After five opening rounds in the domestic championship, Dinamo's young footballers will open their European season this Tuesday. The Blues will visit Tottenham Hotspur in the first match of the prestigious Premier League International Cup. The match is scheduled for Tuesday at 8 PM Central European Time.

This is a competition that, in terms of quality, strength of opponents and football demands, we can compare to the Champions League for younger age groups. Dinamo is participating in this tournament for the ninth consecutive time. It is organized by the English Premier League, with 32 teams participating: 16 English sides and 16 continental teams that are invited by the organizers based on their criteria of the best European football academies.

Each of the four groups contains eight teams, four English and four from the rest of Europe. The visitors only play against the hosts, which means the Blues in their Group B will face four English opponents: Tottenham, Manchester City, Stoke City and Everton. A new feature this season is that qualification to the quarter-finals will not necessarily go to the two best teams from each group, but rather to the best English and best foreign team. Therefore, for Dinamo to advance to the quarter-finals, they will need to finish ahead of the other three foreign opponents on the table: Milan, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Danish side Nordsjaelland.

Coach Jerko Leko also led the Blues in this competition last season, where they defeated Nottingham Forest, Chelsea and Newcastle United in the group stage, then overcame Valencia in the quarter-finals before being stopped by Real Madrid in the semi-finals.

– We're in good shape, Noah Nsoki has joined us from the first team as reinforcement for London, while Borna Orlić is out of action after getting injured in the recent match against Kustošija. Everyone else is here, I believe it will be good. We know the competition, we did a good job there last season. We've watched some Tottenham matches, I think we can be competitive. We're going to play our game and I hope that will bring us a good result – coach Leko emphasized.

Their opponents in the group stage will also include Manchester City, Stoke City and Everton.

– Yes, it's a strong group, good matches await us, demanding challenges... Last year we went to England between matches in the youth championship, but this year we're playing in the senior league. I expect us to be at our best in that first appearance, the boys are in good spirits despite the defeat against Sesvete. From that match we took what was good, we're aware that we have dominance, but we lack a bit of cutting edge. We'll try to be more successful in that aspect in England as well.

Meanwhile, the competition system has been somewhat changed.

– We're playing four matches against English opponents again, but the hosts have adjusted the system somewhat in their favor. The best English and best foreign club in each group will qualify further. In our group, Milan was better than Everton at the start. So we only need to look at the results of foreign clubs, we need to be more successful than them to reach the quarter-finals. The English ensure that they have one representative from each group in the knockout phase. We look at this as gaining experience. It's normal that our goal is to be as good as possible, and if that brings us progression, we'll be happy – coach Leko added.

You can follow the broadcast of Tottenham Hotspur U-21 – Dinamo b on Dinamo Plus.

Link for online broadcast:

🔗 https://plus.gnkdinamo.hr

Download for iOS:

📱🍎 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dinamo-plus/id6451387798

Download for Android:

📱🤖 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=hr.gnkdinamo.plus