SALZBURG, Austria (AP) — Noah Okafor earned Salzburg a 1-0 win over Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League on Wednesday by rolling in a coolly taken penalty to score for the third straight group game.
A tight match was ultimately decided by a loss of concentration by Dinamo right back Sadegh Moharrami, who let Andreas Ulmer get in front of him and then grabbed the Salzburg captain around the neck to give away the spot kick.
Okafor, the Switzerland forward who scored in draws against AC Milan and Chelsea in Group E, sent goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic the wrong way from the spot and found the bottom right corner in the 71st minute.
Salzburg remained unbeaten in group play and can move into a strong position to advance to the last 16 with another victory over Dinamo next week in the second match of their double-header.
The Croatian champions will rue a missed late chance by Josep Drmić, who was played through on goal only to see his shot saved comfortably by Philipp Köhn.
Then, in the third minute of stoppage time, Drmić had an equalizer disallowed because he was in an offside position when he met a cross from the left with a glancing header into the net. It took the celebrating striker some time to notice the assistant referee’s flag was up.
Dinamo played the better football on the whole, restricting Salzburg to only half-chances and creating some clear-cut openings of its own.
One, in the first half, saw Luka Ivanušec run through unchallenged at the end of a sweeping, length-of-the-field move. His low, left-footed shot was right at Köhn.
Salzburg resorted to some desperate defending in the final, frantic minutes — though did launch a counterattack in stoppage time, from which Benjamin Sesko was denied by Livakovic.
Salzburg moved onto five points, two more than Dinamo.
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