Dinamo Zagreb-Astana is a match valid for the second qualifying round of the Champions League and is played on Tuesday at 20:00: predictions.
Dinamo Zagreb have accumulated some experience in the Champions League preliminaries in recent years, having reached the final stage six times in the last 12 seasons. The multiple champions of Croatia will try again this time, starting from the second qualifying round. The first obstacle they face is the Kazakhs of Astana.
The aim of coach Igor Biscan – who arrived in April in place of the exonerated Ante Cacic – is to try and do better than in the last edition of the cup with the big ears, when Dinamo finished last in the group of AC Milan, Chelsea and Salzburg, also missing out on relegation to the Europa League. Petkovic and his team-mates already played their first official match last weekend, facing rivals Hajduk Split on the first day of the Croatian championship. In a surprise defeat, Dinamo Zagreb were held up (1-2) by the team that finished ten points below them in the standings last May, conceding the decisive goal in the dying stages.
A mocking defeat which the Croatian champions – they have won six years in a row at home – will try to forget in the cup.
Astana players
For its part, Astana, which has only participated in the final phase of the Champions League once in its history (2015-16 edition), had to eliminate the hostile Dinamo Tbilisi to reach the second round: 1-1 in Kazakhstan and 2-1 in Georgia, with Tomasov and Darboe who, in the second half, reimbursed Camara’s goal. The men of Grigoriy Babayan, the former deputy coach of CSK Moscow, did not go beyond a scoreless draw with Atyrau on Saturday, failing to catch Ordabasy in the standings.
The prediction
Dynamo Zagreb will try to close the gap in Croatia to make the Kazakh away match in a week’s time even less tricky. Croatians favourites in a match in which the total number of goals could be at least three.
Dynamo Zagreb v Astana (ASU): possible line-ups
- DINAMO ZAGREB (4-2-3-1): Livakovic; Moharrami, Peric, Sutalo, Ljubicic; Bulat, Misic; Spikic, Baturina, Ivanusec; Petkovic.
- ASTANA (3-4-2-1): Condric; Marochkin, Tomasevic, Amanovic; Beisebekov, Jovancic, Ebong, Vorogovskiy; Tomasov, Ourega; Darboe.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 3-1
