Dinamo Zagreb received a devastating blow in the 90th minute in Piraus as they lose 2-1 to the Greek Champions.
Filipe Pardo, a second-half substitute, scored two goals in under 30 minutes after his team was down 1-0 to the Modri.
Pardo came on in the 65th minute and immediately made an impact with a goal after seeing the pitch for only 30 seconds.
The Dinamo defense looked like they were stuck in mud as they allowed acres of space between themselves and the ball. The space provided ample room to sneak a pass to Pardo in the box who had a clear shot to the far post for his first goal.
Dinamo only needed to hang on to the draw to at least keep their dignity in a very tough away environment, but the self destructiveness continued as Josip Pivarić, who assisted the Dinamo goal in the first half, was sent off with his second yellow of the evening, leaving Dinamo with only 10 players on the field.
Olympiacos took clear advantage of the situation and spent the next 14 minutes in search of the go ahead goal.
That goal was found by Pardo yet again who easily beat Eduardo from nearly the same spot as his first goal.
The 2-1 lead came in the 90th minute and gave Dinamo no more than a few ticks of the clock to equalize.
The devastating loss came after Dinamo lead the game 1-0 after Armin Hodžić‘s 21st minute goal.
Pivarić sent in a pinpoint cross from the left side and Hodžic met it with a fierce header in the 21st minute that could have been stopped by no one.
The lead looked to be in jeopardy after Goncalo committed a critical error in the box and gave away a penalty kick in the 53rd minute.
The penalty was not well taken and Eduardo made a save, but left a big rebound that was shot over the goal in an attempted shot.
The lead was preserved, but did not last much longer.
Dinamo flew too close to the sun for their own good and came crashing back down after the first goal by Pardo. The sending off of Pivarić only hurt Dinamo and they ultimately paid the price with another goal from Pardo.
It seemed too good to be true, and Dinamo certainly showed us that with their second half performance.
Mathematically, Dinamo can still survive, but their remaining opponents include Arsenal, which they beat 2-1 in their last meeting, and Bayern Munich, who are favorites to top the group.
incredible we have an idiot on this site talking about how good maribor and pizen is in past seasons, lol, you just have to laugh
Bottom line is unless money is reinvested into making the squad better, Dinamo will always have a low ceiling in European competitions. A team with young, yet talented Croatians will only get you so far
Maribor and Viktoria Plzen in recent seasons have also qualified for Champions League, and their records were much better than Dinamo’s.
Viktoria in one of those years, finished third in their group too, and got to go directly to the Round of 32 for Europa League knockout rounds. They’ve gone to the Round of 16 twice in Europa in recent years.
Even Maribor in last year’s Champions League drew with Chelsea, Sporting, and Schalke (on the road)…and Maribor eliminated Celtic and Maccabi Tel Aviv to get into the Champions League. That is very impressive.
Dinamo humiliated themselves the two seasons that they recently qualified for prior to this season (breaking a futility record in the process). They’re doing better this season, but will still finish dead last. However, their records against European competition (in recent years) is actually much worse than both Viktoria and Maribor.
EL is nothing. Not even worth it to comment. Clubs like Maribor and Victoria pizen can’t even qualify for CL. Dinamo qualified this year and won a match. Tell us the last time Rijeka or any other team from HNL made it to CL. That my friends is shitting the bed.
@^^^^
My Rijeka are undefeated and in first in the mighty HNL. Soooooo? Granted, they won’t win the title.
Fact of the matter is, Dinamo had a great opportunity to potentially finish 3rd and even if they played their best consistently for a few CL games, 2nd.
I wish this wasn’t the case, but Dinamo will get trampled on by Bayern and Arsenal the next 2 games and the European season will be over for them. Those Olympiacos ties were always the key to advancing and they, like so many other Cro teams (our NT, my Rijeka vs. Aberdeen this year, etc.) crapped their pants when the chance was there to make some noise.
That Dinamo game vs. Arsenal was great. Historic. Good memory. But I want to see Dinamo make it out of the groups, whether in CL or EL. The talent is without a doubt their. They just need to put it all together one year.
If smaller teams and other mickey mouse Eastern European clubs like Maribor, Ludgorets, Vikotoria Plzen and APOEL can make decent runs every so often in EL and CL — so can Dinamo in my book.
Dinamo played slightly well against olympiacos. My opinion is that we avoid a big loss to a quite simillar team to us. Olympiacos seems to have a very talented team that might earn a point away with Bayern.They have been many times to the next round of UCL and this year i can see them being very competitive. Dinamo should try to earn a point against Arsenal and hope Bayern beat olympiacos so they can come to Zagreb with the reserve squad.
somethings still wrong with this site.
cant access the homepage, just the article pages directly
^^^^
Just like your Rijeka.
Smell that?
That’s Dinamo taking a collective shit in their drawers tonight.
Mental midgets gonna mental midget
Someone call the SVU detectives. I feel so violated after watching that game. 🙁
Pušiona u zadnjoj sekundi.
Yes, but so does Olympiakos.
I highly doubt Olympiakos comes out of Munich with any points, and if they end up losing to Arsenal, they stay below us.
If they beat Arsenal, then Arsenal is eliminated and will have to beat Dinamo just to come in third. Not sure if they’ll give a crap at that point.
They still have to play Arsenal and Bayern. Good luck with that.
Big win if Dinamo can pull this off.
If they somehow get another goal and win 2-0 they will have the head to head edge on Olympiakos, and will likely finish third at worst.
Rakitic subbed off with an injury, anyone know the severity?
Jeben te dinamooooooo
@ Iggy,
Spot on! That was the best episode this season. Don’t mess with the restaurant owners.
It’s now or never for Dinamo!!
@ Talijan
I’ve been reading your post regarding Hrvati in Italy. And I must say great analysis! Thanks for providing the inside scoop on Hrvati in Serie A.
According to bookies Dinamo are clear underdogs. Best current odds is 9,4, while Olympiakos are clear favourites @1,44 and apparently still shortening.
Kick off odds vs Arsenal were
1 7.00
X 4.50
2 1.75
For as much as I think tonights chances can be influenced by the bad streak Dinamo are currently undergoing.
I do think that
1 Champions league is not the HNL and motivations can be quite different
2 Dinamo having more chance to beat Arsenal at home than Olympiakos away don’t add up.
Unless I am missing something…
Do they have any injured or banned key players?
Don’t worry, Ante. Having seen the recent South Park ep about Yelp, i will avoid giving you any bad press, promise ! 🙂
Hey Iggy,
It was us. Not you.
We had some backend issues we had to take care of. We were down for a day and a half but back now.
We apologize for the inconvenience. Please don’t downgrade our yelp rating.
wow
i couldnt access this site for days.. was that just me, or ?