Croatian Cup

Croatian Cup

Founded	1992
Region	Croatia
Number of teams	48
Most successful club	Dinamo Zagreb (11 titles)
2011–12 Croatian Cup

The Croatian Cup (Croatian: Hrvatski nogometni kup) is an annually held football tournament for Croatian football clubs and is the second most important competition in Croatian football after the Prva HNL league championship. It is governed by the Croatian Football Federation (CFF) and usually runs from late August to May. Cup winners automatically qualify for next year's UEFA Europa League, except when cup winners are also league champions, in which case cup finalists take their place.

The cup was established in 1992, after Croatian clubs had abandoned the Yugoslav First League and Yugoslav Cup competitions following the breakup of Yugoslavia. As of the 2010–11 season a total of 20 cup seasons were held. The competition has historically been dominated by the Eternal Derby sides - the most successful club is Dinamo Zagreb, who appeared in 15 finals and won 11 cup titles, followed by Hajduk Split, who won 5 titles out of 9 finals they appeared in. In addition, at least one of the two teams had appeared in all but two finals.

Only three other clubs have managed to win the cup (Rijeka, Inter Zaprešić and Osijek), and Istra 1961 is the only team to date who managed to reach the cup final from outside top level, in 2003.

Format

The competition is open to 48 clubs, based on various criteria:

• Top 16 best-ranked teams according to coefficients calculated by the CFF (which take into account their cup results over the last five seasons)
• 21 regional cup winners organised at the county level
• 11 regional cup finalists (from the top 11 counties with the greatest number of registered football clubs)

Clubs which qualify through regional cups always enter in the preliminary round, which consists of 16 single-legged fixtures. In case of a draw at the end of normal time thirty minutes of extra time is played (two fifteen minute halves) and if scores are still level there is a penalty shootout to determine the winner of the competition. Top level teams usually enter in the first round proper (round of 32).

From the quarter-finals onwards the competition employs a two-legged tie format, with winners progressing through on aggregate score. In case the score is still level at the end of the second leg's normal time, a penalty shootout follows to determine tie winners (i.e. extra time is not played in two-legged ties). As of May 2011, only the 2009 final has been determined by a penalty shootout (in which Dinamo Zagreb beat Hajduk Split after both legs were won 3–0 by home teams).

The format had gone through several changes over the years, including the single-legged final, which was briefly introduced and played on two occasions in 1997 and 1999.

List of winners

Key

†	Match decided by a penalty shootout
Bold	Winning team won The Double
Italics	Team from outside the Prva HNL

List of winners

Season	Winner	Score	Runners–up	Venue(s)
1992	Inker Zaprešić (1)	1–1, 1–0	HAŠK Građanski	Stadion Intera, Zaprešić Maksimir, Zagreb
1992–93	Hajduk Split (1)	4–1, 1–2	Croatia Zagreb	Poljud, Split Maksimir, Zagreb
1993–94	Croatia Zagreb (1)	2–0, 0–1	NK Rijeka	Maksimir, Zagreb Kantrida, Rijeka
1994–95	Hajduk Split (2)	3–2, 1–0	Croatia Zagreb	Poljud, Split Maksimir, Zagreb
1995–96	Croatia Zagreb (2)	2–0, 1–0	Varteks	Stadion Varteksa, Varaždin Maksimir, Zagreb
1996–97	Croatia Zagreb (3)	2–1	NK Zagreb	Maksimir, Zagreb
1997–98	Croatia Zagreb (4)	1–0, 2–1	Varteks	Stadion Varteksa, Varaždin Maksimir, Zagreb
1998–99	Osijek (1)	2–1	Cibalia	Maksimir, Zagreb
1999–2000	Hajduk Split (3)	2–0, 0–1	Dinamo Zagreb	Poljud, Split Maksimir, Zagreb
2000–01	Dinamo Zagreb (5)	2–0, 1–0	Hajduk Split	Poljud, Split Maksimir, Zagreb
2001–02	Dinamo Zagreb (6)	1–1, 1–0	Varteks	Maksimir, Zagreb Stadion Varteksa, Varaždin
2002–03	Hajduk Split (4)	1–0, 4–0	Uljanik Pula	Stadion Aldo Drosina, Pula Poljud, Split
2003–04	Dinamo Zagreb (7)	1–1, 0–0	Varteks	Stadion Varteksa, Varaždin Maksimir, Zagreb
2004–05	Rijeka (1)	2–1, 1–0	Hajduk Split	Kantrida, Rijeka Poljud, Split
2005–06	Rijeka (2)	4–0, 1–5	Varteks	Kantrida, Rijeka Stadion Varteksa, Varaždin
2006–07	Dinamo Zagreb (8)	1–0, 1–1	Slaven Belupo	Maksimir, Zagreb Gradski stadion, Koprivnica
2007–08	Dinamo Zagreb (9)	3–0, 0–0	Hajduk Split	Maksimir, Zagreb Poljud, Split
2008–09	Dinamo Zagreb (10)	3–0, 0–3, (4–3 p)	Hajduk Split	Maksimir, Zagreb Poljud, Split
2009–10	Hajduk Split (5)	2–1, 2–0	Šibenik	Poljud, Split Šubićevac, Šibenik
2010–11	Dinamo Zagreb (11)	5–1, 3–1	Varaždin	Maksimir, Zagreb Anđelko Herjavec, Varaždin

Results by team

Club	Winners	Last final won	Runners-up	Last final lost
Dinamo Zagreb	11	2011	4	2000
Hajduk Split	5	2010	4	2009
Rijeka	2	2006	1	1994
Inter Zaprešić	1	1992	0	–
Osijek	1	1999	0	–
Varaždin	0	–	6	2011
NK Zagreb	0	–	1	1997
Cibalia	0	–	1	1999
Istra 1961	0	–	1	2003
Slaven Belupo	0	–	1	2007
Šibenik	0	–	1	2010

Footnotes

A. ^ Dinamo Zagreb were renamed HAŠK Građanski in 1992, and then again Croatia Zagreb in the winter break of the 1992–93 season. The club reverted back to their original name in February 2000.

B. ^ : Inter Zaprešić was known as Inker Zaprešić (sometimes spelled INKER) from 1991 to 2003.

C. ^ : Varaždin were known as Varteks from 1958 to 2010.

D. ^ : Istra 1961 was formerly known as Uljanik Pula (until 2003), Pula 1856 (2003–2005), Pula Staro Češko (2005–2006), and NK Pula (2006–2007) before adopting their current name Istra 1961 in 2007.

E. ^ : Slaven Belupo were formerly known as NK Slaven until 1992. From 1992 to 1994 they were called Slaven Bilokalnik before adopting their current name in 1994 for sponsorship reasons. Since UEFA does not approve sponsored club names, the club is listed as Slaven Koprivnica in European competitions and on UEFA's website.

External links

• (Croatian) Croatian Cup results at Sportnet.hr
• Cup at UEFA