A clash between CL finalist last season and Croatian title holders. Of course, Arsenal is on first view huge favorite, but the first game which will play in Zagreb on Tuesday will show how much they can do as a favorites against one quite solid team like Dinamo. Arsene Wenger is a little bit worried because few of his important players are unavailable for the game in Zagreb. Henry is not feeling fit after WC matches and Wenger won't take a risk forcing him to play.
Ljungberg is having minor ankle injury problems, so he didn't travel to Zagreb just as Lehmann, who is suspended due red card recieved in CL final against Barcelona. Rosicky and Walcott are also having lack of trainings, so they are unlikely to start this game. Senderos, Clichy and Diaby are on long-term injury list, so that makes pretty big number of missing players for this game.
Expected line-up (4-4-2 or 4-3-3): Almunia - Eboue, Toure, Djorou, Flamini - Hleb, Fabregas, Gilberto Silva, Reyes - Adebayor, Van Persie
All Dinamo members, including staff, players and fans were just hoping not to recieve an opponent like Arsenal or Liverpool. As one of the Dinamo fan I feel very unlucky because everybody knows the strenght of Arsenal and it is very hard to expect that Dinamo will eliminate Arsenal from CL competition. The fact that Arsenal is playing with a lot of reserve (but still very good) players gives all Dinamo fans a hope that Dinamo could achieve good result, at least in front of home crowd. Coach Kuže knows very well who are they playing with and I believe he will try to surprise Wenger in tactical way.
According to local newspapers Vugrinec and Cvitanovic (two quality players arrived this season) will be ready after minor injuries in last league match in Friday, so the line should look like this (4-3-2-1): Turina - Corluka, Nowotny, Cvitanovic, Cale - Etto, Mamic, Buljat - Vugrinec, Modric - da Silva.
If the hosts will manage to play as they know, I believe we will see one very good game. The stadium is sold out (around 35000 seats), so the atmosphere will be fantastic (especially if the result will be good for the hosts). I think that Arsenal won't give all they have into this game, but they certainly won't just let Dinamo taking a win with few goals margin. A draw could satisfy them, especially when they know that they will play om their ground with more players available. So, I believe that Dinamo won't lose this game.
8.8.2006 21:00 Dinamo Zagreb - Arsenal FC, Dinamo Zagreb or draw @ 1.90 at Unibet
source: www.betshoot.com
