Group E of the Champions League kicks off with matches in Zagreb and Salzburg. Chelsea, the winner of last year's European top-flight tournament, will visit the local Dinamo at Stadion Maksimir. The London club spent in the transfer market probably more than anyone else on the continent, so it has clear ambitions both on the national and European arenas. The Croatian club, for their part, have passed the sieve of Champions League qualification for the first time since the 2019/2020 season and expect to take points away from the group favourites in the first game. The bookmakers have quite logically identified the visitors as favourites, but will the upcoming match be an easy stroll for the English?

Last season, Dinamo fell just one step short of qualifying for the group stage of Europe's elite tournament. In the play-off round, the team lost to Sheriff, who then made some noise in the group stage with Inter and Madrid. This time, the Croatian club first dealt with Shkupi and Ludogorets, and in the final round, they traded victories with the ambitious Budo/Glimt, besting the Norwegians in extra time. Competing in the UEFA Champions League is clearly a priority for unrivalled Dinamo, and they will approach their match against Chelsea as a last ditch duel.

The London club recently shelled out another €80.4m for a new player. Leicester's Fofana joins the Blues after Cucurella, Sterling, Koulibaly, Aubameyang and a number of other good players. Another thing is that the English team will enter the European season with far from convincing results in official Premier League encounters. The away defeats to Leeds and Southampton by a combined score of 1-5 indicate that Thomas Tuchel still needs some time to improve the team's chemistry. Certainly, for Chelsea, the upcoming game is not as important as it is for the Croatians. However, the visitors will be focused only on victory.

The home team have been scoring enough goals in the opening stages of the season. Orsic, Drmic, Spikic, Petkovic are the players in Dynamo's attacking line-up, who have experience playing at different levels. We can expect the Croats to score at least one goal, to which the star visitors will also find an answer.