Slaven Belupo vs Dinamo Zagreb Prediction: How will Dinamo play after the slap in the UCL?

Slaven Belupo and Dinamo will play a match of the seventh round of SuperSport HNL on Saturday at 18:30 in Koprivnica. It will be the first match for the Zagreb club after the dismissal of coach Sergej Jakirovic, who will be temporarily succeeded on the bench by his former assistant Sandro Perkovic. The future head coach has not yet been named. A very important match for Dinamo as they failed to win in all derbies in Croatia so far, and they were knocked down in Munich with 9 goals conceded.

Form: LWLLD

Slaven Belupo under the leadership of coach Marijo Kovacevic could not have started the new domestic championship season any worse. They are in last place with only one point won and everyone sees them, as the main candidate for relegation. However, Slaven have been successfully finding a way to save themselves and stay in the HNL for more than two decades, which they will try to do this season as well. They should be helped in this by the respected striker Robert Muric, the most famous name in the domestic ranks. The experienced Ilija Nestorovski, who was once one of the best offensive players of HNL, arrived in Koprivnica, and Ivan Dolcek was also brought in as a matter of urgency. 

Form: LLLDW

The team from Zagreb is definitely shaken. They suffered a 9:2 defeat against Bayern, and also a defeat in the derby against Hajduk. They didn't even manage to beat Rijeka on Rujevica. Thus, after a perfect start to the season, Dinamo suddenly found themselves in third place in the HNL and last in the elite club football competition. Now the "blues" have to start and show that they are still in a class of their own in domestic club football. In Koprivnica, Dinamo have no right to stumble, even though they now haven’t a manager as Jakirovic won’t be part of this team anymore.

So far, Dinamo have played 83 games with Belupo in the HNL and achieved 64 victories with 12 draws and 7 defeats. The goal difference is 193-56. Away from home, Dinamo won 27 games, drew 9 times, and lost 5 times, with a goal difference of 81-31. In the last 10 games against Belupo, Dinamo have a 9-1-0 ratio with a goal difference of 31-7, and in Koprivnica also 9-1-0 with a goal difference of 28-6. Dinamo's last loss in Koprivnica was on April 25, 2017. Namely, what Bayern are to Dinamo, Dinamo are currently to Slaven. The difference in class is huge and it will be felt throughout the 90 minutes of the match. I expect an easy win for Dinamo and a confident win with a bigger goal difference.