Hajduk will open their spring season preparations in Portugal with a friendly match against Ajax, which will take place at Estádio Algarve in Faro, reports the Split club.
Hajduk arrives in Portugal for the main preparations on January 8, and one day later (January 9), coach Valdas Dambrauskas will lead the team to their first exam against the most trophy-winning Dutch club, which currently occupies second place in the Dutch championship and will play in the Champions League round of 16.
Hajduk and Ajax last met in the Champions League quarterfinal in 1995. The first match at Poljud ended 0:0, and Ajax won the return match in the Netherlands 3:0 and ultimately won the Champions League.
Coach Valdas Dambrauskas and his assistants gathered the team at Poljud on Monday to begin preparations for the continuation of the season.
The following 33 players attended the first gathering at Poljud:
Danijel Subasic, Nikola Katic, David Colina, Josip Vukovic, Kristian Dimitrov, Marco Fossati, Alexander Kacaniklic, Stefan Simic, Samuel Eduok, Marko Brkljaca, Mario Cuic, Ivan Calusic, Dario Melnjak, Dimitrios Diamantakos, Josip Elez, Jani Atanasov, Filip Krovinovic , Luka Škaričić, Gergo Lovrencsics, Jan Mlakar, Ivan Dolček, Toni Silić, Ivan Perić, Josip Posavec, Emir Sahiti, Marin Ljubičić, Lovre Kalinić, Rokas Puktšas, Filip Čuić, Ivan Krolo, Franjo Lazar, Šimun Hrgović, Ivan Čubelić. Marko Livaja and Stipe Biuk will join later.
Hajduk’s pre-season training will end in Portugal on January 23.
The players were addressed by coach Dambrauskas, sports director Mindaugas Nikoličius, and president Lukša Jakobušić to open the preparations.
“In the past period, we had several players positive for coronavirus. A Covid protocol at the club must be followed, but I must point out that the situation is under control. The most important thing is to make progress, and we know what we need to do. This is a crucial moment for the second part of the season. We have to do a good job because we will not be able to do that in March and April. When you look at the performance in the last seven games since I’ve been on the bench, we’ve progressed in mentality, in the relationships between players on and off the field, in tactical terms and style of play. But we still have a lot of work to do,” said coach Valdas Dambrauskas.
“We will be in Split for a short time, six days, and then we will go to a training camp in Portugal where we will prepare for 15 days. We will play a few friendly matches there, and very soon, we will officially sign an agreement with Ajax for a friendly match on January 9 in the Algarve. Then we play against Servette on January 13 and two games with Slavia Prague on January 22. After that, we will probably play another game against Servette and Slavia. It was supposed to be Celtic, but they are not coming to Portugal due to the corona situation,” added the sports director Mindaugas Nikoličius.
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