The Croatian champions stand in Arsenalís way as last yearís finalists try to get back to the Champions League group stages. They will be a formidable challenge to the depleted Gunners, who have to play the first leg before the start of the Premiership season.
1. Dinamo have the slight advantage of starting their League season earlier. They have had 2 League games and also won the Croatian Supercup.
2. Dinamo have been 8 times the Croatian champions since the break-up of Yugoslavia.
3. The clubís Maksimir Stadium holds 40,000 and can be a tough place to visit
4. Dinamoís hard core ultra fans are known as the ëBad Blue Boysí.
5. Two members of the current squad- Marjan Buljat and Luka Modric- were in the Croatian national squad at the World Cup
6. A familiar new addition to the squad is German international defender Jens Nowotny, who has played in the Champions League Final for Bayer Leverkusen.
7. Modric is one of the big hopes for the future of the national side. He has been linked with big moves to Bundesliga sides and is the playmaker in midfield, often operating from the left. Buljat usually plays down the right side as wing back/midfielder.
8. There are three Brazilians in the current squad including defender Carlos.
9. Zagreb dismissed Ekranas 9-3 on aggregate in the 2nd Qualifying Round. Goran Ljubjecvic bagged a hat-trick in the home leg. He has been recalled from last seasonís loan spell with St. Gallen in Switzerland.
10. Striker/midfielder Eduardo De Silva is Brazilian born but now has Croatian nationality. He scored twice against Ekranas.
11. The most likely front pairing to start against Arsenal is Eduardo with the experienced Davor Vugrinec who has played several seasons in Italy including a spell in Serie A. Vugrinec has been signed from league runners-up Rijeka.
12. The club were founded in 1911 and have won a European trophy. They lifted the old Fairs Cup back in 1967 and nearly defended it losing in the 1968 Final.
13. They are called Dinamo again after a name change to Croatia Zagreb, soon after the country became an independent state again
14. Their club colours are all blue.
15. Dinamo are hot favourites to win the title again in 2007. As well as Nowotny they have added Mario Cvitanovic and Jasmin Agic. Agic has just spent a season in South Korea and Cvitanovic comes in from Belgian football. With Vugrinec and Ljubjecvic they make a powerful addition to last yearís group.
16. Coach Josip Kuze believes he now has the squad to ëdo something bigí and certainly they are most seasoned side to come out of Croatia for some time.
17. Mark Viduka, Davor Suker, Mario Stanic and Branko Stupar are Premiership names who turned out for the team. Viduka scored 38 times in 77 games for the Blues early in his career.
18. Former Tottenham favourite Ossie Ardiles had a spell as coach back in 1999.
19. Arsenal will be interested that Dinamo leaked three goals and struggled to beat Sibenik 4-3 last Friday.
20. When Kuzeís team drew Arsenal he described the Gunners as the one team he wanted to avoid
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