Despite the fact that European Championship is currently being played, the 2021/22 UEFA Champions League has started and we have reached the first qualifying round of the competition.
There are several fixes to look forward to on Wednesday the 7th of July including the meeting between GNK Dinamo Zagreb and Valur Reykjavík at the Stadion Maksimir in Croatia.
Coming soon on Scots Abroad:@DundeeFC legend Barry Smith will be on to talk his entire career and about his successful time with @valursport in Iceland 🏴 pic.twitter.com/dpDVSrJPh4— Trampled Bet Podcast (@TrampledBet) July 1, 2020
Coming soon on Scots Abroad:@DundeeFC legend Barry Smith will be on to talk his entire career and about his successful time with @valursport in Iceland 🏴 pic.twitter.com/dpDVSrJPh4
GNK Dinamo Zagreb come into the match having completed 3 friendly games in June. They won each of the 3 fixtures, defeating Mura 4-0 away plus Sered 3-0 and Rostov 2-1 at home.
Including the friendly matches, GNK Dinamo Zagreb are on a 14 match unbeaten run.
You must go back to the Europa League quarter-final tie against Villarreal on the 15th of April to find the last time GNK Dinamo Zagreb lost a game.
In terms of the Champions League, GNK Dinamo Zagreb fell at the third qualifying round stage last season, losing 2-1 at Ferencvaros in Hungary.
The tie was played using just one fixture due to COVID-19 restrictions, whereas usually it would have been two and GNK Dinamo Zagreb would have been confident of getting the job done in the second leg at home.
Going back to the 2019/20 season and GNK Dinamo Zagreb reached the group stage of the Champions league where they met the likes of Manchester City, Atalanta, and Shakhtar Donetsk, so they are an experienced European outfit.
The same cannot be said for Valur Reykjavík and the Icelandic club are the clear outsiders for this match.
However, they have enjoyed a strong start to the domestic season in Iceland and come into this fixture sitting top of the table on 27 points.
Valur Reykjavík won their 23rd Icelandic league title in 2020 and they are the favourites to win the title again this season.
Nonetheless, there is a massive step up from the Úrvalsdeild to the Champions League qualifying rounds and Valur Reykjavík have yet to reach the latter stages of the qualifying process.
They have lost each of their last 3 Champions League qualifying fixtures and went down 5-0 on aggregate against Maribor in 2019.
They have lost all 3 of their previous away games in the competition, conceding 2 or more goals in each of the 3 matches.
Team news and GNK Dinamo Zagreb will be missing striker Mario Gavranović who has been playing in the European Championship for Switzerland.
Stefan Ristovski and Arijan Ademi also featured in the competition for North Macedonia, while Dominik Livaković, Luka Ivanušec, Mislav Oršić, and Bruno Petković were in the Croatia squad.
Valur Reykjavík do not have any concerns regarding players at the European Championship and they will be assessing their squad following the win over FH on the 1st of July.
With plenty of time to recover, they should be close to full strength, with Patrick Pedersen a key man in attack.
GNK Dinamo Zagreb are the clear favourites to win this game and they will expect to travel to Iceland for the second leg next week with a good advantage plus a clean sheet.