NK Istra 1961 Pula

vs

NK Varazdin

Preview

NK Istra 1961

• NK Istra 1961 have four wins, four ties and four defeats at home in the HNL 2025/2026, scoring 1.00 and conceding 1.25 goals on average per home game.
• Oriol Riera’s men have claimed just one victory and four defeats in their last five matches, with the win coming via a surprise 2-0 away victory at Rijeka.
• Both of their previous two home games ended in defeat.

Varazdin

• Varazdin have four wins, three ties and six defeats away from home in HNL 2025/2026, scoring 14 times in 13 away matches.
• Varazdin have one win, two ties and two defeats in their last five HNL 2025/2026 matches.
• They have claimed a 1-1 draw away to NK Lokomotiva Zagreb and a 2-0 home win over Vukovar 1991 in their two most recent fixtures.

Head-to-Head

• There is little recent history between NK Istra 1961 Pula and NK Varazdin, but the visitors will come into Friday’s game with a chip on their shoulder after being beaten 3-1 at home by Istra in the reverse fixture just two months ago in HNL 2025/2026.
• That result was one of two wins from the last three meetings between the two sides - Varazdin have not claimed a victory against Istra in their three attempts.
• The two teams occupy fourth and sixth place in the HNL 2025/2026 respectively, with Varazdin on 37 points from 26 games and Istra on 33.

Key Players

• The team’s primary threat is Smail Prevljak, who has scored 11 goals in 23 league appearances this term.
• Ivan Mamut leads the attack for Varazdin with 8 goals in 24 HNL 2025/2026 games.

Betting Insights

• The odds for an away win are 3.45 and Varazdin should have enough momentum to get the job done.
• Both teams to score comes in at 1.7, and we will be taking that play because both clubs have a lot to gain from this game and will be hungry to attack.
• The away win is the main selection because Varazdin’s high-energy pressing can get the better of the more methodical hosts and they are likely to be the more dangerous on transition.

Prediction