Tbilisi – Entering today’s UEFA Champions League Qualifier, hosts Dinamo Tbilisi knew they had their work cut out for them considering they lost 2-0 last week in Zagreb.
The crowd on hand at the Boris Paichadze Stadium was hoping for a quick start from Dinamo Tbilisi but midfielder Marko Rog ruined any chances of that when he scored off a free kick in the 9th minute to give Zagreb the lead but more importantly, a 3-0 lead on aggregate scoring.
The free kick taken by Rog deflected off the head of Georgian defender Ucha Lobjanidze and bounced off the far post and into the net past French keeper Anthony Scribe.
From that moment on it seemed as though Zagreb were comfortable playing the man instead of the ball because they felt protecting their three goal aggregate lead was the best strategy.
The match became pretty physical as Zagreb picked up twenty-five fouls and four yellow cards while the hosts were whistled for eleven fouls and five yellow cards.
Dinamo Tbilisi had eighteen attempts on goal but only four of them were on target.
Two clean sheets in a row for Portuguese keeper Eduardo and a 3-0 aggregate victory mean that Dinamo Zagreb will advance to the Champions League Qualifying play-offs under head coach Zlatko Kranjcar.
The Croatian manager played for Dinamo Zagreb from 1973 to 1983 and was also capped eleven times for the National Team of Yugoslavia.