UEFA SCHEDULE RELEASED

UEFA has has released the schedule for the Champion's League 3rd qualifying round games as well as the Uefa Cup 2nd qualifying round matches. Hajduk Split has been paired up with Deportivo, who last year finished 9th in the Spanish La Liga. Slaven Belupo will match wits with Aris Thessaloniki of the Greek Super League. Aris finished 4th last year in their respected league. Both of these UEFA Cup encounters start on the road for the Croatian clubs on August 14th before returning home for the second leg a fortnight later (2 weeks later or 14 days for those of you who are unfamiliar with the lingo) on August 28th. Hajduk and Slaven aren't expected to do much against these proven teams but it's always nice to see what they're made of and what kind of trouble Torcida can get into next.

On the other side of the spectrum, should Dinamo Zagreb move onto the next and final Champion's League qualifying round (and we all expect they should with an away 3-0 win), they would face off against Darijo Srna's club team, Shakhtar Donetsk, of the Ukranian Premier League which would be a fantastic test for the team from Zagreb.

More news is on the way as pre-season tournaments are on the brink and the major European leagues are almost ready to kick off the new season.

Stay tuned guys!

DINAMO FACE-OFF VS. LINFIELD AT MAKSIMIR

Dinamo Zagreb play Linfield (Northern Ireland) today at Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb in the return leg of their UEFA Champion's League 1st qualifying round affair. When the two teams clashed in Northern Ireland a week ago, Dinamo easily collected a 2-0 win with goals by Croatian international, Marijo Mandžukić, and Dino Drpić.

Dinamo will qualify for the next round as long as they don't lose by more than 1 goal. If Linfield wins 2-0, the match will go into overtime. However, Dinamo dominated the game on the 'emerald isle' and I don't see them having much trouble in Zagreb. The game will kick-off at 8:45 p.m. locally in Croatia.

Dinamo is expected to carry on and would play the winner of the F91 Dudelange (Netherlands)/Domžale (Slovenia) match. Domžale won 1-0 on Dutch soil last week. Should Dinamo and Domžale meet in the second qualifying round, it will be the second year in a row that these 2 teams have met as Dinamo eliminated the Slovenian club in 2007 on a 5-2 aggregate. That was of course with the likes of a Mr. Modrić on the 'blue boy' side.

The game cannot be seen live in America, but should you have Croatian satellite, I'm sure they will re-run it later in the day for all you BBB's.