Arsenal will welcome Dinamo Zagreb to the Emirates on Wednesday night for their Champions League clash, with the visitors set to play their first competitive match in a month.
Since their last Croatian Football League match – a 3-2 home victory against NK Varazdin – Dinamo Zagreb have played two friendlies under new manager Fabio Cannavaro. The Italian legend, appointed late last year, oversaw a 3-1 win away at Lech Poznan and a 1-1 draw against Jagiellonia Bialystok as he began assessing his squad.
“That’s the context of the game a little bit, obviously with a new coach and the fact that they haven’t played a competitive match for a month,” Mikel Arteta noted in his pre-match press conference at Sobha Realty Training Centre on Tuesday.
“Obviously we know the friendly games that they’ve played and we watched them just to try to gather ideas, more principles and systems than formations because Fabio’s played different formations when he was in China to Italy and now as well. To actually understand what they’re going to do and know the idea behind it, we’ll adapt to that tomorrow.”
Arsenal’s manager was also asked about Dinamo Zagreb’s impressive promotion of academy talents, with their production line consistently developing stars. Among them, midfielder Martin Baturina stands out, highly regarded in Croatia after being the youngest member of their Euro 2024 squad and winning the nation’s Young Player of the Year award last season.
“Yes, incredible talents,” he said. “What they’ve done for many, many years, very consistently as well, the type of football that they always play in a very particular country with a very clear philosophy of how they want to play the game, it’s going to be a very difficult match.”
“I don’t like to talk about individuals but they do have a lot of talent. They have some individuals that catch your eye because you have in your head all of the players that play in that club and what they’ve done in the past, so it’s always a good league and a great club to follow.”
A victory against Dinamo Zagreb would move Arsenal up to third place, putting the Gunners in a strong position to secure automatic qualification for the UEFA Champions League round of 16 ahead of their final group stage fixture.
