Jakirovic is tasked with making an immediate impact in charge of Dinamo Zagreb, who will be looking to put aside their Champions League qualification exit with a positive result at home against Sparta Prague.
There has been little to separate these two teams in previous meetings and another closely-fought contest could be on the cards on Thursday, which could result in a share of the spoils to keep the tie nicely poised ahead of next week's second leg.
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Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Dinamo Zagreb win with a probability of 38.12%. A win for Sparta Prague had a probability of 35.25% and a draw had a probability of 26.6%.
The most likely scoreline for a Dinamo Zagreb win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.13%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.29%) and 2-0 (6.64%). The likeliest Sparta Prague win was 0-1 (9.66%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.65%). The actual scoreline of 3-1 was predicted with a 3.6% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Dinamo Zagreb would win this match.
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