Hamburg's Croatian forward Ivica Olic solidified his lead in our FTBL Top 23 for Croatian players after his two goals in the second leg of the UEFA Cup semi-final against Werder Bremen yesterday, while Dynamo Kyiv’s midfielder Ognjen Vukojevic exited the Top 23 for Croatian after his side were knocked out of the competition by Shakhtar Donetsk (1:2).

Despite Hamburg’s loss to Werder on aggregate in the fight to advance into the final, Olic earned 14.02 rating points in the second leg game for his display of determination and grit. He now has an overall rating of 132.03 points and sits comfortably at the top of our rating. His only theoretical rival at the moment is teammate Mladen Petric, who has 103.07 points over all.

In contrast, Dynamo Kyiv midfielder Ognjen Vukojevic is displaying less than adequate form: he has earned a lowly 6.59 rating points in his last five appearances and, after losing 19.63 points in the loss to Shakhtar Donetsk, now has just 33.98 points and has lost the 8th position in the rating to Lokomotiv Moscow’s Tomislav Dujmovic, who has 42.73 points over all.