With a record of eight wins and a draw from their first nine league games, Krznar last saw his team defeated against Glimt in the first leg of the playoffs, and is now looking to steer them to successive Champions League wins for only the second time in the club's history.Īhead of Wednesday's game, Milan coach Stefano Pioli not only has long-term absentees Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alessandro Florenzi unavailable, but Divock Origi, Rade Krunic and Ante Rebic are also expected to miss out too. Since claiming their fourth consecutive Croatian championship last term, Dinamo have advanced past Shkupi, Ludogorets and Bodo/Glimt in Champions League qualifying, and after their 1-0 win over HNK Gorica on Saturday, they are top of the HNL table once again. Having last featured in the group phase back in 2019, an adventure to the quarter-finals of the 2021-22 Europa League - in which they remained unbeaten in Group K and saw off Tottenham Hotspur in the last 16 - clearly whetted the appetite for subsequent wins over West Ham and Sevilla in last season's competition. However, one of those six efforts, from the boot of Mislav Orsic, proved enough to get them off to a flying start. The first meeting between the sides for 22 years, though, sees Dinamo fresh from a famous victory on Group E's opening night, as they downed 2021 European champions Chelsea at Stadion Maksimir last week - the fifth of six wins on the spin for Damir Krznar's side.ĭinamo had just 31.8% of the possession - the lowest of any team who managed to avoid defeat on day one - and managed only the second-fewest shots at goal. Poised to meet Milan for the fifth time in European competition, Dinamo Zagreb have a record of their own which requires significant improvement, as the Croatian club come into Wednesday's game having lost all four previous encounters. While Milan now sit third in the Italian top flight - separated only from the summit by goal difference, and set to face first-placed Napoli at the weekend - they return to San Siro aiming to improve an awful home record in the Champions League during the past decade: no wins from six matches there since beating Celtic in 2013. With their driving force absent from the left flank, veteran striker Olivier Giroud instead stepped up to salvage three points by steering home a penalty and helped his teammates hold on until the final whistle for a 2-1 win. In Serie A, though, Stefano Pioli's men have enjoyed back-to-back wins over the past fortnight, as they followed derby day victory against Inter with a gritty comeback away to Sampdoria on Saturday night.ĭemonstrating great character, Milan toiled for most of the second half with only 10 men at Stadio Luigi Ferraris, due to star man Rafael Leao receiving a second booking for raising his boot dangerously high. Having pipped arch-rivals Inter to the Scudetto in May, the Rossoneri finally shook off years of failure, and are now eager to translate domestic success onto the continental stage - however, they found themselves held to a 1-1 draw by RB Salzburg after a close-fought encounter in Austria.
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