Spurs v Dinamo Zagreb - stats and connections

Ahead of this evening's Europa League round of 16 encounter with Dinamo Zagreb (8pm kick-off), we take a look at the game’s key statistics and the connections between the sides.

Spurs v Dinamo Zagreb

We have faced Dinamo Zagreb just once before in a competitive game. That meeting came just over 12 years ago as we hosted the Croatian outfit in the UEFA Cup group stage back in November, 2008. At White Hart Lane we stormed to a 4-0 win with Darren Bent scoring a hat-trick while Tom Huddlestone also got on the scoresheet – current first teamer Gareth Bale started the game for us that night.

The only other Croatian team we have faced in our history is Hajduk Split - a side we have met on six occasions to date, winning four times and losing the other two. The most recent of those clashes came 30 years ago in the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup. In a two-legged first round tie in 1991, we triumphed over Split 2-1 on aggregate. Having lost 1-0 in the away leg, which was held in Linz, Austria, due to civil disturbances in then Yugoslavia, we went on to defeat Hajduk 2-0 in the return leg at the Lane to progress, thanks to goals from Dave Tuttle and Gordon Durie.

Our only two defeats to Croatian sides have come away from home – both to Hajduk Split in 1984 and 1991. Meanwhile, we have kept four clean sheets in our seven encounters with Croatian outfits, including in each of our last two games.

Spurs and Croatia

Prior to the 2008/09 season, a Croatian player had never worn our colours. Yet, over the next two years, we welcomed no less than four to north London. The first three – Luka Modric, Vedran Corluka and Niko Kranjcar – all, coincidentally, came through Dinamo Zagreb’s youth system before going on to make almost 350 appearances between them for the Club. Goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa later joined us in August, 2010, on a season-long loan from Spartak Moscow and went on to make one appearance for us. Our former captain Michael Dawson, a team-mate of all four of the  Croatian internationals during their respective spells in north London, spoke to us earlier this week about his memories of them.

Meanwhile, a legendary former Spurs player once went on to manage Dinamo Zagreb. Ossie Ardiles spent a decade with us as player from 1978-88, made over 300 appearances, won the 1981 FA Cup and 1984 UEFA Cup before going on to manage the team during the 1993/94 season. Having first left his homeland of Argentina in 1978 to sign for us, Ossie has since played or managed in eight different countries across the world including Japan, the USA, Saudi Arabia and Australia. In 1999, he took up a managerial post in Croatia at tonight's opponents.

On target in Europe

Plenty of our players have thrived in front of goal in our Europa League campaign so far this season, but perhaps none more so than centre-forwards Carlos Vinicius and Harry Kane. To date, the pair have been directly involved in nine goals each in the competition, both scoring six and assisting three times - no player across the tournament can boast more goal involvements than the duo. Incredibly, Vinicius is averaging a goal involvement every 50 minutes in Europe this season alone, while Harry has hit the target 28 times in his last 33 starts in major European competitions, including seven in his last six outings.

Forwards Heung-Min Son, Dele and Gareth Bale have also been in fine form lately in the competition with Son having registered seven goal involvements in his last seven matches, Dele recording five in his last four while Gareth has four to his name in as many matches.

Spurs in the round of 16

This is just the fourth time that we have been involved in a round of 16 tie in seven Europa League campaigns to date and only once have we progressed. That came as we first encountered this stage of the rebranded tournament back in 2013 as we dramatically defeated Internazionale over two-legs on away goals – an Emmanuel Adebayor strike in extra-time at the San Siro was enough to send us through.

So far this season, we have won all five of our home matches in the Europa League, scoring 20 goals and conceding just twice. We are yet to concede in the competition proper in this campaign at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. We are also unbeaten in our last six matches (W4 D2) and have won each of our last three games – in that run, we have scored 20 goals, finding the target at least twice in each outing. Only two sides have scored more goals than us (23) in the Europa League this season – Bayer Leverkusen and Arsenal (24).

Dinamo in Europe

This is only the second time in the history of the Europa League that Dinamo Zagreb have reached the round of 16. Since the competition’s rebrand in 2009, Dinamo have entered on seven occasions but only once before this year have they made it to the final 16. That was in the 2018/19 season as they took on Portuguese side Benfica, but it was ultimately there where their journey in the competition ended as they lost out 3-1 on aggregate.

To date, Dinamo Zagreb have faced an English side on 15 occasions in European competition, however, in their last 10 such games, they have lost nine times. The outstanding game was one they took victory in as they defeated Arsenal 2-1 in the UEFA Champions League group stage in 2015. In their last 13 European matches against English sides, they have kept just one clean sheet. That came against Manchester United in September, 1999, under the stewardship of Ossie Ardiles.

This season, however, they have impressed in the Europa League and are currently one of just four sides to remain unbeaten in all of their games so far (W6 D2). Meanwhile they are on their best-ever winning streak in the competition having won each of their last six games – they have never won seven in a row.