Thursday, from 17:55, Dinamo Zagreb will receive the Portuguese Benfica visit to Lisbon, in a match for the first hand of UEFA Europa League’s finals. The match will be held at the “Maksimir” stadium in Zagreb.
Not to be overtaken until now, Croatian champion Dinamo Zagreb has gone unhindered to the optimum of the UEFA Europa League, but will have an opponent as Benfica Lisboa. The Croats have enfranchised the group stage, qualifying without emotion from the first place without knowing the taste of defeat. In the evenings, even if they lost on the tour of Viktoria Plzen (1-2), they rebounded toplessly and “Maksimir”, imposing 3-0, after a non-emotionally dominated match. Moreover, Dinamo Zagrbe has only known the taste of defeat only once this season against his own fans, against the Young Boys (1-2), in the UEFA Champions League play-off. Otherwise, the Croats have shown extremely solidity, irrespective of the opponent’s name, which is why even a Benfica-level Lisbon team gets a big deal to make “Maksimir”.
On the other hand, the Lusitans come with high morale, but a little tired after the weekend championship derby, when they were forced to play Porto Porto (2-1), taking the lead in Portugal. As for qualifying in optimi, the Portuguese did not face great emotions, solving the equation from the tour through the success on the Galata field, score 2-1. The return was only a formality, even though the two teams drew “Estadio da Luz” (0-0), as the Turks needed two goals and ended up not even marking one.
Given the circumstances of this game, we expect a balanced deployment of hostilities. Even if bookmakers anticipate a closed match in Zagreb, this tour is the best opportunity for Dinamo to get a positive result. Learning from the mistakes of Galati, who did not succeed at Benficai, we believe that this homogeneous Croatian team has the potential to create problems for the Portuguese colossus, at least in this tournament match on Maksimir.
PREDICTION: Both teams to score / NO @ 1,76
