AC MILAN v DINAMO ZAGREB: OPPONENT REVIEW

Dinamo Zagreb come into this fixture against AC Milan on a run of six consecutive wins in the league and Champions League. The Rossoneri will have to pay close attention to Ante Čačić's side, who have made a sensational start to the season, with eight wins and one draw from their first nine league matches and eliminating Bodø/Glimt in the last qualification round of the Champions League.

While Dinamo have now become accustomed to excelling in their homeland, winning the last five league titles in the SuperSport Hrvatska nogometna liga (HNL), they still surprised many in Europe by beating Chelsea in the opening match of the Champions League Group E, which has just begun. In fact, the Croatians will travel to Milan not only with the aim of beating the reigning Italian champions, but also with the intention of securing two consecutive Champions League victories for just the second time in their history: the first and only one so far dates back to their victories over Porto (3-1 at home) and Ajax (1-0 away) in November 1998, under the management of Zlatko Kranjčar.

COUNTERATTACKS AND AERIAL PLAY: HOW DINAMO ZAGREB CAN CAUSE PROBLEMS
In the match against Chelsea, Ante Čačić's side showed how they can adapt really well to their opponents, striking clinically on the counterattack. This is clearly their most effective skill as a team, since their 31.8% ball possession was the third lowest recorded on matchday 1 of the tournament and the lowest of all unbeaten sides in the opening round of matches. The Croatian team has an alternative yet distinct aptitude for aerial play too: in fact they rank fourth for aerial duels won (16) in this first round of matches and third in duels won overall (58).

In order to cause harm however, AC Milan will be able to exploit the lack of passing precision shown by their Croatian opponents: only FC Salzburg (70%) and Viktoria Plzeň (71%) recorded a lower percentage of successful passes than the Croatians (76%) on the opening matchday of this season's Champions League.

AT SAN SIRO THE ONE TO WATCH WILL BE MISLAV ORŠIĆ
During Wednesday's match, look out for a player who has already passed through Italy a few years ago: Mislav Oršić. Sporting the colours of Spezia in the 2013/14 Serie B season and just 21 years old at the time, the Croatian striker played nine matches in the second division for the Ligurians but failed to score any goals. Dinamo Zagreb's 1992-born academy graduate has developed and managed to establish himself in recent seasons, to the extent that he has become Dinamo Zagreb's top goalscorer in major European competitions with 18 goals in 37 appearances - in Champions League and Europa League.

He is certainly the number one threat to the Rossoneri's defence, especially considering that he comes to San Siro as the match-winning goalscorer from the opening group-stage game against Chelsea in this season's Champions League, a competition in which he has five goals in seven appearances overall. Oršić is one of the undisputed stars of this sparkling start for the Dinamo Zagreb outfit, and not just at European level: with six goals to his name already, he also leads the goalscoring charts in the Croatian league.

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