Igor Belanov: "Lobanovsky never had favourite players apart from Blokhin"

Former Dynamo Kyiv striker Ihor Belanov has recalled the times when the team played under Valeriy Lobanovskiy.

"Lobanovskyy never had any favourite players except Blokhin. He told me straight away that I had to fight for my place.

I remember at my first training session at Dynamo we were taking the Cooper Test and I was two laps behind everyone else. I asked myself: "Where am I? We have to get out of here, run as fast as we can." But very soon things got better.

Let me tell you a story about him. One day on the train, coming back from Moscow, the boys had too much alcohol. At the next training session Valeriy Vasilyevich got angry and fined everyone.

The guys asked me to step forward and speak on their behalf. I agreed that the team was at fault, but told him that even his assistant Grigorovich was very drunk. Lobanovskiy couldn't believe it. That's how everyone avoided the penalty," Belanov said.