The second legs of the play-offs of the Champions League qualifying round are taking place this week. In one of them on Tuesday, August 23, Portuguese Benfica and Dynamo Kiev met. The fight took place in Lisbon.
Photo - GettyChampions League. Play-off qualifying round. return match
"BENFICA" (Lisbon, Portugal) — "DYNAMO» (Kyiv, Ukraine) — 3:0 (3:0)
Goals: Otamendi (27), Rafa Silva (40), Neres (42)
First match — 2:0
Warnings: Musa (85) — Shepelev (81)
"Dynamo": 1.Buschan - 94.Kendzera, 25.Zabarny, 34.Sirota, 2.Vivcharenko (44.Dubinchak, 64) - 5.Sidorchuk (C), 10.Shaparenko - 20.Karavaev (24.Tymchik, 87), 29 .Buyalsky (14.Yatsyk, 90+3), 8.Shepelev (37.Tsarenko, 87) - 41.Besedin (11.Vanat, 64).
Spare: 35. Nescheret, 71. Boyko, 3. Pain, 6. Burda, 19. Garmash, 21. Kravchenko, 99. Antyukh.
Benfica: 99. Vlachimos - 2. Gilberto, 30. Otamendi (C), 91. Morato, 3. Grimaldo - 13. Fernandez (55. Bernardo, 90), 61. Florentino (28. Weigl, 70) - 7. Neres (17 .Goncalves, 70), 20. Joao Mario, 27. Rafa Silva (39. Araujo, 70) - 88. Ramos (33. Musa, 52).
Spare: 77. Leite, 5. Vertonghen, 6. Bach, 9. Yaremchuk, 22. Shikinho, 23. Ristic, 66. António Silva.
Match statistics and transcript >>>
Post-match press conference >>>
Dynamo, on the one hand, confidently started this match, but, on the other hand, Mircea Lucescu's charges did not manage to catch the ball at all. As a result, scoring chances were created exclusively by Benfica. So, in the 12th minute of the meeting, Otamendi hit with a header from the goalkeeper's corner after a corner kick - the ball flew exactly into the upper corner of the Dynamo goal, but Buschan's excellent reaction saved the people of Kiev. Then Grimaldo's most dangerous free kick took place - the ball struck the post. Finally, in the 21st minute of the match, Neres effectively shot in a fall over himself from the goalkeeper's line - again Buschan was at his best.
But in the 27th minute, Benfica still achieved their goal: Neres performed a diagonal from the right flank, at the far post Otamendi won the fight in the air against Besedin and sent the ball into the Dynamo goal with a header from close range - 1:0.
And towards the end of the first half, Dynamo conceded two more goals. At first, Sirota, having received a pass back from Vivcharenko, decided to play for Buschan, but, in the end, he played directly for Rafa Silva, bringing him one on one with the Dynamo goalkeeper, and the Benfica midfielder did not miss the chance given to him - 2:0 . Well, then Neres, having received a pass from Ramush in the right side of the penalty area of Kiev, sent the ball exactly to the far corner of the goal of Buschan with a dribble shot - 3:0.
The second half in its content was not much different from the first half of the meeting. Dynamo slightly improved ball control, but Benfica remained the full master of the situation. Neres, Musa, Gonçalves, João Mario had chances to build on the success of the Portuguese team. Fernandez shot from the goalkeeper's line without interference at all - once again the "white-blues" were rescued by Buschan. But in general, the home team, of course, slowed down, playing without much stress and effort. However, even under these conditions, Dynamo simply had no chance to score at least one goal. At the same time, for the whole game, the people of Kiev could not deliver a single blow to the opponent's goal. As a result, the score of the first half was the result of the whole match — 3:0.
Thus, according to the sum of two meetings (0:2, 0:3), Dynamo failed to overcome the barrier in the form of Benfica and will now continue to fight in the group stage of the Europa League. The draw for this stage of the tournament will take place next Friday, August 26.
Preliminary composition of the pots for the Europa League group stage draw >>>
Alexander Popov
