Dinamo Zagreb will arrive in Azerbaijan in good spirits following a 3-0 home win in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League qualifying tie against Qarabağ and they will be looking to complete the job on Wednesday.
Qarabağ v GNK Dinamo will be shown live on TNT Sports 1 in the UK.
Qarabağ v GNK Dinamo will kick off at 17:45 BST on Wednesday 28th August at the Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Qarabağ ended last season with an eight-match unbeaten run at home. However, they have lost two of their four matches at the Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium this term, with one of those defeats coming in the home leg against Ludogorets in the previous round of qualifying.
The Azerbaijani outfit turned that tie around by winning 3-2 in the second leg before netting four in extra time to secure their place in the play-off round and it was no surprise to see them score so many, having notched 15 across their five UEFA Champions League matches this term.
Dinamo Zagreb have opened the season with five wins, including last week’s 3-0 thrashing, and they have conceded just two goals across that quintet of victories.
Goals could be on the agenda as the Croatian outfit’s last eight matches have featured over 2.5 goals, with the same bet landing in six of Qarabag’s eight matches this term.
Last week’s first leg was the first ever meeting between the pair.
Qarabağ wins | 0 |
Draws | 0 |
GNK Dinamo wins | 1 |
*H2H stats refer to all competitions
The hosts have no fresh injury concerns, although manager Gurban Gurbanov may still opt to shuffle the pack slightly after last week’s heavy defeat in Zagreb.
Toral Bayramov is an option to shore up the backline while Albanian forward Redon Xhixha could join Juninho in attack as Qarabağ look to overcome a three-goal deficit.
Dinamo were without Sadegh Moharrami, Arijan Ademi and Mauro Perkovic for the first leg and all three remain injured for the trip to Baku.
Sergej Jakirovic will be tempted to name an unchanged side following last week’s impressive showing, with Croatian international Bruno Petkovic likely to lead the line with former Juventus winger Marko Pjaca offering plenty of creativity out wide.