Dinamo Zagreb vs Osijek Prediction: Stakes are big in this derby

On Saturday starting at 19:30 as part of the 16th round of the SuperSport HNL, Dinamo and Osijek will play a derby match in Maksimir. An extremely important match for both teams, especially for Dinamo, which urgently needs three points to stabilize the situation. The pressure is huge on players and managers from both teams, and a positive result in this match will be very important for them.

Form: DLDWW

During the national team break, many experts attacked the current champion with criticism, which is justified. Dinamo Zagreb are not looking good at the moment, they are in the third position, nine points behind the leader Hajduk (with two games less) and they urgently need a victory to bring peace to the dressing room before the decisive series of games before the winter break. The main news in the Blues' dressing room is the return of the best player and top scorer Bruno Petkovic. Petkovic is currently training with full intensity and could return in this derby and bring the much-needed dose of quality to his team's attack. Dinamo will have all players available for this derby, with the exception of the suspended Stefan Ristovski, so they rightfully enter the match as favorites. 

Form: DLLWW

The manager Zoran Zekic and his team could not count on numerous players who were fulfilling their national obligations during the representative break in training, but according to announcements, this will not prevent them to go for all 3 points in Maksimir. According to the latest announcements, due to many yellow cards, Osijek will not be able to count on Fiolic and Omerovic, but Grzan and Caktas, who had minor problems with injury or a virus, should return to the team. By the way, Osijek have not celebrated in three consecutive championship rounds, so today against the recovered Dinamo, they will certainly need to be better by at least two levels in order to take the points from Maksimir.

Dinamo finally welcomed their savior, Bruno Petkovic, and will certainly enter the match with a great deal of self-confidence. On the other hand, Osijek showed numerous instabilities under Zekic, but at least they improved their defense, which is their Achilles' heel this season. Dinamo also have an important match next week in the Europa Conference League, but this is a derby match and there is no backing out. However my prediction for this match is a home win, and I expect Dinamo to score at least 2 goals.