As you already know, FC Dynamo Kyiv, having finished fourth in the Ukrainian league, will next season for the first time play in the third tier of the European competition, the Conference League.
The Dynamo team will start in this European Cup with the third qualifying round. If they make it through this stage successfully, the Bilo-Syni will qualify for the play-off round, where they will qualify for the group stage.
The level of their Conference League opponents is expected to be in keeping with the tournament's ranking. Especially in the early stages. And since, as previously reported, Dynamo is guaranteed to be among the seeded teams both for the draw of the 3rd qualifying round, and for the draw of the playoff round (in the case of participation in this stage of the tournament), the possible opponents of the Kyivians are mostly very modest teams, many of which are not familiar to the Ukrainian fan at all.
In order to understand the distribution of nominal forces, it will be enough to take the club coefficient as a basis. Currently, FC Dynamo has the ratio of 35.000, which is the fifth index among the participants in the 3rd qualifying round of the Conference League (the only teams, which are higher are Brugge, Basel, AZ and Gent, though three of these teams will have to pass the 2nd qualifying round first).
The maximum value of the club coefficient in the list of seeded teams in the draw of the 3rd qualifying round is likely to be no more than 10.000. The top-ranked clubs here are:
AEK (Cyprus)
Omonia (Cyprus)
Dudelange (Luxembourg)
Riga (Latvia)
Maribor (Slovenia)
KPS (Finland)
Skendija (Macedonia)
In terms of name recognition Dinamo's possible opponents are Scottish Hearts and Hybernian (with club odds of 7.280 each), Croatian Osijek (8.000) and Danish Norshelann (5.565).
True, with certain results of the early stages of the Conference and Europa League, the Polish Legia (11,000) could be among Dinamo's possible opponents.
The unseeded line-up for the draw of the play-off round will, of course, look more recognisable. Here, among the possible opponents of Dynamo, there are likely to be the following clubs:
"Victoria" (Poland)
"Aston Villa" (England)
"Lech" (Poland)
"Legia" (Poland)
"Rapid" (Vienna, Austria)
"Besiktas" (Turkey)
"Steaua" (Romania)
"Rijeka" (Croatia)
As for Dynamo's prospects in the group stage of the UEFA Conference League it is too early to say anything, as according to the tournament's grid none of the clubs have direct access to this round. The only way to qualify for the Conference League group stage is via the qualifying rounds of that competition or via a qualification failure in the Europa League.
Table of draws and Conference League games
24 July: 3rd Qualifying Round draw
27 July and 3 August: 2nd Qualifying Round qualifying matches
7 August: Play-offs draw
10 and 17 August: 3rd Qualifying Round matches
August 24 & 31: Play-off Round Matches
September 21 to December 14: Group Stage
Alexander POPOV
