D. Zagreb vs FC Astana prediction: EUROPE: Europa Conference League – Group Stage betting tips on match 2023-09-20 19:00.
After keeping in touch with the Croatian league top two with a 3-0 league win at the weekend, Dinamo Zagreb gear up for their first foray into the UEFA Europa Conference League (UECL) group stage. This is a drop off from their Champions League appearance last season, although that may fire them up for a trophy challenge after group stage eliminations in all eight appearances in Europe’s premier club competition.
A positive start could be on the cards if Dinamo can keep the kind of form going that has seen them lose just twice in competitive home action since October 2022 (W15, D3, L2). That run began after a defeat in European action however, and one of the two losses thereafter also came in Europe, so they’re certainly not infallible when playing in UEFA sanctioned events.
Trying to inflict the damage will be reigning Kazakh champions Astana, who travel here on the back of a 2-1 league win which kept their domestic title hopes alive. That result continued a sequence of seven competitive games which differed in result to the one before, a trend they’ll hope to end here with back-to-back wins for the first time since July.
This is only the eighth occasion in which a Kazakhstani side have reached the group stage of a major European competition, and with only Astana themselves in 2017/18 going any further than that, progression from Group C could prove difficult. That statement is backed up by the fact that Astana’s only encounters against Croatian opposition all came against Dinamo and since the 2018/19 season, all four ended in defeats to nil with nine goals conceded.
Players to watch: Dinamo and Croatia star Bruno Petković has been in fine form of late, netting six goals and assisting as many across his last eight games for club & country. Serges Deble could be Astana’s best route to goal after scoring in three of their last six European games, but ominously his last three competitive goals all came in defeats.
Hot streak: Astana are enduring their joint-longest winless run of away games (D1, L4) since a six-game run between June-August 2021.