Preview

Shakhtar will face Dinamo Zagreb in the test match. The game will take place at the Maksimir stadium in the capital of Croatia. It kicks off at 20:00 Kyiv time.

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

Opponents

GNK Dinamo Zagreb, formed in 1945, is the most successful club in its country. The team have won the Yugoslavian championship 4 times, have 25 league titles and 17 wins in the Croatian Cup. The club's dominance in Croatian football is clearly demonstrated by the fact that Dinamo won 18 of the country's last 19 championships. The 2023/24 season was no exception, where the Blues achieved a golden double and qualified for the Champions League qualifying play-off round.

Dinamo are coached by 47-year-old Bosnian specialist Sergej Jakirovic who led the team last summer. He worked with Rijeka before that. The main star of the current Zagreb-based side squad is 21-year-old attacking midfielder Martin Baturina, who is valued at EUR 20 million by Transfermarkt. He scored 7 goals and provided 9 assists in 50 games last season. The most prolific player of the team in the 2023/24 campaign was 29-year-old Bruno Petkovic, the forward of the Croatian national team (18 goals and 9 assists).

During the summer pre-season, the Croatian champions managed to hold 3 test matches: they defeated Bulgarian CSKA 1948 (6-2), lost to Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih (0-2) and defeated Macedonian Vardar (3-0).

Shakhtar and Dinamo Zagreb met twice in the Champions League: in the 2008/09 season qualification, the Miners won both meetings (2-0 and 3-1), and in the group stage in the fall of 2019, the teams tied two times (2-2 and 3-3). There is a parity in the friendly matches between the teams: a draw in 2015 (1-1), a victory of Pitmen in 2016 (2-0) and a win of the Zagreb-based outfit in 2018 (1-0).