Consent Preferences Spurs Odyssey Preview Pack - Spurs v Dinamo Zagreb - UEFA CUP - 06.11.08
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Spurs Odyssey Preview - Spurs v Dinamo Zagreb

· NEW! - See the current injury list for all Premiership Teams!


Spurs record in Europe:-
The official crest of Tottenham Hotspur
European Cup
P   W   D   L   F - A
8   4   1   3  21 - 13

(Semi-Finalists 1962)

European Cup Winners Cup

P   W   D   L   F - A
33  20  5   8  65 - 34

(Winners 1963)

UEFA Cup
P   W   D   L   F - A
81 49  18  14  174-66 

(Winners 1972, 1984
 Finalists 1974)
The official crest of Dinamo Zagreb
Total
P    W   D   L   F - A
122 73  24  25  260-113

Dinamo Zagreb's record in Europe this season:-

Champions League Qualifying Rounds:-
(1)
Linfield      0-2   Dinamo Zagreb  (Mandzukic, Drpic)
Dinamo Zagreb 1-1   Linfield       (Mandzukic)
(2)
Domzale       0-3   Dinamo Zagreb  (Vrdoljak, Sammir, Tadic)
Dinamo Zagreb 3-2   Domzale        (Biscan, Hrgovic, Drpic)
(3)
Shaktar       2-0   Dinamo Zagreb
Dinamo Zagreb 1-3   Shaktar        (Balaban)

UEFA Cup
Round One:-
Dinamo Zagreb 0-0   Sparta Praha
Sparta Praha  3-3   Dinamo Zagreb  (Morales, Lovren, Badelj)
Round Two (1)
Dinamo Zagreb 3-2   NEC Nijmegen   (Mandzukic, Balaban, Vrdoljak)

UEFA CUP Round Two Group D Table:-

		     P  W  D  L  F-A  PTS
1. Udinese           1  1  0  0  2-0   3
2. Dinamo Zagreb     1  1  0  0  3-2   3
3. Spartak  Moscow   0  0  0  0  0-0   0
4. NEC Nijmegen      1  0  0  1  2-3   0
5. Spurs             1  0  0  1  0-2   0

This week's other game:-

Spartak Moscow  v  Udinese

Why is it that professional footballers love to play against their former teams, or against the team they support? If they love the team so much, how do they motivate themselves to the extent required for their current team to succeed, and to even score against that former team?

Both our Croatians, Luka Modric and Vedran Corluka played for Dinamo Zagreb, but only one can play tomorrow night. Modric has been the key to the Spurs turn around this season, with fine performances in Harry Redknapp's short but exciting Tottenham career so far. Luka started his career with Zagreb, and apart from spells on loan to Zrinjski Mostar and Inter Zapresic, spent his whole career there until his transfer to Tottenham in May this year. Luka scored 27 goals in 93 league games for his former team. We must hope he is suitably motivated for this game!

The Zagreb club was founded after the Second World War, and like any team in the former Yugoslavia, as well as their people, has suffered the rigours of conflict and political change. Dinamo Zagreb went through a couple of name changes too.

Dinamo Zagreb were Champions of their 12 team league last season by a massive 28 points, and currently head the table by two points, with 26 from 12 games. As can be seen above, they had to battle their way to the Third Qualifying round of the Champions League when they failed against Shaktar. In the first round of the UEFA Cup Zagreb won their tie against Sparta Praha on away goals after a 3-3 away draw.

In ther first game of this phase, Zagreb overcame NEC Nijmegen in an exciting game of five goals. Mandzukic (who is their top scorer in the league) scored an early goal, but Nijmegen went 2-1 up in the second half, before Balaban and Vrdoljak scored in the last ten minutes of the game to give our visitors a dramatic three points.

Balaban transferred to Zagreb from Club Brugge for whom he played against us in the same stage of the competition two years ago, when Spurs won 3-1. Balaban has scored 6 goals in all competitions this season, whilst Mandzukic has nine to his name, including a hat-trick in a 6-0 league win over lowly Cibalia. 22 year old Mandzukic has 4 Internatioonal caps to his name, and scored the Croatia goal in England's 4-1 win in September.

Igor Biscan is a familar member of the Dinamo Zagreb squad, having played for Liverpool between 2001 and 2005 and having played against Spurs a number of times. He was never a favourite with the Anfield crowd as I recall. Biscan spent four seasons with Zagreb before his move, and is in his second season back, after his move from Liverpool to Panathinaikos.

The Zagreb coach Branko Ivankovic spent five years as the coach of the Iranian National side, so he has plenty of experience of domestic and International football, albeit not necessarily at the highest level.

Before the appointment of Harry Redknapp, Zagreb would offer a severe challenge to our team. A full strength Spurs should gain a vital three points in the context of this competition, but there have been suggestions that Harry will (rightly) prioritise the Premier League programme, so we must assess the team news before committing ourselves to a prediction. It should be an entertaining and goal-filled game though!

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