In the next eight days, Hajduk will play three important matches. Two of the matches will be played away, at Maksimir and on Thursday in Sofia, while the first, opening match, was played last Thursday in Dugopolje. After defeating Levski 1:0, Hajduk trained in Dugopolje on Friday and Saturday, while on Saturday evening, the squad left for Zagreb, where they will play against Lokomotiva on Sunday. Immediately after the first round match, they are returning to Spli in Split, on Monday they have another training session in Dugopolje and then they leave for Bulgaria on Tuesday evening. Official match training will be held in Sofia on Wednesday, while on Thursday they will play the second - leg match against Levski,
Coach Carrillo will need to have the team fresh enough for each of the following matches that will be played on Thursday-Sunday schedule, so it is to be expected that all players will get a chance to play. Clearly, some (smaller) changes will have to be done for the match against Lokomotiva.
"Apart from the injured Ivo Grbic, Ardian Ismajli and Toma Basic, all the other players are fit. I have more than enough players to choose 18 for this match. They are all Hajduk players and I'm sure each of them will do their job well.
As a reminder, Hajduk started the new season by winning, practically continuing at the same pace where they stopped at the end of the season, in May, which was concluded with excellent performance in the last quarter of the competition season. In the last nine rounds, Joan Carrillo's squad had seven wins, one draw and one defeat. In the calendar year 2017, in 17 official matches, Hajduk lost twice, five matches ended in a draw and won 10 times.
"We go to Zagreb to win against Lokomotiva. We always go for victory! I'm not interested in alibies, not even the fact that Levski postponed his first match against Ludogorec and is now fully devoted to preparations for our second - leg match. We will again think about Levski after we return from Zagreb, but in the preparation of that match, the goal will be the same. We want to qualify for the third round, we have already partly stepped into it by winning in Dugopolje" Carrillo said to the media.
