PAOK - Dinamo Zagreb predictions and free betting tips [14/03/2024]

In the city of Thessaloniki, PAOK will take on their rematch, needing to recover from a 2:0 defeat after the match in Zagreb, where Dinamo Zagreb outperformed the Greek outfit a thousand times, failing to shoot on target even once against the Croatian team. Let's see how PAOK's players and coaching staff have managed to work on their mistakes, and take a look at the intriguing Dinamo, ready to teach another masterclass to the opposition, whose task it is to gain a two-goal advantage during the game in their stadium.

PAOK

The Greek Super League Championship Play-off has started, where PAOK is trying to overtake AEK and become the league leader. The players of Razvan Lucescu must distribute their energies across two competitions, though if they fail to pass Dinamo Zagreb in the round of 16, they can promptly focus on the race for gold medals in the Super League. The loss to the Croats in Zagreb was well-deserved and one could argue that PAOK was lucky, considering how many chances Dinamo did not capitalise on in that match apart from the two goals by Bruno Petkovic, so 0:2 is a good rebound for the Greek side. Moreover, PAOK lost the first Super League Championship Play-Off round to Aris, where despite being dominant in the derby, Lucescu's team could not create one goal based on the expected goals (xG).

In terms of its squad, PAOK is a perfectly assembled team, and the players match the tasks set for the club. Among the midfielders, it is worth noting the Brazilian Taison, who has 10 assists in the league, and looks decent in the Europa Conference League. Bulgarian forward Kiril Despodov was excellent in the first half of the season, but he has since lost form, as has some of PAOK's other midfielders, who have become less effective. PAOK definitely need to start with pressure and try to score first, so that later it only remains to score one more goal, which can be slowed down, of course, if Dinamo Zagreb cannot score their own goal, which would significantly complicate the situation for the Greek team in this match.

Dinamo Zagreb

The Croats only just made it through the group stage in the Conference League, nevertheless, they managed to advance to the knockout stage in second place and defeated Spain's Betis in the last 16. Now, head coach Damir Krznar's team has many successful matches in the Prva HNL, and a great opportunity to progress past PAOK in the Conference League. Indeed, Dinamo Zagreb has begun to succeed in many ways compared to the start of the season, however, they still have to chase Rijeka and Hajduk in the Prva HNL league, but with such dedication and quality football, they can easily meet their Prva HNL ambitions. In the first match with PAOK, everything worked out for the Croatian team, even minimal approaches to the opponents' goal were competent and troubled the Greek defence, but Dinamo Zagreb only managed to score 2 goals, although they could have won the match more confidently.

The squad is consistently good for the Croats. Bruno Petkovic is in good form, as is Martin Baturina, who has stopped worrying about the lack of successful actions, anyway, he manages to perform his duties as an attacking midfielder. In terms of goalkeepers, Krznar knows that Ivan Nevistić is currently the best, although initially the Bosnian coach put Daniel Zagorac in the line-up, but something changed his mind. Also, Iannis Snape-Anagnostou is good, the Greek national, who as a playmaker has already scored 12 goals in all competitions.

In the game with PAOK, the Croatians should immediately act in their usual mode or let the opponent take the initiative, while themselves catching counterattacks to score another goal, after which the Greek club will surely not be able to recover in this confrontation.

Head-to-head

These 2:0 in Croatia confirm a lot, indeed, PAOK is not always constructive upfront, although Razvan Lucescu's team has a very good offensive line.

Match prediction: PAOK - Dinamo Zagreb

There can be disastrous games, but the main thing is that PAOK corrects all the mistakes of the first match with Dinamo Zagreb and does not allow them in the return leg. I'm backing the Greek side to win the first half. I think that PAOK will immediately try to seize the initiative and create goal-scoring opportunities from positional attacks in order to expect a 1:0 victory, or better 2:0 by half-time.