Dinamo Moscow vs Krasnodar Prediction: Expect a goal-scoring activity

On 21 July 2023, Dinamo will face Krasnodar at the VTB Arena for the opening match of round 1 of the Russian Football Championship in the 2023/24 season.

In the season before last, Dynamo finished with bronze medals in the national championship and reached the final of the Russian Cup. It seemed that the young and promising team from the capital would continue to claim high places, but in reality, there were problems: Sandro Schwarz left the post of head coach, several key players left for other clubs, and it was impossible to fix the gaps. Slavisa Jokanovic could not settle in Russia, so he resigned a few rounds before the end of the championship. The team finished in ninth place in the standings, and they entered the new season with a new manager - Czech specialist Marcel Licka took the vacant position.

Krasnodar is another team whose recent results do not match the level of ambition. We have become accustomed to the fact that the Bulls are getting closer to being among the top clubs in Russia, but a year and a half ago, they had to go through a protracted personnel rebuild. Only in the spring of this year, when Vladimir Ivic took over as head coach, the Southerners finally started to play at the proper level. After the winter break, the Black and Greens regained a few places in the standings, finishing sixth. Still, they were even more productive in the Russian Cup, where they managed to reach the final match against CSKA, but after a penalty shootout, Krasnodar still lost 1:2, leaving them without the first trophy in the club's history.

Dinamo and Krasnodar spent the spring period of last season in completely different ways. The first team finally fell apart and slipped to the bottom of the standings, while the Southerners, led by Vladimir Ivic, improved considerably and reached a respectable sixth place. Nevertheless, the favorites for the upcoming clash are the White Blues, who appointed Marcel Licka as head coach in the off-season. So far, the Czech coach is unbeatable in his new job: his charges have won five times in five friendlies with a total score of 18:7.

We can expect a high-scoring activity from the upcoming confrontation. Last season Marcel Licka was the coach of Orenburg, one of the most spectacular and productive teams in the Premier League. Moreover, in five friendlies, his Dynamo scored and conceded 25 goals (5.00 average per game). Krasnodar also scored a lot in the spring, and in three friendly battles in the summer with the participation of the Bulls, there were 11 attempts on goal (3.67 per game on average).