Dinamo Zagreb – Real Betis

Zagreb club will end the losing streak in the Europa League

Zagreb's Dinamo has started the European Cup season for the first time in a long time not in the Champions League qualification. Last season, the capital team lost the championship title to Rijeka after seven seasons of dominance in Croatian football. Now Rijeka is trying to find itself in the Conference League, making mistakes in matches against Armenian and Gibraltarian teams. Meanwhile, the vice-champion of Croatia is trying to stay afloat in the Europa League. There, the Dinamo players started the group stage with two victories, but the latest rounds have brought them quite painful defeats. Of course, it is difficult for Croatian clubs to compete against teams like Celta and Lille, but losing to them by three or four goals is unacceptable. In this regard, Dinamo is gearing up in a special way for the match against Betis. Betis reached the final of the Conference League last season, where it lost to the future club world champion. The Seville club has tasted European competition and is certainly approaching the Europa League with quite ambitious goals. However, the last couple of weeks have brought Betis tough matches against Sevilla and Barcelona. In terms of the distribution of the load between La Liga and the Europa League, it is worth recalling the last season when Betis finished in fifteenth place in the group stage of the Conference League, which did not prevent them from reaching the final match of the tournament. Considering that currently the Seville team is in fifth place in the Europa League group stage, its strong position in the 'zone of interest' may allow Pellegrini not to bring the entire core of the team to Zagreb and provide playing time to the nearest reserves. As for Dinamo, there can be no question of anything less than maximum motivation for the match against the Spanish club. On Saturday, the team drew with the nearest pursuer in the Croatian championship, equalizing in the 90+12 minute. This not only allowed them to avoid defeat but also to maintain the top position in the division. In the Europa League, Dinamo lost twice in a row. This sequence must be reversed now to prevent it from turning into major problems in the final rounds of the group stage. Let's bet that the home team will not lose.