Preview: Dinamo Zagreb vs. PAOK

Sports Mole previews Thursday’s Europa Conference League clash between Dinamo Zagreb and PAOK, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.

On Thursday, Dinamo Zagreb will welcome PAOK to the Stadion Maksimir for the first leg of their Europa Conference League last-16 clash.

PAOK are competing at this stage after winning their group, while the Croatian champions had to come through a knockout playoff round tie against Real Betis.

Match preview
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Dinamo Zagreb were forced to go through a playoff round after they finished in second place and nine points behind Viktoria Plzen in Group C.

Sergej Jakirovic’s side were handed a tough draw against Real Betis, but they managed to gain the upper hand in the first leg, claiming a 2-1 win at the Benito Villamarin to record their first away victory in Spain in UEFA competition.

They subsequently protected the lead in the return leg, with Takuro Kaneko cancelling out Cedric Bakambu’s opener to play out a 1-1 draw and seal a 3-2 aggregate victory.

Dinamo Zagreb are now set to appear in the last 16 of UEFA competition for the first time since the 2020-21 Europa League.

They will be hoping to continue their impressive unbeaten run, which currently stands at nine competitive matches after Sandro Kulenovic netted a stoppage-time equaliser in Sunday’s away league meeting with Osijek.

PAOK bypassed the playoff round after they won five and drew one of their six group matches to finish seven points clear of Eintracht Frankfurt at the top of the standings.

Although they failed to keep a clean sheet in the group phase, PAOK showcased their firepower to score at least two goals in each of their six group matches.

The Greek side will head into the first leg in a confident mood after they recovered from a four-game winless run to record three consecutive away victories.

Taison and Baba Rahman both got on the scoresheet in Sunday’s 2-0 win over Lamia to move PAOK to the top of the Greek Super League table.

Razvan Lucescu’s side will now head on their travels for a fourth consecutive match, and they will certainly have high hopes of picking up a victory after winning each of their last four European away matches, including qualifying.

Dinamo Zagreb Europa Conference League form:

Dinamo Zagreb form (all competitions):

PAOK Europa Conference League form:

PAOK form (all competitions):

Team News
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Dinamo Zagreb are unable to call upon the services of Marko Bulat, Mahir Emreli, Luka Stojkovic, Josip Drmic, Sadegh Moharrami and Dino Peric.

Despite seeing his side play out a draw at the weekend, Jakirovic could opt for consistency and name an unchanged lineup for Thursday’s first leg.

Bruno Petkovic will offer one of the home side’s main goal threats after scoring 14 goals in 29 competitive appearances this season.

As for the visitors, they remain without the defensive duo of Giannis Michailidis and William Troost-Ekong due to injury.

Tanzania international Mbwana Samatta is also a doubt after he was forced off in the first half of Sunday’s 2-0 win over Lamia.

Brandon Thomas could be presented with the chance to lead the line if Samatta is unable to take his place in the starting lineup.

Dinamo Zagreb possible starting lineup:
Nevistic; Ristovski, Theophile-Catherine, Bernauer, Perkovic; Music, Sucic; Kaneko, Baturina, Hoxha; Petkovic

PAOK possible starting lineup:
Kotarski; Otto, Kedziora, Koulierakis, Baba; Meite, Ozdoev; Zivkovic, Konstantelias, Taison; Brandon

We say: Dinamo Zagreb 1-1 PAOK
Dinamo Zagreb will be desperate to record a victory in Thursday’s home leg, but we think the Croatian champions will be held to a draw by a PAOK side that has avoided defeat in each of their 12 matches across qualifying and the main draw of this season’s Europa Conference League.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

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