Jose's reaction to Dinamo Zagreb draw

Jose Mourinho describes Croatia as 'a football country’ and is well aware of Dinamo Zagreb’s European pedigree after we drew them in the UEFA Europa League’s round of 16 on Friday.

Twenty one-times champions in Croatia, and therefore regulars in the Champions League, Dinamo Zagreb topped their group and beat Russian side Krasnodar 4-2 on aggregate to reach this stage of the competition.

The first leg is scheduled for Thursday 11 March, with the second leg on Thursday 18 March. Due to Arsenal’s involvement in the competition, further details on when we will play at home and away will be confirmed in due course, along with kick-off times.

We have recent history with the Balkan giants - we signed Luka Modric from Dinamo Zagreb in 2008, former Spurs Vedran Corluka and Niko Kranjcar also played there, and we beat them 4-0 in the UEFA Cup in November, 2008, Darren Bent bagged a hat-trick that night.

The Dinamo Zagreb of 2021 have progressed to the last 16 unbeaten and conceded only one goal in topping Group K from Wolfberger AC, who we subsequently beat in the round of 32. Dinamo Zagreb then beat Krasnodar home and away to reach the last 16.

“We know Croatia football, it’s a country of talent,” said Jose, reacting to the draw on Friday. “Some of the players, of course, leave quite early, like Luka (Modric), but many stay, and they are strong teams. I played against them with Real Madrid in the Champions League. Croatian football is Croatian football, lots of talent. It's a football country.

“They were top of the group, they didn’t lose one single match, four victories, two draws, not only against Wolfsberger, but Feyenoord and CSKA Moscow.

“They beat Krasnodar with two victories, so they are doing very well. I played Russian teams many times and it's never easy. They beat them twice.

“When you get to the last 16, you know that the easier teams have now stayed behind, and we want to be in the quarter-finals, so the next step is to beat them.”