Krasnodar hosts Dinamo Zagreb in the first leg of the Europa League 1/16 finals. The match will be played on Thursday, February 18th at Krasnodar Stadium (Krasnodar)
The debut in the Champions League turned out to be not very successful for Krasnodar, but the third place in the group and promotion to the Europa League playoffs is a tolerable result for the Russian team. Musaev's men face serious tasks in this tournament – they will try to get to the final stages of the tournament. The difficulty for Krasnodar lies in the lack of playing practice in official matches due to the winter break in the RPL. Krasnodar's roster is filled with high-quality personnel, including expensive legionnaires (Vilhena, Berg, Wanderson, Cabella, Claesson, Ramirez, and Martynovich). Among the Russian footballers, one should single out Safonov, Gazinsky, Sorokin, and Petrov.
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In the current season, the champions of Croatia have received a serious rival in the person of Osijek. For Dinamo Zagreb, such a balance of power is unusual and makes the team work with double dedication. Dinamo won its group in the Europa League, outranking such opponents as CSKA Moscow, Wolfsberger, and Feyenoord. The Croatian club plays modern combination football and has extensive experience in European Cups. In winter, Dinamo Zagreb strengthened the roster with such newcomers as Ristovski and Cabraja. Petkovic, Majer, Ademi, Guardiol (in the summer, he will move to RB Leipzig for 16 million euros), Livakovic, and Peric are the leaders of modern Dinamo. Beyond that, experienced Gavranovic and Orsic are in great shape (22 goals for two in the Croatian championship).
Krasnodar was forced to gain shape in test matches, and Musaev's charges performed with varying success. Zagreb has already held several meetings in the championship, demonstrating a good readiness for European Cups. The game tone is clearly on the side of Zoran Mamic's team. The game promises to be intense, with an emphasis on offensive actions, so we may well see a sufficient number of goals scored.
Prediction for the match: Over 2.0 goals scored
