DJ’S JOTTINGS – NUMBER 17 (ZAGREB)   The Croatian capital Zagreb, is in the northern part of the country not too far from the Slovenian border. It has emerged confidently from the ravages of the Balkan wars and is a buzzing, affordable and surprisingly glamorous capital city that is sometimes known as ‘little Vienna’.     View images  01 02 03   Wizz Air fly from Luton to Zagreb and a 25-minute bus ride leads to the city centre. Our party stay at the Hotel Laguna that is about 100 yards away from the home ground of NK Zagreb. The 12,000 capacity Kranjceviceva Stadium has a cycle track round the pitch, a covered seated stand one side and open terracing on the other. Unfortunately NK went and got themselves knocked out of the Intertoto Cup, other wise they would have been at home at the time of our trip.   The one game we do see is an excellent one at Dinamo Zagreb’s 38,923 capacity Maksimir Stadion, located a few kilometres north-east of the city centre and easily reached by tram. It is also the national stadium and staged 2 games at the European Championship finals in 1976. At present the ground has 2-tier stands on 2 sides and a single tier on the other 2 sides, but no cover. All of the stands are elevated and despite the athletics track the views are pretty good. A reserve pitch is located right next door with the rear seats from its stand fitting underneath the top seats for the main ground. The Maksimir is being re-developed and will eventually have covered 2-tier stands on all four sides with corner towers in-between.     View images  01 02 03   It is only the second round of matches in the 12-team Prve HNL (Premier League) but Dinamo are already top after an opening day 5-0 win. Tonight they offer further evidence that they will not miss star striker Eduardo (transferred to Arsenal) with some sparkling, stylish attacking play en route to a 5-1 victory against Zadar. No admission is charged as a thank you to the supporters for their backing during a recent Champions League qualifier. The hard-core element are known as the BBB (Bad Blue Boys). There is no sign of a programme and even the club magazine is not available tonight.    Football was introduced to Croatia by the English owners of a tanning firm around 1880. The first truly Croatian club HASK, were formed in 1903 and the country’s first competition appeared in 1912. Post World War II, Croatia was part of Yugoslavia until independence saw a new national league formed in 1992.   HASK and Gradjanski won a number of Yugoslav titles before merging under the Communists to form Dinamo Zagreb in 1945. The club won 4 league titles and 7 cups, as well as gaining European success with 2 final appearances, winning once, in the old Fairs Cup. Since 1992, along with Hajduk Split, they have become the dominant force in the Croatian League with 5 successive championships between 1995 and 2000. They are also the defending champions.   There is plenty to see and do in Zagreb to while away the rest of our time. Old impressive buildings, an interesting market, the Tomislavov Dom mountain and a botanical gardens are among the sights. The ‘Pvnica Medvegrad’ is a small chain of brewery / restaurants, offering 4 different beers at about £1 a pint and decent meals for only a couple of pounds.   Although we only saw one game, Croatia was an excellent place to visit and I will certainly be looking to return, possibly to Split next time.   End