On 27 April 1986 Dynamo Kyiv hosted Spartak Moscow in another game of the former USSR championship at the packed Republican Stadium. Then on 26 April, the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station broke out on the night. Neither the fans, nor the players knew the extent of the disaster, and were unaware of what was going on not far from Kiev.
"To the delight of the fans, Dynamo FC won the game 2-1. Two days later, the Kyiv side flew to France's Lyon, where on 2 May they were to play their final Cup Winners' Cup final against Atletico Madrid.
The way to the final was not an easy one. It started on September 18, 1985 with the away game against Utrecht of the Netherlands, which they lost 1:2. On October 20, at the Republican stadium in the presence of 100 thousand fans, Dynamo players in the second leg of the 1/16 finals took convincing revenge - 4-1.
In 1/8 finals, Romania played with the club Universitatea (Craiova) and recorded a draw 2-2, while in Kyiv the victory was 3-0. In the quarter-final, the first leg was again played away in Vienna, against Rapid, with a smashing victory of 4-1. On home soil, the score was even more convincing - 5-1, with 100,000 fans cheering once again. After a 3-0 home win in the semi-final, there was a 1-1 draw on away goals, with the final game ahead.
Football Ukraine looked forward to the decisive match. On 1 May, columns of demonstrators marched along Khreshchatyk in Kiev. Kiev's inhabitants did not yet know what threat was hanging over them. And in Lyon Valeriy Lobanovskiy's charges had their final training session before the final game with Atletico. At the same time, Dynamo players were already well aware from the foreign media about the great sorrow that befell their countrymen.
At the game with Atletico Kiev came out with a desire only to win. They were well aware of what success means at the difficult time for Ukraine. May 2 Dynamo played the decisive game on the field of Gherlan stadium: Chanov, Bessonov, Baltacha (Ball, 39), Kuznetsov, Demyanenko, Rats, Yakovenko, Yaremchuk, Zavarov (Yevtushenko, 70), Belanov, Blokhin.
As early as the 6th minute, Zavarov scored the first goal against Fillol. All the Madrid side's attempts to level the score were unsuccessful. Active attacks continued, Blokhin in the 84th minute, as well as Yevtushenko in the 87th minute denied the opposing players any hopes of success. The Austrian referee Weber sealed the 3-0 win for Dynamo.
For the second time an honourable European football trophy, the Cup Winners' Cup, went to Valeriy Lobanovskiy's charges. Mykhailchenko, Mykhailov and Yevseyev also featured in the other Cup Winners' Cup matches. Zavarov, Blokhin and Belanov scored five goals each in the tournament.
"Today we lost to an outstanding team," Atletico head coach Luis Aragonese said after the game.
A couple of weeks later, on 19 May, 13 Dynamo players became Honoured Masters of Sport. They were awarded this title for a superb victory in the Cup Winners' Cup. In general, football season 1986 was quite successful for the team from the banks of Dnipro. Among the achievements of the Bilo-Syni:
- "Dynamo" won the national champion gold medals for the 12th time;
- Oleksandr Zavarov was named the best footballer of the USSR;
- Viktor Chanov was named the best goalkeeper of the season, he was awarded the Ogonyok magazine prize;
- 12 Dynamo players were named to the list of the "33 Best";
- Three prizes of big football joined the collection of the Bilo-Syni - the Cup of the season, the Audience Award, as well as the prize named after Grigory Fedotov for the largest number of goals scored in the championship (53);
- Oleg Blokhin scored his 300th goal in official matches against Torpedo Kutaisi in Kyiv on 17 October;
- Igor Belanov, 25, won the Ballon d'Or as Europe's best footballer. In the opinion of France Football magazine, the Dynamo player was considerably ahead of England and Catalonia's Harry Lineker and Spain's and Real Madrid's Emilio Butragueño. And the national team coaches in a poll by the Italian Gazzetta dello Sport included Belanov in the symbolic world team for the year;
- 12 Dynamo players featured for the USSR national team, led by Valeriy Lobanovskiy, at the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico;
- World Soccer magazine named Valeriy Lobanovskiy the second coach in the world following the results of the year.
That was the year 1986 for Dynamo (Kyiv) - the best team in Ukraine.
Oleksandr LYPENKO for Dynamo.kiev.ua