Preview

Shakhtar will face the current champions of Croatia Dinamo Zagreb in the test match. The game will kick off at 16:00 Kyiv time.

All friendlies of the Orange-and-Blacks are streamed live on Shakhtar’s YouTube channel and the FC Shakhtar mobile app (App Store and Google Play) in the Live section.

Opponent

Dinamo Zagreb was founded in 1945 and remains the most successful and decorated club in Croatia. Since 1992, the team have won 25 domestic league titles, 17 Cups and 8 Super Cups of the country. Modri have won 18 of the last 19 Croatian Football League titles, and they also became champions last season and got the right to participate in the Champions League.

The Zagreb team placed their stakes on the European Cups in the first half of the 2024/25 season. In autumn, they won away victories over Austrian Salzburg (2-0) and Slovak Slovan (4-1) and played draws with Monaco (2-2) and Celtic (0-0), while losing to Bayern (2-9) and Borussia Dortmund (0-3). Therefore, Dinamo have 8 points (goal difference: 10–15) after 6 rounds of the UEFA Champions League league phase and are currently 24th, keeping their chances of reaching the play-offs. After the first half of the season, the Blues occupy an unusual third place in the Croatian League with a 7-point gap from the leaders.

From the end of December 2024, the head coach of Dinamo Zagreb is 51-year-old Italian specialist Fabio Cannavaro. The most prolific player of the Zagreb team in the current season is 25-year-old forward Sandro Kulenovic (14 goals), and 21-year-old attacking midfielder Martin Baturina (2 goals and 7 assists), who is rated as the most valuable player in the team by the Transfermarkt portal (EUR 20 million), remains the main prospect of the club.

Shakhtar and Dinamo Zagreb played 4 official matches: the Miners won twice (2-0 and 3-1) in the 2008/09 Champions League qualification, and the teams played spectacular draws (2-2 and 3-3) in the group stage of the tournament in the 2019/20 season. The opponents also regularly meet in friendly games. They held 2 friendly matches in July 2024: the Croatians won the first game minimally, and the teams played a draw in the second one (2-2).