Dinamo Zagreb's cadet team secured the Croatian cadet championship by beating Osijek 3-0 at Opus Arena in the decisive 26th round.
The win completed a game that Dinamo entered with a three-point advantage over second-placed Hajduk and for which a draw in Osijek would already have been enough to seal the title. Marin Nekić opened the scoring in the 29th minute, Adriano Debelec added a second from about 20 meters four minutes later, and Nekić completed the rout with his second goal in the 43rd minute as Dinamo closed the match 3-0.
The numbers underline how cleanly the cadets finished the job: the victory was Dinamo's 14th consecutive league win, it extended a half-year unbeaten run in the league, and it left them six points clear of the runners-up when the table was finalised.
Coach Tomislav Mikulić, who led the side through the run, celebrated on the pitch after the final whistle. "The feeling is phenomenal. We fought with Hajduk all season and played a brilliant second half of the season. I congratulate my boys from the heart, I know how much this means to them, and I wish them lots of luck and success in the next categories they're moving to," he said.
The context of the title is straightforward: the match in Osijek decided the cadet crown. dinamo zagreb's title run was built on an extraordinary second half of the season in which the team won every league match and remained unbeaten for half a year, turning what had been a three-point margin into a comfortable six-point winning margin by the final whistle.
The game itself never hung in the balance once Nekić put Dinamo ahead. Four minutes after that opener, Debelec's long-range strike put clear air between the teams, and Nekić's 43rd-minute finish settled the affair before the interval. Forward Jona Benkotić, who played through the match, described the team's performance in straightforward terms after the final whistle: "We completely dominated Osijek and settled everything in the first half. We're overjoyed, I congratulate my teammates, coaches, technical staff, management... In the second half of the season we were incredible, we won everything in a row, and now we'll deservedly celebrate."
The tension in the story is that Dinamo needed only a draw to win the title but did not sit on that safety; instead the cadets pressed for a decisive victory and did so emphatically. That approach erased any late-game uncertainty and handed the club a title that, by the match's end, felt the product of momentum rather than luck.
After the whistle the celebrations were immediate and thorough: players, coaches and staff embraced, and the group posed as champions at Opus Arena. Mikulić returned repeatedly to the same point — this victory is as much about the boys' collective work this season as it is a launchpad for what comes next. His final words summed up both a conclusion and a direction: he congratulated the players and wished them well as they move up the categories, signaling that this title is the end of one chapter and the beginning of another for a cohort that dominated its league.
