The well-known journalist Mykola Nesenyuk commented on the results of the unsuccessful confrontation between Kyiv Dynamo and Lisbon Benfica (0:2, 0:3) in the playoff round of the Champions League qualification.
Mykola Nesenyuk"Everything is the same in Lisbon now as it was last year. Except that there are not so many covid masks everywhere. Transport runs, the famous aquarium works, tourists are taken for a ride on old trams, fans of local teams go to the stands of two handsome stadiums ("Dragau" and "Luzh") to watch football.
Ukrainian wage earners, who twenty years ago could be heard everywhere here, have now almost dissolved among the locals. They no longer go en masse with flags to the stadium when the Ukrainian football team arrives. A former football coach from Rivne, whom we accidentally crossed paths with once in Portugal, said that he would never return and work here as a construction worker. Because he feels stability and confidence in the future, although he does not live very well.
What do you and I feel now?
Yesterday, a new football championship started in the empty stadiums of Ukraine. The decision is correct - football, even on TV, distracts people from the war and gives hope for the future.
But this is not the same football as in Portugal or elsewhere. This is a different sport with outwardly the same rules. This did not happen here today, but now, when there is a war, when football players remind artists of front-line agitator brigades who performed in the war of the last century to raise the spirits of the military, it is not appropriate to talk about the level of the teams' performance. There is no such level - people conscientiously run on the field and choose the result. And they don't play like that almost anywhere - not even in Albania. And that is why our teams in Europe look so unconvincing. It is impossible to be a worthy opponent for those who play a completely different modern game than what we have.
And what about the fact that "Vorskla" and "Zorya" lost in the European Cups to regular little-known teams, and "Dynamo" to the powerful Portuguese "Benfica"? Everyone showed their class at their level, this class turned out to be insufficient for success. And in our championship, this class will not grow, but on the contrary. And what did you want? War! Today, Ukrainian football players have a different task and fulfill it as best they can. We should thank them for that. And victories will come. They will come after the main Victory! Then we will have another chance to try to play real football!" Nesenyuk wrote on his Facebook page.
