Match Preview: Sunderland v Dinamo Zagreb — More European Fireworks On Wearside

TV/Stream: Full live match coverage is available via TNT Sports.

Radio: Full live match commentary available via BBC Radio Newcastle (not online)

It feels like a long time since we took on AZ Alkmaar to bring European football back to Wearside, but this's our second night of fireworks at the Stadium of Light, and it falls on Bonfire Night.

A lot has happened since then. One thing that hasn't happened, however, is a Premier League victory. Just one point from a possible 15 has been taken since we kicked off our continental adventure on home soil.

Unfortunately, it has the potential to take the shine off our performance so far in the Europa League, and until we improve, any European game will be placed into the context of the two league games either side of it. But here we are, 9th in the table and on the same points as Juventus; we're still unbeaten, and we've got a great chance of progressing to the knockouts.

The news this week has been mixed since our capitulation at Coventry at the weekend. Let's go with the bad news first, and Habib Diarra has been ruled out for around six weeks. You feel for the lad to start with because he just can't catch a break, and then there's the aspect that he was a player who potentially gave us an option to freshen things up either tonight or at the weekend.

But, for all of those chanting his name recently, Chemsdine Talbi has replaced him in the European squad. Again, all eyes will be on the starting line-up, not just for tonight, but for clues of what we'll do at the weekend.

Our opponents tonight are Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb, and they sacked their manager this week, which might mean a lot of our scouting reports go in the bin. They've beaten Anderlecht, drew against Hapoel Be'er Sheva and lost against NAC Nijmegen.

On the domestic front, they have won the league 19 times in the last 21 seasons. Which is pretty impressive. Last season, they reached the knockout phase, but were beaten at the first hurdle by Genk during extra time in the second leg. The year before last, they narrowly missed out on the knockout phase of the Champions League by goal difference, where they beat AC Milan and Salzburg on the way.

We shouldn't expect it to go all our way tonight.

The bookies have the Lads at 4/9 to win the game, while Zagreb are 5/1 for the victory, and the draw is 17/5.

The bookies might fancy us for a routine victory tonight, but I think it's going to be a tough test. I think we'll come out on top, and if we do come out on top in a tough game, it might be exactly what we need to raise the levels for the weekend.