Column of Oleksandr Lipenko. The home arena of FC Dynamo (Kyiv)

Undoubtedly the NSC Olimpiyskiy is the best sports arena in Ukraine. The capital's stadium stands rightfully on a par with such European ultramodern stadiums as London's Wembley, Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu, Rome's Stadio Olimpico, Paris' Parc de Prens and many others.

But there is another good stadium in Kiev - Dynamo named after Valeriy Lobanovskiy. Its history is interesting, and today we will talk about it.

The opening of the stadium was celebrated with a victory.

It was built in the center of the city, on the site of the former greenhouses and the Chateau court. Its grand opening took place on June 12, 1933. The stands accommodated 18 thousand spectators. That day they witnessed the first victory in this arena Dynamo Kyiv who beat their Kharkiv teammates (2-1) in the final game of the Ukrainian Dynamo Games.

And in his first match of the first championship of the USSR, which was held May 12, 1936, the people of Kiev in a home game defeated his teammates from Dnipropetrovsk - 5:2. And on the results of the debut championship of the USSR Dynamo players became silver medalists. Mahinya, Shilovsky, Schegotsky, Trusevich, Idzkovsky, Goncharenko played for the vice-champions of the country...

In those pre-war years the stadium had a running track, two basketball courts, two tennis courts, volleyball courts, four courts for playing small towns. For many years this arena was home to the Dynamo soccer team. Although it used to play many matches of the national championship on the field of the Central Republican stadium, giving the home arena to the reserve team.

They started their way to the big soccer here

In different years on the pitch of Dynamo stadium Kanevskiy, Lobanovskiy, Bazilevich, Biba, Muntian, Blokhin, Shevchenko started their way to the big soccer by playing in the "double". "Osnova returned to the home stadium just before the 1980 Olympics, when the main stadium was under reconstruction. Dynamo arena also underwent a small "renovation.

Messi, Toure, Ibrahimovic on Dynamo pitch

In the mid-1990s the Bilo-Syni kicked off their Champions League qualifying matches against the big European clubs there. Were installed 15 thousand plastic seats, disappeared running tracks. The national team played 16 matches here, and the youth team played many more.

In August 2006 Dynamo stadium hosted the qualifying match of the Champions League between Maccabi Haifa and English Liverpool, which was transferred from Israel due to hostilities in the country. The Dynamo arena also played host to the Women's Champions League final between Germany's Wolfsburg and France's Lyon.

The fans who came to European Cup matches held at the Dynamo stadium saw the stars of world soccer - Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Ibrahimovic (all Barcelona), Eto'o (Inter), Suarez (Ajax), Pato (AC Milan) and many others,

"Home" in different years was the stadium for the capital clubs CSKA, Arsenal, Olimpik Donetsk and Luhansk Zoria. With the start of the pandemic coronavirus, and then after a full-scale war, damn it, the matches of the Ukrainian championship were held at the stadium "Dynamo", unfortunately, with empty stands.

That`s how it is - the coziest and greenest stadium in the country named after the great coach Valeriy Lobanovskiy.

Oleksandr LIPENKO For Dynamo.kiev.ua