Well-known Ukrainian journalist Artem Frankov told what he expects from the match of the 1st round of the group stage of the Conference League between Dnipro-1 and the Dutch AZ, which will be held today in Slovakian Kosice.
- Shakhtar, by defeating Leipzig, gave our clubs a signal that it was impossible not to hear, and we can only hope for the right reaction from both Kiev and Dnipro.
Oleksandr Kucher’s team, after a dismal start in European competitions (1:5 on aggregate with AEK from Larnaca, which will now play with Dynamo Kyiv), had a brilliant start in the Ukrainian Championship, again defeating Dynamo 3:0 and simply beating Veres 2:0, while also varying the composition. Now Dnipro-1 is the shadow leader of the tournament and has the right to look even at European Cup matches in hopes. Why, he must do it!
AZ had a brilliant start both in European competitions, where he lost only one match out of six (he answered the Scottish Dundee United 0:1 with a furious home 7:0), and in the Dutch championship, where he made only one misfire in five rounds - on September 1, he played at home 1:1 with Nijmegen, however, with a total advantage (29:4 on strikes!). Well, perhaps Pascal Jansen's team will face the first truly serious opponent of the season - at least I would like to hope so.
It is worth noting that the current AZ has almost nothing in common with the team that two years ago lost in the Champions League qualification to Dynamo Kyiv, which was then only headed by Mircea Lucescu. From that squad, by and large, only the central midfielders Dani De Wit and Jordi Klasi remained (the third central player Tijani Reinders then, in Kyiv, was on the bench), the rest were newcomers, and as a rule, young people.
True, the main striker Pavlidis was injured, but the Dane Jens Odgor recovered just in time, who comes out on top of the team in recent matches. Together with Lars Evjen and Myron van Brederode, they make up a trio of forwards capable of causing trouble to anyone. Karlsson and Bazur are still injured, but the team manages well without them. And if the Dutch are given space, any other card can be beaten,” Frankov said.