Horrific rampage of Croatian hooligans in Portugal: Dressed in black, demolishing everything, tourists flee

Photo: Guimares Digital Youtube Screenshot

Extremist fans of the Hajduk Split football club caused riots in the Portuguese city of Guimaraes, where they threw flares, chairs and bottles in cafes during the night between Tuesday to Wednesday, report Portuguese newspapers O Jogo and A Bola, according to Croatia's Jutarnji List.

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The videos show people getting up and running away from a cafe as a group of masked, mostly black-clad fans charge in, throwing chairs and flares.

"Panic in Guimaraes: dozens ran away from the square to escape Hajduk's ultras," reported the sports newspaper Record.

Uma centena de adeptos do Hajduk Split lançam o pânico, esta noite, no centro histórico de Guimarães.Comerciantes e moradores queixam-se da falta de policiamento junto deste grupo organizado de adeptos do clube croata.🎥 Vídeo amador pic.twitter.com/17Fk5jj4xA— Mais Guimarães (@MaisGuimaraes) August 9, 2022

"Croats, almost all dressed in black and with masked faces, provoked unrest in the city center, causing local residents and tourists to run away," said O Jogo, adding that around 150 fans of the Croatian club took part in the rioting.

Club symbols are not visible in the videos, said the Croatia daily.

Vitoria Guimaraes and Hajduk Split will play the return match of the 3rd qualifying round of the Conference League on Wednesday afternoon. A week ago, the Croatian vice-champions won 3-1 at home in front of 32,000 spectators, but there was no rioting then.

Vitoria fans are some of the most passionate in Portugal, but in recent days there were no indications there may be clashes between supporter groups.

Slobodna Dalmacija, one of the more widely read newspapers in Split, published an unverified story two days ago saying that 200 Vitoria fans will be searching the streets for members of "Torcida," the Hajduk fan group. In reporting this, they referred to an unnamed fan of Lisbon's Benfica, whose supporter group is on friendly terms with "Torcida."

Publishing such information could have triggered the unpleasant scenes on the streets of Gimaraes, a medieval tourist town with 157,000 inhabitants, writes Jutarnji List.

O Jogo newspaper speculates that among Hajduk's fans there could be members of Benfica's "No Name Boys" group, but the police have not confirmed this.

So far, there has been no information about material damage and whether anyone has been injured or arrested.

(Telegraf.rs/Jutarnji List)