and 16 games played, while the leading Hajduk have 40 points from 18 games played. Title race hasn’t been so interesting and tight in many years in Croatia. Even though nobody gave Rijeka much credit at the start of the season, here we are halfway through the season, and they are more than a serious candidate to win the trophy. Theirs today’s opponent, Rudes are clearly much weaker than them and it’s totally expected Rijeka to win confidently this match.

Form: LDLDL

The first half against Dinamo in the last round, when coach Davor Mladina made his comeback debut, which many say is perhaps Rudes' best in the season so far, gives the right to everyone in the team to hope for a much better second part of the season. For this match, the coach cannot count on the suspended Andrej Lazarov, while Ivan Tomecak also dropped out due to a hamstring injury. Rudes have been waiting for their first victory for 18 rounds already. Has the time finally come for it?

What can we say when a title contender welcomes the last placed team in the league other than they are huge favorites and every other outcome will be huge surprise. Rijeka are winless in their last 2 matches, while Rudes even though are losing, their performances are much improved which was visible in their last match against Dinamo. Rijeka are under pressure to win this match, remain in the title race and I think they have enough quality and strength to overcome a challenge like Rudes at this moment.