Rosenborg v Dinamo Zagreb facts
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Article summary
Rosenborg have not reached the group stage since 2007 and face a 2-0 deficit as Dinamo Zagreb visit.
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Rosenborg's hopes of a first UEFA Champions League group campaign since 2007 are hanging by a thread as they trail 2-0 ahead of the second leg against a Dinamo Zagreb team who are bidding to make their fifth group appearance in nine seasons.
• Goals in the first half-hour in Zagreb from Bruno Petković, with an eighth-minute penalty, and Mislav Oršić (28) put Dinamo in the driving seat in the tie, and their record in Norway offers further encouragement.
Form guide
Rosenborg
• Rosenborg won their tenth Norwegian domestic double in 2018, adding a 12th cup victory to a 26th league title – both national records. It was their fourth Eliteserien triumph in a row.
• Rosenborg have featured in the UEFA Champions League group stage 11 times, but not since 2007/08 – their 11th campaign in 13 seasons. Since then, the Norwegian club have gone out in qualifying on five occasions, including in 2018/19 when they were eliminated by Celtic in the second qualifying round (1-3 a, 0-0 h).
• Rosenborg went on to reach the UEFA Europa League group stage in 2018/19, only to finish bottom of their section having collected a single point from their six games.
• This is only Rosenborg's second UEFA Champions League play-off – the first ended in an away-goal defeat against FC København in 2010/11 (2-1 h, 0-1 a).
• Eirik Horneland's team kicked off this season in the first qualifying round, eliminating Linfield of Northern Ireland 6-0 on aggregate (2-0 a, 4-0 h). They went on to beat BATE Borisov 3-2 on aggregate in the second qualifying round (1-2 a, 2-0 h) and Maribor 6-2 over two games in the next stage (3-1 a, 3-1 h).
• Rosenborg have therefore won five of their seven UEFA Champions League qualifiers this season – as many as in their previous 17 games (D3 L9).
• This is Rosenborg's first home match against a Croatian club.
• The team from Trondheim have won five of the 12 UEFA ties in which they lost the away first leg, most recently against BATE in this season's second qualifying round. They have never before been beaten 2-0 away in the first game, all those five successes having come after they had overturned one-goal deficits.
• Rosenborg are yet to take part in a penalty shoot-out in UEFA competition.
Dinamo Zagreb
• Dinamo claimed their 13th Croatian league title in 14 seasons in 2018/19 – and 20th in all – but their UEFA Champions League campaign came to an early end with a play-off defeat against Young Boys. Moving into the UEFA Europa League, the Zagreb club finished first in their section before getting the better of Viktoria Plzeň in the round of 32, bowing out after extra time against Benfica in the last 16 (1-0 h, 0-3 a).
• Nenad Bjelica's side started this season's UEFA Champions League in the second qualifying round, easing past Georgia's Saburtalo 5-0 on aggregate (2-0 a, 3-0 h) before a 5-1 victory over two games against Ferencváros of Hungary (1-1 h, 4-0 a).
• This is Dinamo's seventh UEFA Champions League play-off, with the record W4 L2. In 2018/19 they were beaten 2-1 by Young Boys in the home second leg after a 1-1 away draw.
• The Young Boys defeat is Dinamo's only reverse in their last 23 UEFA Champions League qualifiers, home and away (W15 D7).
• Dinamo have won five of their last nine European away matches (D2 L2).
• The first leg was only the Croatian club's second win in their six matches against Norwegian opponents, although they are now unbeaten in their last five such games (W2 D3).
• Dinamo have recorded 18 aggregate victories in the 23 UEFA ties where they have won the first leg at home, although they lost the most recent, against Benfica in last season's UEFA Europa League last 16, ending a run of 15 such victories. Dinamo have also won all three ties – and kept second-leg clean sheets – in which they recorded a 2-0 home first-leg victory, most recently against Dinamo Tbilisi in the 2016/17 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round (1-0 a).
• Dinamo's record in one UEFA penalty shoot-out is W0 L1:
5-6 v Sheriff, 2010/11 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round
Links and trivia
• Have played together:
Alexander Søderlund & Kévin Théophile-Catherine (St-Étienne 2016–18)
Anders Konradsen & Kévin Théophile-Catherine (Rennes 2013)
Tore Reginiussen & Mario Gavranović (Schalke 2009/10)
• Even Hovland and Alexander Søderlund were in the Norway team that beat Croatia 2-0 in a UEFA EURO 2016 qualifier in September 2015.