Dinamo Zagreb Through To Champions League Playoff, Hajduk Women’s Side Make Europa Cup Draw!

Dinamo Zagreb have beaten Kauno Žalgiris 7-1 on aggregate to proceed to the UEFA Champions League play-off round! Željko Sopić and his Lithuanian side drop down to the Europa League play-off. The second leg finished 2-1 Dinamo and was much tighter than expected as goalkeeper Ivan Filipović got sent off after a poor run-out where he collected a Žalgiris attacker in the 32nd minute.

But two goals were scored before the red card from Lukas Kačavenda and Josip Mišić (a beautiful goal). The hosts got one back in the 56th minute from Gabriel Debeljuh. No more goals were scored as Dinamo was able to hold on to the victory with 10 men, which is another 0.250 points added to our coefficient!

In the play-off for the UCL League Stage, Dinamo will face Norwegian champions Viking FK, who edged Bodø/Glimt to the title last year. Won’t be an easy task, especially away in the 2nd leg of the tie.

Women’s Europa Cup Draw for Hajduk and Agram

After winning their UWCL Mini-tournament 3rd place play-off vs. Mura, ŽNK Hajduk Split dropped down to join Croatian Cup winner, ŽNK Agram, in the first qualifying round of the Europa Cup. Both Croatian sides were unseeded for the draw and have gotten tough opponents.

Hajduk will face Danish side Fortuna Hjørring, who has fallen in quality since the beginning of the new decade. The Danish club played in the final of the UEFA Women’s Cup (now called ‘UEFA Women’s Champions League’) back in 2003. After that, they were a consistent side in the top European competition until 2021, when they last made it to the UWCL. Last season, after winning the Danish league title after a five-year drought, they made it to the Europa Cup Round of 16, where they lost to Breiðablik. It will be a tough task for the Croatian champions, but they’ve shown they can play. The first leg is in Split, the second in Denmark.

Agram got Belarusian side FC Minsk, who had their best result in Europe in the 2019/2020 season as they made it to the UWCL Round of 16, where they got knocked out by Barcelona. But after that, they’ve struggled to even qualify for the top competition again and have been regularly getting knocked out in the 1st qualifying rounds since 2021. Last season, they dropped down to the Europa Cup, where they lost to PSV in the Round of 32. Still a team with much more experience and probably quality than Agram, who last season were destroyed in the UWCL qualifiers by Athlone Town. The Zagreb side play the first leg away, while the return leg will be in the Croatian capital.