It's on next week! We have our UEFA Champions League play-off ahead against FC Dynamo Kyiv – a team with a great past and even greater challenges right now.
Great legends and decades of honours
It is a name that seasoned football fans are no doubt familiar with. So many well-known players developed at Dynamo such as Sergiy Rebrov, Viktor Tsygankov and Vitaliy Mykolenko. Former Austrian international Aleksandar Dragovic also once played for the Blues and Whites.
The biggest club legend by a long way is the current president of the Ukrainian football association, Andriy Shevchenko. The striker developed from the club's own youth ranks and made the breakthrough at Dynamo before becoming a major name at AC Milan and Chelsea - winning the 2004 Ballon D’Or.
He is not the only club icon to claim that accolade - Igor Belanov (1986) and Oleg Blokhin (1975) were able to take the award for the European Footballer of the Year while at Dynamo. Both played in an era when the Ukrainians were regulars on the biggest stage of Europe with a type of pressing football that was revolutionary for the time.
In 1974/75 and 1985/86, the club were European Cup Winners' Cup Winners and they made the semi-finals of the Europan Cup (the former version of the Champions League) three times in the 70s and 80s. They were Ukrainian champions every year from 1993 to 2001. These days Dynamo are not quite living up to their glorious past. The won their last league title in 2020/21, with Shakthar Donetsk now the dominant side in Ukraine.
Coach Oleksandr Shovkovskyi led his side to a second-placed finish last season and a spot in the second Champions League qualifying round. Andriy Yarmolenko & Co smashed their way past Partizan Belgrade 9-2 then! The Ukrainians then took a draw against Rangers at home before a memorable 2-0 second-leg win in Glasgow.
Dynamo play in a 4-3-3 system similarly to our Red Bulls, with midfield new signing Oleksandr Pikhalyonok (from SK Dnipro-1) impressing. The most valuable player in the squad is 22-year-old striker Vladyslav Vanat, at an estimated 10 million Euro. He has scored one goal and provided two assists in four qualifying matches so far.
In Europe but away from home
Just like our ground, Dynamo's home hosted a Euros not long ago - in 2012. In 2018 the Olympiastadion in Kyiv also hosted the UEFA Champions League final.
Since the Russian invasion in 2022, it has not been possible to play there. Dynamo play their domestic matches in the club's old ground, the Valeriy Lobanovsky stadium. Only a small number of spectators are permitted under strict conditions.
With no prospect of hosting European matches in Ukraine, Dynamo Kyiv have played their home games since 2022 in Bucharest, Krakow and Lublin. With many refugees settling in the neighbouring region of Poland, their matches there have resembled home matches a bit for atmosphere – with over 8300 fans watching the encounter against Rangers. On Wednesday 21 August there should be similar numbers there to support the Blue and Whites.
The decisive second clash takes place on Tuesday 27 August in Salzburg. Want to be there? Ticket info on the big match can be found here:
