Football coach Vahid Halilhodžić, who managed both Lille and Dinamo during his career, believes that the French club will have a slight advantage at home during the Europa League game on Thursday, but that the Croatian runner-up can win because it has a group of good players.
Lille is a slight favorite because it plays on its home field, but Dinamo also has its chance because it is made up of a quality group of playerssaid 73-year-old Halilhodžić in a telephone conversation for Hina from Paris.
Lille and Dinamo will play a match of the fifth round of the Europa League on Thursday starting at 18:45. Dinamo ranks 12th and Lille 19th among 36 teams.
To both need a win in order to advance furthersaid the experienced coach, adding that he expects an interesting match. The best eight teams will win direct passage to the next stage of the competition.
Lille, a city in the north of France with a population of 228,600, is a frequent host of European matches. The foundations for it were built by Halilhodžić from 1998 to 2002. Leading the team in 160 games, he raised it from the second league to European heights.
It was her sports, human and social adventure which left a deep mark on the memorysays the coach born in Jablanica, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The former Nantes and Paris Saint-Germain player was brought in by Lille to fix a struggling team.
Strict and demanding, the Bosnian managed to breathe new life into the clubwrites on the website of the French Premier League.
Halilhodžić notes that it was a time “human relations at the highest level“, so he dragged the financially struggling team from 19th place in the French second division to their first appearance in the European Champions League. There, Lille competed on an equal footing with then-powerful teams such as Manchester United and Deportivo La Coruna.
I’ve probably never had a team that was that much ready to work and sacrificewith the little talent she had, and the minimal budget, he says.
“Vaha”, as he is fondly called, later managed Rennes, PSG, Trabzonspor, Al-Ittihad and Ivory Coast, and then in 2010 he became the coach of Dinamo Zagreb. He spent almost a year in Maksimir and was remembered for the 2-0 victory over the Spanish Villarreal in the Europa League.
Dynamo now has good group of players which needs some time to automate the game, for the players to get to know each other and get used to itbelieves Halilhodžić, who sat on the “Blues” bench 32 times.
He saw the media pressure and criticism of the new coach Marija Kovačević, but he repeats that with the arrival of president Zvonimir Boban, “a cut was made” that brought in a lot of new players, so it takes time for them to work harmoniously as a sports unit.
Dinamo’s players, who beat Karlovac and Varaždin in the last two games, will run on the lawn of the “Pierre Mauroy” stadium in Lille. That modern 50,000-seater was built in 2012 and named after the Lille-born former mayor and prime minister.
Lille has an obligation every year play at least the Europa Leaguebut to fight for the Champions League because that’s the only way he can fill the expenses from his big budgetsays Halilhodžić.
The club, whose showcase includes four French champions’ cups and six national cups, is currently in fourth place in the championship. Lille already has one European trophy, the Intertoto Cup won in 2004. Then, in the semi-finals, he defeated Croatian Slaven Belupo with a 3-0 victory on his home ground, as the second game in Koprivnica ended 1-1.
They have big ambitionsthey want to go to the Europa League finalnotes Halilhodžić.
He explains that Lille has 17 to 18 quality players who are characterized by experience and youth. Among the most famous are the 39-year-old former striker of the French national team Olivier Giroud and the 34-year-old right back of the Belgian national team Thomas Meunier, and the 34-year-old captain and midfielder Benjamin Andre is important.
Dinamo will have a very good European team against themHalilhodžić points out.
He says that the reputation of French football was raised after PSG won the Champions League last season, and France was in the final of the last World Cup.
(Hina | Photo: EXPA/Pixsell)
