Lyon vs Dinamo Zagreb Champions League Preview

Lyon vs Dinamo Zagreb Champions League Preview

Lyon vs Dinamo Zagreb has redemption written all over it. The last time the two teams met was in 2011 when Dinamo Zagreb suffered a 7-1 drubbing by Olympique Lyon at home at the Maksimir.

Indeed, heavy defeats are sadly a common staple when it comes to Champions League football in Croatia’s capital (read Dinamo Zagreb’s full Champions League preview here). In the last seven years, Dinamo Zagreb managed to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League four times.

But, while the club appears to be slightly too good for Europa League football, Dinamo also seems out of place in the group stage of the Champions League. Besides the 7-1 defeat against Olympique Lyon, Zagreb also suffered heavy defeats against Bayern München last season (5-0), Paris Saint-Germain in 2013 (4-0), and Real Madrid in 2011 (6-2).

Some of this can be explained by the fact that Dinamo Zagreb loses most of its best players every summer. This season, for example, Zagreb lost Marko Pjaca (to Juventus), Josip Brekalo (to VfL Wolfsburg), Marcelo Brozovic (to Inter Milan), Eduardo (to Chelsea), and Marko Rog (to Napoli).

Hence, by the time the group stage of the Champions League comes around, Dinamo are usually in rebuild mode and, while the club seems to be able to produce young a limitless supply of young and exciting players, the fact that these players are often inexperienced means that Dinamo can quite easily become the victim of a beating by one of Europe’s biggest clubs.

This makes Olympique Lyon, once again, the favourite to walk away with a victory, especially as the French club has been able to hang on to star striker Alexandre Lacazette, who was heavily linked with a move to Arsenal.

At the same time, however, Olympique are no longer France’s biggest club and, in recent years, have struggled internationally. Last season, Olympique lost all three home games, and only managed one goal. Their only victory came on matchday six against Valencia CF.

Althogether, this means that Wednesday’s match at the Stade de Lyon will be a much tighter affair than the heavy beating that Dinamo experienced in 2011.

Possible Line-ups

Olympique Lyon:

Formation: 4-3-3

Lopes – Rybus, N’Koulou, Yanga-Mbiwa, Rafael – Tolisso, Gonalons, Darder – Cornet, Lacazette, Fekir

Manager: Bruno Génésio

Dinamo Zagreb:

Formation: 4-2-3-1

Semper – Privarić, Shildenfeld, Benković, Matel – Jonas, Machado – Antolić, Ćorić, Soudani – Henríquez

Manager: Zlatko Kranjčar

By Manuel Veth –

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