December 4, 2020 – The 5th round of the Europa League was played on Thursday evening. With a 2:0 win against Feyenoord, Dinamo moves into the last 32, and Rijeka secures their first point with a 2:2 draw against Real Sociedad.
Dinamo has moved into the final 32 teams of the Europa League after winning first place in Group K. In the penultimate 5th round, the Zagreb club topped Feyenoord 2:0 in Rotterdam.
Bruno Petkovic scored for Dinamo from a penalty kick in the fifth minute of the first half and Lovro Majer secured their victory with a goal in the 53rd minute.
Dinamo arrived in Rotterdam as the only club in the Europa League that did not concede a goal this season. In the first four rounds, Dinamo booked eight points with a goal differential of 4:0. They also managed to keep their net clean in the Netherlands, so after 350 minutes of play, the Croatian champion had a goal differential of 6:0 and 11 points.
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— GNK Dinamo (@gnkdinamo) December 3, 2020
In the second match of Group K, Wolfsberger defeated CSKA away in Moscow 1:0 with a great goal by the young Croatia national team player Dario Vizinger, who beat Akinfeyev with a shot from more than 20 meters in the 22nd minute.
Dinamo secured first place with 11 points one round before the end. In second place is Wolfsberger with seven points, followed by Feyenoord in third with five points, and CSKA in last with only three points.
In the final round next week, Dinamo will host CSKA at Maksimir in a match where the result has no importance, while Wolfsberger and Feyenoord will simultaneously play a match in Klagenfurt for second place in the group, which also leads to the last 32. A point is enough for the Austrian team to pass, while the Dutch giant needs a victory.
In the second match on Thursday, Rijeka reached their first point in the 5th round of Group F, playing 2:2 (1:0) away against the leading team of the Spanish championship, Real Sociedad, in San Sebastian.
Rijeka led twice with goals from Darko Velkovski (37) and Stjepan Lončar (73), and the home team equalized through Jon Bautista (69) and Nach Montreal (79).
As has been the case in all Rijeka’s matches in the group so far, coach Simon Rožman decided to play a better opponent with a stronger defense and only one player on top. Therefore, Real Sociedad only sporadically threatened goalkeeper Nevistić.
In the second match of Group F, AZ Alkmaar and Napoli played 1:1 (0:1). Napoli took the lead through Mertens (6), Martins Indi (54) equalized, and Koopmeiners missed a penalty for the home team in the 60th minute.
One round before the end of the group stage, Napoli leads the table with 10 points, Real Sociedad and AZ Alkmaar have eight points each, while Rijeka is last with one point.
In one week, Rijeka and AZ Alkmaar and Napoli and Real Sociedad will meet in the last round. The first two teams from the group will make it to the last 32.
Source: HRT
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