Salzburg before “co-decisive” games against Dinamo Zagreb
With a lot of self-confidence and for the first time in the current Champions League season as a favorite, Salzburg will go into the home duel with Dinamo Zagreb on Wednesday (6.45 p.m./live ServusTV, Sky, DAZN). After the draws against Milan and Chelsea, a doubles match against the Croatians this week and next could lay the foundation for qualifying for the round of 16 again: “Let’s not fool ourselves: these two games will be decisive,” said coach Matthias Jaissle.
With a home win in front of a full house (28,864) – assuming a “treble” from Chelsea against Milan – one would definitely start the game in Zagreb on Tuesday in first place and could even do better in the Croatian capital. The home game against Chelsea (October 25) and the conclusion in Milan (November 2) left nothing to be desired in terms of drama.
Salzburg, whose dress rehearsal with the 1: 1 at LASK did not go according to plan, is the clear favorite with the bookmakers. Jaissle didn’t want to get involved in that. “It’s a game at eye level, without clear favorite roles,” emphasized the German, whose CL record with the “bulls” is 3 wins, 4 draws and 3 defeats.
“Dinamo are an unbelievably good team with the necessary experience. It will definitely be a knife-edge game,” said Jaissle. With the 1-0 home win over Chelsea, Dinamo made everyone sit up and take notice at the start of the group stage, even though Croatia’s record champions lost the following game at Milan 1-3.
The Croatian stars may be “a bit too old for our scouting,” Jaissle joked, but the respect for strikers like Bruno Petkovic and Mislav Orsic was evident. “These are the two best, we have to be extremely careful with them,” said offensive man Luka Sucic. Born in Linz with Croatian roots, he has already played three A games for “Vatreni”, and from this perspective the game is “of course something special for him. I know a lot of players from the national team,” said the 22-year-old. The advantage: “There is no Dinamo Zagreb fan in my family.”
Another Austrian-born kicker is in action for Dinamo. Robert Ljubicic, who was still in central midfield at Rapid in the previous season, is mostly used on the left outside in the back four or five under Zagreb coach Ante Cacic and will probably play there again in Salzburg. In contrast to Sucic, the brother of Cologne legionnaire Dejan is still an option for Austria’s national team. Emir Dilaver is another Austrian under contract with Dinamo, but the 31-year-old ex-Austrian only gets manageable minutes of action.
Cacic summed up the initial situation with the words “we’re not favorites in any game, but we’re certainly not necessarily outsiders either”. Last but not least, a certain defensive weakness is worrying him. “Yes, we score a lot of goals, but the number of goals conceded hurts me a little,” said the 69-year-old former Croatia boss. “We concede a goal easily in every game. That shouldn’t happen to us if we want to achieve anything in Europe.”
The coaches of the two series champions (9 at Salzburg, 5 at Dinamo) tackle the clash with almost complete squads. Jaissle will probably once again rely on Benjamin Sesko due to the absence of striker Fernando, behind the strikers likely to whirl Sucic in place of Dijon Kameri (shoulder). Central defender Bosko Sutalo, who has only been injured for a long time, is missing from the guests.