06 December 2016
Dinamo’s UCL journey
Dinamo Zagreb go into Wednesday’s match still looking for their first Champions League point and goal this season.
Since suffering the 4-0 defeat to Juve on 27 September, the Croatian capital outfit have managed to keep scorelines tight at home, losing 1-0 to both Lyon and Sevilla at the Stadion Maksimir.
However, the same cannot be said for their away matches so far in Europe’s premier club competition, where they have fallen 3-0 and 4-0 to the French and Spanish sides respectively.
By contrast, it was Dinamo’s solid form on their travels that underpinned their progress to this season's Champions League group stages. They prevailed 2-1 at FK Vardar in the second qualifying round (5-3 on aggregate) and 1-0 at FC Dinamo Tbilisi in the next stage (3-0 on aggregate).
Consistency in Croatia
Five wins and three draws in the league since 27 September have seen Dinamo rise to second place in the HNL and stay in the hunt for what would be a 12th consecutive Croatian league title.
Six points separate them and league leaders HNK Rijeka, with whom they drew 1-1 at home on Saturday, while third-placed Hajduk Split sit a further six points below Dinamo.
Interestingly, Dinamo have been far more impressive on their travels in this period, winning all four away games in the league and another two in the cup. Last Wednesday’s 1-0 victory against Inter Zapresic sealed their place in the competition’s semi-finals.
Outings in Italy
This Wednesday, Dinamo will be looking for their first ever win in 10 attempts on Italian soil, drawing two and losing seven of their nine previous outings to the Peninsula.
Incidentally, one of those points earned in Europe came in Turin courtesy of a 1-1 scoreline against Torino in the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-finals in 1965, the other a goalless stalemate away to Atalanta in the UEFA Cup in 1990.
The reverses suffered along the way have been at the hands of Fiorentina (1961), AC Milan (1973 and 2000), Torino (1977), Perugia (1979), Parma (2000) and Udinese (2008).
