It was a derby that was "conceived and directed" by one of the Maksimir crowd's favourites, Dinamo's exciting right winger – Ivica Senzen. The Blues defeated Partizan 2-0 at home, with both goals scored by Senzen himself.

It was, however, a tough, hard-fought match with plenty of harsh challenges, particularly from the visitors. The Blues were led from the bench by coach Zlatko Čajkovski, a former celebrated Partizan player, who had already encountered serious difficulties the day before the match. In the final training session, the key player of the blue defence, Mladen Ramljak, suffered an injury. He strained a muscle and had to miss the derby.

Dinamo took the lead in the 8th minute when Krasnodar Rora sent the ball to the right into the box, Drago Vabec rushed in, crossed to the centre, and Senzen headed the ball into the goal from the edge of the six-yard box. Dinamo continued attacking, but the visitors threatened on the counter-attack, during which Maksimir goalkeeper Fahrija Dautbegović made two brilliant interventions.

Partizan played with ten men from the 34th minute after Blagoje Paunović was sent off for a rough foul from behind on Alojz Renić. The match was refereed by former Hajduk player Željko Borovčić Kurir.

Dinamo played even more aggressively in the second half, creating chances but occasionally opening space for opposition counter-attacks. The Blues increased their lead in the 63rd minute when Zvonko Breber effectively played through Rora, who ran down the left wing, reached the goal line, crossed in front of goal, and Senzen rushed in to slam the ball into the net.

The visitors had a chance to reduce the deficit six minutes later. Svemir Đorđić came in front of the penalty area on the counter-attack, and the ball was handled by Damir Valec. Žarko Olarević took the penalty, but Dautbegović made a spectacular dive to the corner to deflect the ball for a corner kick.

For Dinamo, this was only their third victory in nine matches played so far, and with such a record they held 9th place in the table.