Dinamo will play the penultimate match of the group stage of the Champions League tomorrow at 20:45, its opponent in London will be Arsenal, one of the best teams in England and Europe.
The champion of Croatia will play a week later with Milan on They maximizeand according to the latest projections, he will need at least two points to place among the 24 best teams, the ones that will play the knockout phase.
Dinamo coach Fabio Cannavaro is in big problems with the squad. None of the three additions in this transition period, Bartol Franjić, Wilfried Kanga and Nobody Galesic they do not have the right to perform in the Champions League, nor can the club register new players until it eventually reaches the knockout phase.
In addition, the ready will not be injured for long Petar Sucic, Josip Mišić and Bruno Petkovicand on the trip to London Cannavaro did not even take the French stopper of Kevin Theophile-Catherine who got hurt.
Cannavaro, by his will or need, will be forced to make several changes compared to the team that was the most standard in Europe in the first half of the season. That’s when Nenad Bjelica mostly forced the 3-5-2 formation, but the new coach will have a hard time deciding on it due to objective reasons and personnel problems.
Raul Torrente will very likely go for the stopper, and instead of the aforementioned Theophile-Catherine, his partner will be either Maxime Bernauer who was also trusted by Bjelica or Sammy Mmaee who was practically removed from the team by the former coach. At the moment, it seems that the Moroccan stopper is a little more to the taste of the new Dinamo coach.
Given the lack of options in the top six, it is to be expected that Cannavaro will be used there Ariana Ademi who played a very good preparation in that position. The Italian coach recently said that he will see Martin Baturin and Port of Stojković as the future leaders of the team, which may have hinted that Stojković has an advantage over the other midfielders.
It is also possible that Cannavaro will judge that the line-up with him and Baturin in the middle of the field could be too offensive. In that case, they are imposed as solutions Lukas Kačavenda and Marco Hornwhose loan was recently extended.
It is to be expected that they will Marko Pjaca to start on the left wing, while on the opposite side we could see the Colombian attacker Juan Cordoba who started the season well, but was injured for a long time and has yet to fight for his status in the team.
Apart from all the mentioned problems, Cannavaro has another one, which is that he does not have a single substitute in even four positions. Stefan Ristovski and Ronael–Pierre–Gabriel are the only healthy and registered defenders in the team, so each will occupy one side of the defense.
The only replacement for Ademi is young Branko Pavićbut Cannavaro did not let it be known during the preparations that he would count on the young player in such a sensitive position and in such a game. Finally, a replacement for Sandra Kulenović there is no Cannavaro at the top of the attack, at least as far as the Champions League is concerned.
🚨🇮🇹 Fabio Cannavaro’s first game as Dinamo Zagreb boss will be in the UEFA Champions League…
He’ll face Arsenal away from home. 👀🔜 pic.twitter.com/w4fMheWgtQ
— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) January 20, 2025
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