There were few more favorable scenarios for Dinamo in the Europa League Round of 32 knockout round draw.
Dinamo avoided the likes of Celtic, Fenerbahce, and Sporting CP by drawing Czech League champions Viktori Plžen.
Dinamo will face the Czechs on February 14 with the return match held on February 21.
This is the first time a Croatian club will play in the knockout round of a European competition in over 50 years.
Dinamo Zagreb finished their Europa League campaign with an unbeaten 4-0-2 record after a 0-0 draw against Anderlecht Thursday night at Maksimir. The match was a mere technicality for the reigning Croatian champions as they were already set to top the group.
@BZ
“The line I put thru Jedvaj is when ppl wanted him over Vrsaljko at RB, and even wanted him to play RW. That stands!”
C’mon man, no one ever said that, but let me tell ya what most of you guys did say, that Vrsaljko should be replaced by Srna after Srna had a good Euro 16 lol.
Jedvaj to replace Vrsaljko at RB no one ever said at any time.
@anon- The line I put thru Jedvaj is when ppl wanted him over Vrsaljko at RB, and even wanted him to play RW. That stands!
I reiterate, he will never be World Class like Vrsaljko. Nor will he ever be a key leader of the next golden generation. He is merely a role player that won’t totally fuck up a team with studs like Rakitic, Modric, Mandzukic, Perisic, and Rebic.
Dalic’s eyes were opened when he realized he didn’t need to play the best Lefty he can find at LB. I take Jedvaj at LB over Strinic, Pivaric, and Barisic all day. He is also our 2nd best RB right now, but 2nd by a wide margin.
Jedvaj is still waaay too wildly inconsistent.
He scored two goals against Spain in Nations League and followed it up by being at fault for the loss against England.
Happy to have Jedvaj anywhere in our backline, he reminds of Paolo Maldini so I expect big things from him.
Only Sporting is better than Viktori this season. Celtic and Fenerbache would have been easier.
@Anonymous – Jedvaj has been injured quite often as well, good point. Do you think he’s a better RB or CB?
@BZ
“Opened Dalic’s eyes”? You’re kidding aren’t ya, you put a line through Jedvaj’s name ya hater, remember that?
Jedvaj has also been injury prone in his short career but he’s a talented kid, just needs some continuity with his football and sky’s the limit. The kid’s great!
Wow, Dinamo living up to the Europski Dinamo nickname! Svaka cast, modri!
Celtic is not a team to be avoided
Had fun watching Vrsaljko dominate a weak team this weekend. Truly a World Class RB, that happens to be injury prone. Get better by summer of 2020.
The one good thing about these frequent injuries, is it might have opened Dalic’s eyes to putting Jedvaj at LB- which is better than other options he tried.
Brozo solid CDM. Gotta thank Inter for helping us out on that one. With Badelj, we might have continued to underperform.
@DannyJ
Good question. Regardless, you play to win. I’m sure some clubs would take the approach of looking for EL over CL for that exact reason (blown out, pride, money). Someone had a good post here about the money made depending on how far you go in each tournament.
I get the logic in pushing for Europa League it just means you have to come out looking to not do the best you possibly can which goes against what most if not all sports competitions are about (England vs Belgium this WC example). Again, this is a business so some would argue either side.
Good stuff
Seems to me that if they would have played Europa instead of champions league the past few years they prob would have been in couple knockout rounds
So do u guys looking back think they should have been blown out in champions league or been competitive in Europa?
I know it’s been talked bout a couple times in the past