The only head-to-head match of the represented clubs, which took place in Croatia three months ago, ended with a convincing victory for West Ham (2:0). So it is not surprising that in the upcoming meeting the bookmakers gave weighty preference to them.
West Ham
Celtic did not perform well in the group stage in the Europa League, but managed to secure a place in the European Cup spring, changing the tournament to a less prestigious one. After five rounds in group “G”, Anghe Postekolu’s wards have six points to their credit and will remain on the third line in any outcome of the confrontation in Glasgow. In the previous match the Celts were minimally defeated on the road to Bayer (2:3) and in the Scottish Championship at the weekend they sorted themselves away from Dundee (3:0) and continued their pursuit of the Rangers.
Read also: West Bromwich Albion vs Sheffield United.
Dinamo Zagreb
After five rounds Dinamo is the second in the quartet and is ahead of the nearest pursuer by two points. The wards of Zeljko Kopic, who got his appointment just a week ago, only need to score one point in the confrontation in London to advance to the playoff round. In the previous game the Zagrebians could not beat Genk at home (1:1) and postponed the fate of the second ticket to the elimination stage for the last match.
Read also: Vitoria Guimaraes vs Hajduk.
Prediction
Our expert pick:
West Ham looked great in all lanes throughout the group stage and will try, at least, not to lose in the final match, although the motivation will be on the side of the guests. This does not mean that Dinamo will have an easy trip to London. The Hammers will not use it to punish their opponents for a mistake and it is extremely important for the Croats to play purely on the defensive. Most likely, no one will force events. A draw, by and large, will suit both those and others and the teams will play pragmatically and accurately, trying to prevent the occurrence of traumatic situations before the winter break. We believe that we should not expect a scattering of heads in this confrontation and we propose to take advantage of this. Our prediction is a total under 2.5 goals. 1xBet offers a coefficient of 2.02 for such an outcome. West Ham's lack of special motivation, in our opinion, will help the guests. The Hammers will not move forward as actively as they did at the start of the group stage and staffing difficulties will force the mentor to save the main players and release a mixed squad. Dinamo will also not rush headlong forward, risking stumbling on a sharp attack from Londoners and fearing to lose everything because of one mistake. We assume that teams will play calmly and naturally and the Zagrebians have every chance to score points in this fight. Our second bet will be that Dinamo will not lose. This bet can be placed for 1.90. Place a bet on the line of 1xBet with odds of 2.02. Promo code for registration - ODDS2WIN.
