The post-Neotethyan, oblique subduction-driven narrowing between the tapering northeastern Adria margin and the European promontory (Tisza-, Serbo-Macedonian Unit) culminated during the Late Cretaceous. A developing Conacian – Santonian narrowing corridor including the Campanian bimodal magmatism of limited volume is restricted and aligned with the Tisza Unit/East Vardar/Serbo-Macedonian overriding plate(s). These Campanian, sliver-like, mini-magma pools are sealed shortly afterward with the onset and formation of the time-equivalent mélange, along with the Maastrichtian to middle Oligocene turbidites. A typifying segment of this diffuse plate boundary referred to as the Sava Suture Zone, occurs as disconnected outcrop belt, exhumed on Medvednica, Prosara, Kozara, Motajica, Moslovačka Gora, and the Požeška Gora Mountains (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia). The active margin segment, cropping out along the East Vardar Zone/Serbo-Macedonian overriding plate, exclusively boasts several near-surface, rather localized Coniacian-Santonian magma incursions. These Upper Cretaceous limited-sized, magmatic products are hosted in the Ripanj-Pinosava, Rudnik-Topola areas (andesites, lamprophyre) in Serbia and the Klepa Mt. in North Macedonia. Such a disproportional magnitude of near-surface Upper Cretaceous magmatic centers is consistent with the difference between the crustal tectonic components and the discrepancies in mantle-lithospheric processes. However, the locations or plate-tectonic relationships and the reasons why the thrust-stacked magma pools localize and in which area, are not fully understood. The regional geological analysis of the Upper Cretaceous Sava Suture Zone yields a new regional geodynamic interpretation, connecting (i) the Jurassic–earliest Cretaceous closure of Neotethys, (ii) the oblique active margin, pull-apart ‘Gosau-type’ subbasin formation, and the emplacement of restricted volcanic intrusions. •Late Cretaceous-Paleogene suture zone “Sava Zone” connects Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia.•Sava Suture Zone is a composite overprinted oblique plate boundary, characterized by the scarce bimodal magma intrusions.•Santonian mini-magma pools are associated with the Upper Cretaceous reactivation of oblique lithospheric-scale motions.•The corridor contains no solid evidence of any Cretaceous oceanic lithosphere, dismissing the existence of the “Sava Ocean”.