First official football match in Croatia after an 81-day break played

Slaven Belupo and Lokomotiva met on Saturday (Screenshot)

ZAGREB, MAY 30, 2020 – The first official football match in Croatia since the coronavirus pandemic was played on Saturday night in Koprivnica.

After 81 days since the last official match, Slaven Belupo took on Lokomotiva in the semi-final of the Croatian Cup without any fans. The first official match since 9 March went the way of Lokomotiva 3-1. 

Slaven Belupo in blue took the match (Screenshot)

Slaven Belupo opened the scoring in the 7th minute through Goda, before Lokomotiva equalised after the break via Cokaj. Lokomotiva went ahead in the 80th minute when Tolic found the back of the net before they got their third in injury time to book a place in the final.  

The match was played without any fans (Screenshot)

Rijeka takes on Osijek in the second semi-final. 

This season is the first time in history that neither Dinamo Zagreb of Hajduk Split feature in the semi-finals. The Croatian first division starts up again next weekend.

Croatian testing model

All 350 players and members of the professional staff of Croatian first division football clubs tested negative for Covid-19 ahead of the resumption of the season.

The Croatian testing model project was published in the prestigious Journal of Global Health and has been strongly supported by FIFA and UEFA.

The Medical Commission of the Croatian Football Federation, Ph.D. Dragan Primorac and co-workers developed a comprehensive model that includes, among other things, the application of specific tests to determine the existence of genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 virus, using molecular tests RT-qPCR. Specifically, this analysis proves the presence of viral (N, E, RdRP) genes of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.