Dinamo Zagreb defeat RB Salzburg 2-0 to notch their 1st Champions League win of the campaign! Goals from Kulenović and Petković. Dinamo now sit 22nd place on the table after 3 matches. Top-24 clubs make it to the next stage after eight games played. On top of that, Dinamo currently sit in front of Bayern Munich and AC Milan. This new Champions League format is sooooo much better than the old one!
This is Dinamo’s first Champions League away victory since 1998; when they defeated Ajax.
After getting absolutely shellacked by Bayern Munich in the opening match of Champions League and then disappointingly drawing Monaco 2-2 at Maksimir after leading 2-0, Dinamo Zagreb have one of their more “winnable” games Wednesday night in Austria. The reigning Croatian champs will take on RB Salzburg, who have yet to earn a point in CL this season. They lost 3-0 to Sparta Prague before being defeated 4-0 by Brest. So not a great start by them by any means.
A draw should be considered a huge success by Dinamo if they can pull it off on the road. However, a win in Salzburg would give the club serious hope of clinching a berth in the next round. The top-24 clubs after eight matches will continue their Champions League season in 2025 while 25-36 are eliminated.
Was Dinamo ever expected to make the top-24? Absolutely not. But a win vs. RB Salzburg will definitely help; especially with games still left vs. Celtic and Slovan Bratislava. Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal, and AC Milan round out the rest of their matches.
@A Tin U
https://croatiansports.com/the-weekend-water-cooler-98/#comments/512699
I love that you’re calling it a midfield youth movement. Fills me with pride thinking about those young guns, may God bless and keep them all. As long as they stay healthy, methinks our midfield is going to stay pretty elite moving forward.. 🙂
Like TGAD, I was thinking about Ivanovic. In addition to playing well, I’m quite impressed that he said no to Austria (Ralf Rangnick wanted to call him up). Dude says he only wants to put on the checkers.
Haha, Maminjo came up with the acronym MC BS MILF + Kulenovic. Musa is also lurking in the shadows, hiding somewhere in Dixieland. 10 strikers— who will pan out and in time for WC2026? Matkovic might be a tad too young. Matanovic I like him the most but dang… guy has no playing time at Frankfurt. Guess we’ll have to wait a little longer for that hotshot striker to rise up from this pool.
Have a great weekend folks!
In Europa league Real Sociedad beat Maccabi Tel Aviv 2:1 away in Belgrade. Because of the war Maccabi play their home matches in Belgrade. Surprising choice of venue by the Jewish club.
Interestingly, Luka Sucic arrived with Sociedad in Belgrade however he missed the match due to COVID and had to isolate in a hotel. Hopefully he recovers quickly.
Serbian football is all over the place now.
Teams are owned by Qatar, sponsorship is Russia, hosting club teams from Israel, ha ha.
So it was COVID? Thanks for sharing this MART.
For Dinamo to progress they must beat Slovan Bratislava and Celtic.
It will be tough against the other teams, especially Arsenal and AC Milan since these matches will be played on 22 and 30 of January next year. HNL takes a 4-week winter break (21/12/24 – 25/1/25) so it will be difficult to keep the players match fit. There is no winter break in England and in Italy I think they have a two week break for Christmas and New Year.
The match against AC Milan is at home on 22/1/25 in the middle of winter. Maksimir has underground heating, not sure how good it is? however, it is likely that the playing field will be hard and there could be snow on the pitch. So, there is a possibility that Dinamo might be able to get something out of this match?
Correction AC Milan on 30/1/25 and Arsenal away on 23/1/25.
Beljo goal
Mikey Moore starting
12:45
Start
Igor
Kotarski
Sutalo
Bench
Ivanovic
Out of squad
Luka sucic
Such a shame Dinamo couldn’t hold onto the win against Monaco…
Saw that the “Opta Supercomputer” ran simulations saying that 10 points would almost guarantee a spot in the top 24.
There still seems to be a somewhat realistic path for Dinamo to qualify if they can get wins against Celtic and Slovan Bratislava and can sneak out a draw against one of Dortmund, Arsenal and AC Milian.
Wins against Bratislava and Celtic should do it.
The good news is that Dinamo is in good form and they’re playing these two teams soon.
The Celtic game will be in Zagreb, so that’s a big plus.
We’ll know by mid-December if Dinamo will realistically progress.
I
We have kids that can play- Baturina, Sucic 1 and 2, more kids coming. Change the manager who can coach them. Dalic is not qualified for development. Been asking for a long time, we can’t get a quality manager somewhere in the world? Nice if he is Croatian but if he’s not, jebi ga. Dalic had his time with a veteran team but this is a different era that is starting. Time to find that player development leader.
Not qualified?? Zlatko brought in Gvardiol, Sosa, Orsic, Pasolic, Petkovic, Vlasic, Livakovic, Juronovic, and, even to a certain degree, Kovacic to the 2022 World Cup. There are too many Mr. Dalic haters out there. He is a world class coach who should be appreciated at least by the Croatian people worldwide. Viva Zlatko!
https://thehardtackle.com/transfer-news/2024/09/15/luka-modric-asks-real-madrid-to-sign-martin-baturina-manchester-united-also-keen/
Interesting
I’m all for Baturina moving to La Liga.
Bundesliga and Serie A would be fine as well.
I’m very much against an EPL move, and a French league move would be a waste of his time as well.
It would be a huge move for him, but is it too soon? Should he take the next step up to an “RB Leipzig type team” for a few years? Real has a lot of big signings sitting on the bench.
Problem is, that teams like RB Leipzig also have a lot of talented depth and you could just as easily find yourself on the bench there as in Madrid.
It will come down to how good of a fit he is for his new team and how much of a need he fulfills. We just have to trust Baturina and his management team to make the right decision.
Anyway, I think Baturina may have priced himself out for some of these teams already.
Leipzig (for example) is a team that likes to buy players for 15-20 million before flipping them.
Baturina is already above that amount, and if Dinamo makes the knockout rounds (and he continues to feature for the National Team) his price will continue to go up.
I think he breaks the transfer record for a HNL player.
You’re probably right about pricing himself out of some teams. Hopefully he finds the best match. The best case would be if he goes to Real, AND Modric signs another extension. Luka can mentor him for a year, and help him get a spot on the first team.
Yea, I’m guessing he goes for 25-30 million Euro.
Dinamo’s excuse for always selling players lower is that the HNL is a lower ranked league and a player’s stats can always be inflated…so big foreign clubs will always be cautious when it comes to spending big.
But this changes if your team is in the Champions League and is making the knockout rounds, or if he’s already starting for the Croatian National Team and they make the Nations League quarterfinals or further.
I could see him scoring and creating more goals for Dinamo in the Slovan and Celtic games, but at the same time putting up a good fight in the Arsenal, Dortmund, and Milan matches as well. I think Dalic will start incorporating him more in the Nations League games, and he’ll be influential there for the National Team (as he has been since the Euros).
But at a 25M+ price, he pretty much closes the door to any teams that are not a top-2 or top-3 ranked team in La Liga, Bundesliga or Serie A.
Any EPL team will gladly pay that amount (Leeds United made a similar offer over a year ago) but the EPL worries me due to his less physical nature, and I would rather him focus on continuing to build on his creativity and offense as he gradually continues to improve on his fitness level.
Whats Petars best position in mid field?
You guys were saying a while back that he could be an ideal replace for broz
So more dm position?
He is a good CDM but he also runs a lot and can score goals. He is a natural box to box player
I’m more impressed with sucic than batu
Sučić will be another Broz.
He’s actually playing like a younger Broz already.
Baturina is still far more offensively talented though. He’s such a danger on the field…he looks like he’s both a striker AND a midfielder out there (especially now that it seems he’s been running a lot this season).
Just watched quick highlights
Petar Sucic demonstrated world-class quick thinking / football IQ with the handball / red card play
He sees the keepers position (outside of the box) and he also sees the defender on the line ready to defend a long-range effort – meaning – he deliberately shot right at the goalies outstretching arms in order to cause a handball (and hence the red card) – there was no other purpose in that shot as he sees the defender on the line on the side he shot (otherwise he would have shot towards the other side of the goal which was empty)
World-class quick thinking / football IQ
This is not something u can teach someone (esp. as the play occurs so quickly)
Really impressive from a 20 y.o.
Just look at his reaction immediately as he shoots it – he puts his hand up straight away and calls the handball and asks for the red card (which he gets in a second)
100% that was all deliberate by Petar Sucic
Scouts will salivate over that play alone (will be play 1 in any footage / highlight real they create for him)
Man City here he comes
High praise from non-Croatian that Gvardiol has been Man City’s best player, best player in the PL, best defender in the world, and could win a Ballon D’or
https://x.com/InvertTheWing/status/1849110949828972925
That’s incredibly wild. I guess that 90 million or whatever was definitely worth it
Wait till teams now bid up baturina and sucic. Hoping for that next big Croatian/Dinamo stud
I remember baturina had a bit of a cold streak and some were calling him just a hype boy
Where was luka and rakitic at his age
He’s doing just fine
Let him grow up before judging
And now he is showing he is potentially world class quality one day
Everyone was banking on luka sucic and cousin coming up next level too
As the kids say
Let them cook
Man I wish orsic was still in Dinamo
We could have our lw answer right now
I sure hope Perisic doesn’t cost us like a pletikosa Brazil thing
Finally we see what the repka can do for young players when given a chance.
Baturina and Sučić were playing with supreme confidence away to Salzburg in the CL!
Playing at Poland last week makes a difference.
There composure on the ball was big time.
Put me on the young legs around the Modrić minutes movement.
Modrić minutes need to be maximized each match.
No more scrubs in his sphere of influence.
Wow has it been that long
Congratulations to Dinamo with breaking the hoodoo
VOLIM TE DINAMO, DIMAMOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
O DINAMOOOOO, MI VOLIMOOOO!!
Great result for Dinamo. There 3 CB’s were outstanding (Theo, Bernauer, Torrente) especially in the first 20 when Salzburg dominate possession. There was no panic even when Salzburg put a lot of pressure on Dinamo.
Baturina was excellent. His dribbling is on par with Kova except Batu is way stronger can does not get pushed off the ball. The nutmeg dribble on the Salzburg defender was beautiful to watch.
Susic played very good as well. So composed on the ball….never panics. Box to box midfielder. He needs to be a regular on the National Team every game.
MOTM for me was Misic. So composed, defensive coverage and perfect ball distribution. Why is Dalic ghosting him?
Torrente is a big step above the two Francuzi.
We should look into replacing them with Croat players by season’s end…but definitely hold on to Torrente. He’s a gem of a player.
Baturina and Petar Sucic should be in our National Team’s starting eleven.
We need to stop building our offence around Modric, Krama and Perisic. Krama and Perisic are too slow and Modric is doing too much for us (which is a massive risk if he gets injured or is not playing in full form). We can’t hitch our entire success on him being the player of the game, every single game for us.
Perisic should be nailed to the bench, and Krama needs to play depending on the matchup. Modric should be playing 45-60 minutes, sharing minutes with one of Kovacic, Baturina or Luka Sucic. He should never be playing 90 minutes, unless we really need him to.
That’s what was so good about the good part of the Poland game: you could really see we weren’t relying on Modric to be involved all the time, the young guys were able to carry the offense on their own.
Good win for Dinamo and their first away win in CL since their away win against Ajax 26 years ago. First half poor by both sides with Salzburg having the best chance early on with a header from close range. Nice finish from Kulenovic at the start of the second half for 1 – 0 and Petkovic at the end to make it 2 – 0.
Baturina by far the best player on the field with some great individual skills and he looked dangerous whenever on the ball.
Next match away to Slovan Bratislava.
We’re ahead of Bayern on the ladder… lol
Baturina needs to start for the National Team.
Every f’n game…full 90 minutes…in the position of his choice.
Even at RW, he is a godsend compared to the corpse of Perisic.
Only caught last 10 min
Beautiful counter for 2nd goal
Really smart defensive play by Petkovic 94′ min in own box (sticking his leg in front of ball and waiting for RB player to kick him causing a foul and Dinamo free kick) – this is exactly what Sutalo should have done for Bruno Fernandez wonder-pass 1st goal (maybe Petkovic can teach Sutalo this skill – they should talk)
Their goalie doing a great save while outside his box.. just lol
Yes, funny it took the HRT commentator some time to realise that the red card was for a deliberate handball by the goalkeeper outside the box and not for the foul on Kulenovic.
Time to start Kulenovic with Matanovic and switch to a 4-4-2.
relax, did u even watch the game? Im a fan of his but he was awful first half. Besides the goal it was a below average performance from him.
Every player has a bad half – using your logic, nobody should play for the national team.
Kulenovic and Matanovic are the closest thing we have to natural strikers – and it has been awhile.
kulenovics hold up play isn’t that good, his first touch is as bad as rebic. Hes in the spot hes in because of hardwork and good mentality, but he has no talent. Hes in the same category as Maric and Colak.
Anyone has a good stream for the Dinamo? Been having trouble finding streams that don’t cut out lately
https://vipleague.im/football/rb-salzburg-vs-dinamo-zagreb-streaming-link-1
Perfect that Kova and Gvardiol finally getting some load management
Petar Sucic Man City in Jan to fill in for injured Rodri
We just need to see him flourish in these CL matches incl vs teams like Arsenal
U up for the challenge Petar ?
No pressure 😊
Pandur Hull City start vs Burnley
11th straight start in championship
Nb he has FOUR keepers he’s competing for the spot
Hopefully Dalic is monitoring – not sure how we keep calling up an older keeper playing in Cyprus over him
Relationship has already been established and cemented.
Ivušić will decide when he will stop receiving callups.
I love Dalic for his relationship building but ya
When you become too good with the employees it’s not without problems
Sometimes you even got to cut ties with family
Cause the greater good of the Croatian family depends on it dalic my friend
He will stop getting the call up after his transfer to North Korea. He won’t be able to leave.
Dinamo U19 and RB Salzburg U19 are 1-1 at halftime.