After beating Krasnodar in the Round of 32, Dinamo Zagreb’s Europa League campaign will most likely end on March 18th. The Croatian champions have drawn Premiership side Tottenham Hotspur as their opponent in the Europa League Round of 16, arguably the best side remaining in the Europa League, outside of Manchester United and AC Milan. The first leg kicks off from North London this Thursday at 3PM (ET). 19 year-old Joško Gvardiol will be in the stands for both matches after suffering a minor quad injury that will keep him sidelined for roughly three weeks. Gvardiol has been one of the most important players for Dinamo Zagreb this season, handing the club an even bigger disadvantage going into their tie against one of England’s biggest clubs with the injury news.
In order to put up a fight against Tottenham, players such as Mislav Oršić, Bruno Petković, and Dominik Livaković need to play the match of their lives. Tottenham, currently sitting 7th in the Premier League table, need to win the Europa League to qualify for next season’s Champion’s League. As other English sides continue to stay in form, their chances of making the top-4 in the Premier League seem to become slimmer every day. The question is: will Tottenham disregard their Premier League matchup against Arsenal on March 14th and play their first team against Dinamo?
Most likely, yes.
This Europa League tie will be a test for many young Croatian footballers such as Luka Ivanušec, Lovro Majer, and Kristijan Jakić, and also a test for players such as Mislav Oršić and Bruno Petković, two players fighting for their spot on the Croatian National Team. I am expecting Dinamo to be a hungry and motivated side in their two matches against Tottenham. The Modri have the chance to upset one of Europe’s largest clubs, and I am expecting Dinamo to put up a decent fight against Tottenham – but no matter how much hunger Dinamo brings into the game – it will be extremely hard for them to outplay world class stars such as Son, Kane, and Bale; when they need a Europa League title for Champions League glory. This is one of the strongest Dinamo teams we have seen this century, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up too high for this matchup. No matter the outcome of the two legs, this tie will provide great exposure for many young Croatian talents and Vatreni regulars.
Dinamo are playing with house money but I just don’t see a path where they can get past Spurs and book a ticket to the Europa League quarterfinals.
Prediction over two legs: Spurs 4-1
@Markus
Well I care what you say.
.
You said you have “pure French blood” when questioning my Frenchness. I don’t know why you’re pissed off at Anonymous?
Is it because you believe that Croats should start accepting that “pure French blood” is their blood?
Next time people question the Croatianess of half black miss Croatia I expect to see you spring to her defence.
.
French Croatian is what you are, lol you couldn’t lose in the world cup final.
You must be stupid. My mother’s Croatian that makes me Croatian I don’t give a fuck what you say. You’re a troll and if there’s any “fake” croats here it’s you.
Half black miss Croatia has “our blood” also? Her mum is Croat.
@Markus
What do you mean by “our blood”? You’re French for crying out loud.
https://wethoughttheywerewhite.tumblr.com/
.
It’s the Jews/pharisees that have a history of racism.
.
Croats were never anti-semitic.
Like I asked once before why didn’t the Jews/pharisees call the Croats anti-pharisee instead? Because they’re trying to make people focus on race and not the fact that they’re antichrists. They’ve turned all you guys into liberals and beta males, basically mindless sycophant fucks, and you simpletons don’t even know it lol.
So many of you guys here are just muppets, this is why I always say talk about sport because the serious stuff is above your pay grade.
No to Mexican Nationalism, they stole central america from the native americans, spanish is a foreign language and tacos are a foreign food. Mexico is a land of immigrants, it belongs to EVERYONE.
No to the Croatian ethnic type ESPECIALLY since you have a history of racism and anti-Semitism.
No to Homomo’s tooo…o this is funny iggy you hypocritical prick
No to racismo.
“Iggy” is the guy who’s always predicting croatian loses, like against england in the WC semis as just one of countless examples. he demands any “racist” speech be suppressed on this site when 90% of his comments are virulent hate speech against serbians. Two faced human scum. If he really is croatian he should be neutered to cut out this cancer from the croatian gene pool.
@Iggy
I don’t think that’s a loser mentality. Obviously not a favourable draw, but what are we going to do about it? Complain? That won’t change a thing. Buckle up and go at it head first because there’s nothing to lose in a draw like that. If we come first in our Euro group we have to face one of Germany, Portugal or France. All pretty unfavourable draws but is it in our blood to whine and bitch and think it’s over? I don’t think so.
Real losers spell losers with 2 O’s or maybe you want your Arse to be looser iggy ?
Maminjo yeah i agree
it just annoys me when we draw France or someone and half the ppl on this site are like “YES, just what we wanted”.
Fucking loosers!
Would love to see Dinamo do well, but I just can’t see it happening playing Spurs. Do we remember how they were dumped from Champions League last season? Four or five goals were due to weakness down our right side. Several goals against from balls played back door, behind our right back who marked too aggressively.
Spurs in great form, with Bale and Son playing and running like they have rockets up their asses.
Remember the goal Dinamo gave up against Krasnodar, when the defender by the left post played a header that should have easily been cleared, or knocked behind for a corner? Instead, he gave a weak, unchallenged header to the middle of the box, 8 or so yards out, leading to a goal against. Dinamo has good firepower and I think we will score, but I foresee defensive mistakes leading to goals against.
Poglavnik…you mentioned “There’s a reason they still play the game, Slavonac.
Look at Porto v Juventus. I think I knew of 2 Porto players whereas I probably knew of all 18 Juve players.”
.
I thought Porto played well, they were aggressive and didn’t respect not even 1%….bili su bezobrazni…and they needed to!!
.
I’m not sure Dinamo has the balls to lay it all out on the line and play as if they deserve to be there…we will see. Porto was great!
.
On another note, Morata missed a sure goal early in the game and then he missed a 75% chance later on in the game. If he scored that first goal it could have been a different game.
.
Look at how Porto played AFTER they got a red card! They had guts man…they didn’t fold up the tent and pack it in, they went out and scored another goal!
.
Thats called MENTALITY!
Yeah I don’t dislike Dinamo
As a kid I remember it was the only team that had a grb in the old juga albeit half a grb
Never really liked that big red star on Hajduk emblem but being from Zagora you still supported Hajduk
I was wondered how even Dinamo got away even with the half grb
Full marks to them and that’s why I could never hate on Dinamo
Diaspora Croats usually have their favorite team, but still root for all Croatian teams in European competitions.
.
Diaspora (who try too hard to pretend that they’re local Croats), tend to root against their team’s rival club and cheer on the non-Croatian club.
Armada
There are too few of us not to be united
Croats undivided plays into the hands of others
@ Suba
I’m busting balls. I know there are fans like you that wish the best for all our teams, no matter the domestic rivalry and others who hope their rival loses every game, no matter the opponent. Good to see more of the latter.
ArMada
Hahaha you can document this
I wish all Croatian nogomenti clubs well including Rijeka
I don’t think any World Cup finalist has ever gone on a streak of beating multiple top teams.
.
Germany in WC2002 was my favorite, going to the final after beating Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Cameroon, Paraguay, USA, and South Korea.
.
Portugal at Euro 2016 was good too. Barely squeezed by Hungary, Iceland and Austria, then they get major referee assistance against us, then a waltz to the finals against Poland and Wales, lol. They only had to play two good teams in us and France (both extra time wins). Good for them, but lots of luck in those games, and avoiding the heavyweights.
.
That’s largely what it is. A lot of luck (in addition to being a contender).
Let me quote all those boneheads on this site who actually rejoice everytime we draw Brazil or Portugal in a WC.
“Well, you have to BEAT the best to BE the best…”
(you dont)
“You have to play everyone to get to the final anyway..”
(you dont)
“I’m GLAD we drew the toughest team, we play best against the toughest teams”
etc etc.
Quick!
.
Replace the video with Bojna Čavoglave!
.
Screw over these Cro sports sites and their embedded video lol.
https://www.24sata.hr/sport/simunicu-cestitali-na-prinovi-on-nahvalio-cicu-o-njemu-treba-uciti-kao-o-tudmanu-i-gotovini-749871
24 Sata as well!
Ante…look who’s giving you some free advertising!
.
https://gol.dnevnik.hr/clanak/rubrika/nogomet/simunic-emotivno-o-kranjcaru-progovorio-o-tri-zuta-kartona—643305.html
I would say soccer provides more upsets than any other sport. I’ve seen many a team nick a 1-0 when having only one scoring chance and being out possessed like 70-30
There’s a reason they still play the game, Slavonac.
Look at Porto v Juventus. I think I knew of 2 Porto players whereas I probably knew of all 18 Juve players.
Look at Liverpool. 6 straight losses at home. This past week to Fulham?!
Bizzarro world (I haven’t used a Seinfeld reference forever)
Seriously… I would give full support to Hajduk, Rijeka, Osijek, if they were in Dinamo’s place now.
Ive got faith.
Tottenham have never won a damn thing.
I remember Dinamo playing mighty Man U to a draw at old Trafford about 20 years. And those United teams knew about winning.
A Hajduk fan rooting on Dinamo in Europe?
.
Did someone document this? Are we in the twilight zone????
Cmon gents hold Ye some faith
This coming from a Hajduk fan
I just want to see a solid performance by Dinamo. As they say…the ball is round. I enjoy being the underdog, and overperforming against larger teams. I don’t think they will win but anything is possible. They did beat a hot Atalanta 4:0 in the CL in 2019.
My predictions would be Tottenham goes into the first leg with too much confidence and they play a sloppy game, Dinamo shocks the world and wins 2-1 away from home. Tottenham then realizes they might be in some bad shit so they put their best XI in Zagreb and win 3-0 so the aggregate is 4-2 Spurs.
Dinamo will lose…their Europa season is pretty much done. You cannot compare the two sides. 1 side is worth $850 million, the other is worth $114 million. Experience alone will offer Tottenham a comfortable win and as much as it hurts me to admit this, those are true facts.
.
The only thing that might help Dinamo would be if Tottenham don’t play the game with any intensity!
Un related but what was Ronaldo doing in the wall yesterday then Turning around to have it go thru his legs?
Looks good on juve the way they discarded Mandzukic
If Gvardiol was playing, Dinamo would win 4-1
🙂
@Bećar
.
He means Eastern European estimating 😉
A real shame Gvardiol is out.If he would have put up 2 solid performances against the likes of Kane son and bale, it might have opened Dalic’s eyes and confidence. Then slotting him into the starting line-up for the euros wouldn’t be such a pipe dream.
@Ante
.
Do you mean underestimating?
It’s the form of Spurs that is the problem for Dinamo.
Bale has woken is inner dragon and the team is on fire.
EL is their path to CL.
Let our boys showcase their skills and enjoy the moment.
Spurs are not laying down against Arsenal. I will guarantee you that. This game is circled on their calendars once the schedule is released. It’s bragging rights central!
–
If anything, I can see Spurs overestimating Dinamo in the first leg looking forward to the Arsenal match. Kane, Son, Bale all playing well right now. We will see if Mo rotates any of them.