Bayern welcome rejuvenated Dinamo
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Article summary
GNK Dinamo Zagreb achieved one of the standout results on matchday one but it is a formidable challenge to try and repeat that as they visit five-times winners FC Bayern München.
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After their customary winning start, FC Bayern München will strive to make it six points against a GNK Dinamo Zagreb who will be buoyed by their own matchday one success.
• The teams have never met on the European stage before and Bayern are tackling opponents from Croatia for the first time.
Match background
Bayern
• The German title holders, who are in their 19th group stage campaign, recorded their 12th successive matchday one victory with a 3-0 win at Olympiacos FC, Thomas Müller scoring twice.
• Last term, Bayern reached the UEFA Champions League semi-finals for the fourth time in a row.
• Josep Guardiola's charges had a 100% record in Munich in last season's UEFA Champions League, scoring 22 goals in their six games. They beat FC Shakhtar Donetsk 7-0 in the round of 16, FC Porto 6-1 in the quarter-finals and FC Barcelona 3-2 in the semi-final but bowed out having lost 3-0 away.
Dinamo
• The Zagreb club, back in the UEFA Champions League group phase after an absence of three years, began with a 2-1 home victory over Arsenal FC, their first win in 16 group stage fixtures.
• The Croatian champions have never qualified from a group in their four previous attempts – 1998/99, 1999/2000, 2011/12 and 2012/13.
• In fact, in all ten previous UEFA club competition group stages – including six in the UEFA Europa League/UEFA Cup – Dinamo failed to make it through to the next phase.
• In 2012/13 they lost all three away matches without scoring a goal.
• Zoran Mamić's men qualified this time after a 4-1 home success (6-2 on aggregate) in the play-offs against KF Skënderbeu.
• In the third qualifying round they drew 3-3 at Molde FK to go through on away goals after a 1-1 home draw. Before that they prevailed 3-0 at CS Fola Esch (4-1 aggregate) to advance.
• Dinamo have not won in ten matches against German sides, drawing two. The pick of their away performances was a 1-1 draw at VfB Stuttgart in the 1988/89 UEFA Cup second round (agg: 2-4).
Coach and player links
• Mamić played for VfL Bochum 1848, Bayer 04 Leverkusen as well as SpVgg Greuther Fürth, Rot-Weiss Ahlen and SV Eintracht Trier 05 but failed to claim a victory in five encounters with Bayern (D3 L2).
• Bayern goalkeeper Ivan Lucic is of Croatian origin.
• Junior Fernandes played for Bayer Leverkusen in 2013/14 while Gordon Schildenfeld represented Eintracht Frankfurt and MSV Duisburg in Germany's 2. Bundesliga.
• International team-mates:
Arturo Vidal & Junior Fernandes, Ángelo Henríquez (Chile).
• They played together:
Rafinha & Eduardo (Genoa CFC).
Thiago Alcántara & Dani Olmo (Barcelona).
Match facts
Bayern
• Bayern have recorded nine successive wins since beginning the season by drawing 1-1 with VfL Wolfsburg in the German Super Cup, a match they subsequently lost on penalties.
• Saturday's 3-0 win at 1. FSV Mainz 05 meant Bayern surpassed their own record start, set in 2012/13. Now their total is 21 points and a goal difference of +20 after seven games, compared to 21 points and a goal difference of +19 three years ago.
• Vidal and Kingsley Coman scored their first Bundesliga goals for Bayern in the 3-0 triumph over SV Darmstadt 98 on 19 September. Coman also found the net against Mainz.
• Substitute Robert Lewandowski struck five times in nine second-half minutes as Bayern defeated Wolfsburg 5-1 three days later. Lewandowski's first three goals were scored in three minutes and 22 seconds – the fastest hat-trick in Bundesliga history.
• It was the first time in 24 years that somebody had registered five goals in a Bundesliga contest – since MSV Duisburg's Michael Tönnies did so against Karlsruher SC in 1991.
• Lewandowski scored his 100th and 101st Bundesliga goals in Mainz, only his 168th game in the competition; he is the fastest foreign player to reach the century. He has ten goals after seven league games this season; only Gerd Müller has reached the same mark, in both 1968/69 and 1977/78.
• Lewandowski has 14 goals in 11 outings for club and country this term, Thomas Müller, who missed a penalty against Mainz, 11 in 11.
• Javi Martínez made his first appearance of the season against Darmstadt.
• Medhi Benatia (out since 22 August, thigh) and Arjen Robben (3 September, adductor) are sidelined, although the latter is back in training.
• Franck Ribéry (11 March, ankle), Holger Badstuber (21 April, thigh) and Jan Kirchhoff (June, Achilles tendon) are yet to play this term.
Dinamo
• Gonçalo Santos is available after being suspended on matchday one.
• Dinamo, who beat Osijek 4-1 on Friday, are 45 matches unbeaten in all competitions since succumbing 1-0 to FC Astra Giurgiu in the UEFA Europa League group stage on 27 November 2014.
• The Croatian champions have not lost in the league since a 2-1 reverse at NK Istra 1961 on 10 May 2014. Last season they became the first team to go through a Prva Liga campaign unbeaten.
• Mamić's side ran out 7-1 winners at lower league NK Oštrc Zlatar on 22 September in the last 32 of the Croatian Cup, 18-year-old Endri Çekiçi scoring twice. The tie was 1-1 at half-time.