Renowned journalist Mykola Nesenyuk talks about the latest goals by Dnipro-1 striker Artem Dovbyk.
Mykola Neseniuk"Dnipro-1 is going through a difficult time. On the one hand, the team is challenging for the Ukrainian championship title for the first time in many years, but on the other hand, Dnipro-1, which has been based near the Ukrainian-Slovak border for two years now, is not as good as the rest of the competition.
That is why Dnipro-1 seems to have switched on the "Messi mode". Just remember how the organisers of the last World Cup dragged Argentina to the title by the ears - the last five matches of this team started with eleven-metre penalties in its favour, scored by Lionel Messi. How can you not become a champion?
Something similar happened to Dnipro-1, which lost its potential lead in the Ukrainian championship after a defeat to Zorya. In the next two games, the referees persistently searched for and eventually found the moment to award an eleven-metre penalty in Dnipro's favour, which Artem Dovbyk converted. This powerful forward, if you'll excuse the pun, has recently become tired of scoring these penalties in almost every game.
And everything would have been fine if the "Messi mode" switched on by our referees for Dovbyk hadn't been interfered with by the same mode switched on for Shakhtar, who are also no longer able to beat Kolos without an eleven-yarder, the kind of penalty that needs to be sought out very carefully.
Do not think that I have anything against our crystal-clear referees, or the equally crystal-clear managers of Dnipro-1 or Shakhtar. On the contrary, I am happy for the referees who have reached the highest level, inventing a penalty for Dovbyk no worse than the best referees in the world invented a penalty for Messi.
So half the battle is done - the only thing left is for Dovbyk to play like Messi. It looks like there will be some problems with this - it's not like you have to invent eleven-metre penalties!" Neseniuk wrote on his Facebook page.
