Our prediction for this Europa Conference League match:
Dinamo Zagreb
Match Time & Date:
21/09/2023
21:00
Prediction: 2-0
Astana
Stadion Maksimir will host Thursday’s Conference League game between Dinamo Zagreb and Astana, the two teams who met in the Champions League qualifiers earlier in the process. The Croatian champions rolled over the Kazakhs in the CL qualifiers and it is no wonder the bookies see them as hot favourites to win the Conference League encounter. A man to keep an eye on in the home team will be Bruno Petkovic, who has been scoring goals for fun in all competitions this term.
Astana, on the other hand, are fully focused on the national championship as they are fighting hard to defend their trophy. Grigori Babayan’s troops, though, are not regarded as good travellers and we do not believe that they are capable of spoiling Dinamo Zagreb’s party at Stadion Maksimir. Belarus midfielder Maks Ebong should be recalled to Astana’s starting XI after he came as a substitute in a 2-1 win over Tobol at the weekend.
Highlighted Team (Astana):
Astana are a Kazakh football club which was founded in 2009. The Blue and Yellows won their first domestic trophy in 2014, with the team finishing the regular part of the season in third place in the standings. However, thanks to their brilliant displays in the Championship round Astana won the national championship.
The big-spending Kazakh club have always been attracting high-profile footballers from Russia and Ukraine and it has to be noted that the likes of Yegor Titov, Andrey Tikhonov and Maksim Shatshikh played for the Blue and Yellows in the past. Nowadays Astana are considered the best football club in Kazakhstan and you should bear in mind that they won their third consecutive league title in 2016.
However, participating in the 2015/2016 Champions League group stages is considered the club’s biggest success. Astana faced the likes of Benfica, Atletico Madrid and Galatasaray in Group C and they collected 4 points from possible 18 in the process. It has to be noted that they shared the spoils with Diego Simeone’s men at their Astana Arena.
Brighton
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Barcelona
Las Palmas 
Crystal Palace
Newcastle 
Borussia Dortmund 
Bayern Munich 
West Ham
Arsenal
Chelsea 
Aston Villa 
