This week, the first matches of the play-off round of the Champions League qualifying stage are taking place. In one of them, on Wednesday, August 17, Dynamo Kiev and Benfica Lisbon met. The fight was nominally home for the Ukrainian team, but due to the war, it took place in Polish Lodz.
Champions League. Play-off qualifying round. The first match
"DYNAMO» (Kyiv, Ukraine) — "BENFICA" (Lisbon, Portugal) — 0:2 (0:2)
Goals: Gilberto (9), Ramos (37)
Warnings: Andrievsky (40)
"Dynamo": 1. Buschan - 94. Kendzera, 25. Zabarny, 4. Popov (34. Sirota, 80), 44. Dubinchak (2. Vivcharenko, 63) - 10. Shaparenko, 18. Andrievsky - 15. Tsygankov (K) (20 .Karavaev, 63), 29.Buyalsky, 8.Shepelev (37.Tsarenko, 73) - 41.Besedin (11.Vanat, 73).
Spare: 35. Nescheret, 71. Boyko, 3. Pain, 6. Burda, 14. Yatsyk, 21. Kravchenko, 24. Tymchik.
Benfica: 99. Vlachimos - 2. Gilberto (6. Bach, 69), 30. Otamendi (C), 91. Morato, 3. Grimaldo - 13. Fernandez, 61. Florentino, 20. Joao Mario - 27. Rafa Silva (22. Shikinyu, 84), 7. Neres (39. Araujo, 63) - 88. Ramush (9. Yaremchuk, 63).
Spare: 77.Leite, 5.Vertonghen, 17.Gonçalves, 23.Ristic, 28.Weigl, 33.Musa, 55.Bernardo, 66.Antonio Silva.
Match statistics and transcript >>>
Post-match press conference >>>
Dynamo boldly started this match, and already in the 7th minute of the meeting it was noted in the attack - it was Besedin who responded to Tsygankov's flank pass and shot from 10 meters away - Vlachimos parried this blow. However, a side referee a moment later signaled an offside position for the Dynamo striker.
But Benfica converted their first scoring chance: in the 9th minute of the match, Gilberto, having received a pass in the right side of the Lucescu team's penalty area, shot between Shepelev's legs and the ball, after a slight rebound, flew into the Dynamo goal corner closest to Buschan - 1:0. The people of Kiev immediately answered: Tsygankov had an excellent shot from the right side of the penalty area, but again Vlachomos played flawlessly.
In the middle of the half, the teams exchanged injections again. First, Joao Mario struck a shot from 20 meters, after which the ball almost struck the Dynamo goal post. And soon, Tsygankov also shot from about the same distance - this time the ball flew in the immediate vicinity of the Portuguese team's goal post.
Well, in the final segment of the first half, Benfica developed their success. More precisely, the Dynamo players themselves aggravated their situation: Tsygankov, passing the pass back, made a gross mistake, actually playing on Neres, who reacted to such a "gift", picked up the ball, gave it to Ramush, and he doubled the score with a kick from 14 meters - 0 :2.
In the second half, Dynamo were better at creative actions, but Benfica simply played flawlessly in defense and for a long time did not provide the Kyivians with the slightest scoring chances. And only in the 67th minute of the meeting, the White-Blues were close to closing the gap in the score: Buyalsky made a wonderful pass halfway across the field to Karavaev, who received this pass on the right side of the Lisbon penalty area, finding himself one on one with Vlachodimos, shot from an acute angle, but the Benfica goalkeeper managed to get out of the goal and this allowed him to hit the ball, thereby saving his team from the right goal.
Dynamo continued to attack, and in the 82nd minute of the meeting, the same Karavaev struck a dribble shot from the penalty area, but again the Benfica goalkeeper played reliably, reaching for the ball in the throw. It is also necessary to note Vanat's kick from seven meters, which was blocked by Otamendi at the last moment. Lucescu's wards had no other chances to "open" the gates of the Portuguese team that evening. As a result, - 2:0, Benfica's victory.
We add that the second leg between Dynamo and Benfica will take place next week, on Tuesday, August 23, in Lisbon. The winner on aggregate of two meetings will advance to the Champions League group stage, while the loser will continue to fight in the Europa League group stage.
Alexander Popov
