Well-known Ukrainian journalist Artem Frankov shared his prediction for the first match of the playoff round of the Champions League qualification between Dynamo Kyiv and Benfica Lisbon, which will be held today in Lodz, Poland.
Artem Frankov“The case when betting odds are terribly eloquent and at the same time reflect the general optimistic mood. In short, "anti-Dynamo" bets on the victory and even more so on the passage of "Benfica" do not make sense due to the extremely small size of the odds, and this topic should always be remembered if we are talking specifically about betting business, and not just about football fortune tellers.
Before the first match with Dynamo, Benfica managed to play one more match of the Portuguese championship and won a minimal victory over their fellow countrymen from Casa Pia — 1:0. The main thing: again, Roger Schmidt (head coach of Benfica - ed. note) put the same main team into the game with the only correction in the position of the right half: David Neres, who came from Shakhtar, apparently still got seriously injured, and this time he was replaced by Diogo Gonçalves (in Denmark against Midtjylland he came on as a substitute instead of Chiquinho).
What are Dynamo's trump cards, especially if Garmash and, especially, Sidorchuk are disqualified? First of all, psychology: our football players should not be under any burden of responsibility at all, no one will raise a hand to throw a stone at them in case of failure, but there is a chance to get a vital, impressive and epic success. And if each of our players plays not 100, but at least 120 percent of their abilities, then anything is possible.
What are the weaknesses of this Benfica, which is still different from the one with which Dynamo played in the Champions League group less than a year ago, and Shakhtar even qualified for the Europa League two and a half years ago? It seems that you need to look in defense, which in four official matches of this season (two in the Champions League qualification, two in the championship, all won), has not yet experienced a real load. Whether Besedin, Buyalsky, Tsygankov and Shaparenko will be able to create this load is such a question, but I want to believe in the best. In any case, one way or another, happiness will have to be sought at other people's gates, because keeping one's own gates dry is seen as an unrealistic task, ”said Frankov.
