Dinamo Zagreb vs Hapoel Beer Sheva Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Not since 2016, where they lost each of their six group matches, have Dinamo Zagreb, who reclaimed their domestic title last season, featured in the Champions League, while they’ve not even been in a position to go through the qualifying rounds since that exit. Having strengthened their position as the top dogs in Croatia and having brought in some players over the summer, Dinamo will be hoping to once again compete against Europe’s elite come September.

Unlike their Croatian hosts, Hapoel, who’ve won the Israeli top division in each of the last three seasons, have never featured in the group stages of this competition, and having fallen at the third hurdle in each of the last two seasons’, the Israel champions will be hoping that this is their year to feature among the best teams on the continent. Tuesday’s visitors have already come through one round, as they beat Estonian side Flora 7-2 on aggregate, though it’s probably fair to say that Dinamo will be much harder to overcome.

Matches against teams from lesser divisions never act as the best guideline, though it’s fair to say that Hapoel impressed offensively in the last round. They made light work of both creating chances and scoring goals against Flora, though they did leave themselves a tad open at the back. In truth, given that they were clearly the better team, manager Barak Bakhar will undoubtedly have been disappointed to have conceded both home and away against inferior opposition.

In addition to conceding both home and away in the previous round, Hapoel have made a habit of coming up short defensively on their travels when attempting to qualify for this competition in recent times. In 2016, Celtic scored five at home against Be’er Sheva, while Ludogorets notched three at home against Bakhar’s side last season. Keeping this in mind, Dinamo, who’re no mugs on their own patch, ought to fancy themselves in front of a home crowd.

The Croatian hosts are yet to play in this competition this season, while their domestic campaign is also yet to get up and running, so they remain something of an unknown quantity, though they competed against both Sevilla and Lyon on their own patch back in 2016. Given how easy teams have found it to score goals against Hapoel in this competition in recent years, it would be no surprise whatsoever if Dinamo, who’ve scored at least twice in three of their last four UCL home qualifiers, thrived in the final third.