Famous journalist Artem Frankov told what he thinks about the potential opponents of Dynamo Kyiv in the 3rd qualifying round of the Conference League. We shall remind you that according to the results of the draw held last Monday, at this stage of the tournament the Bilo-Syni will play with the winner of the second qualification pair Ararat-Armenia (Armenia) - Aris (Greece).
Artem Frankov"Ararat-Armenia club has nothing in common with the well-known Yerevan Ararat, although it too represents Yerevan. At least at the moment. But the team has a clear ancestor called "Ararat Moscow" (exactly Moscow!) - having swallowed it, the club "Tashir" took a new name, applied for participation in the Armenian championship and rose so high that last season it took the third place (while "just" "Ararat" - only sixth).
As is customary lately, A-A consists of several Armenians and a bunch of legionnaires, including two Russians, two Kenyans and three Brazilians with the formidable names Alemao, Cassio and Leonardo.
Of course, Aris of Salonika, a glorious club with tradition. There are no doubts about the passing of Arat-Aremnia and the fact that Dynamo players will have to play with Aris, but as for the match in Yerevan, anything can happen. Aris' roster, of course, looks much better known - Czechs Darida (76/8 for the national team) and Brabec (31/2), Spaniards Julian Cuesta (the Sevilla-born defenceman is already in his sixth season with Aris) and Loren Moron (a rookie forward, Ivorian Cheick Doucouré, an experienced centre-back who has played a lot in France and Spain, Germans Rupp and Aidonis, as well as gifts from the Ukrainian championship - Matarrita and Djurasek. Perhaps most disconcerting is the average age of the first squad, which is clearly over 30 - players like Darida and Christodoulopoulos have long since left their best seasons behind.
We have already found four older Aris newcomers: Loren Moron (Spain, striker, Betis), Ronald Matarrita (Costa Rica, left-back, Dnipro 1), Neven Djurasek (Croatia, attacking midfielder, Shakhtar and also Dnipro 1), Antonis Aidonis (Germany/Greece, centre-back, Stuttgart). To them we add: David Karlsson (Sweden, right midfielder, Urawa Red Diamonds, and before that were three years at Sparta Prague), Jonathan Menendez (Argentina, left midfielder, Salt Lake City), Alvaro Zamora (Costa Rica, left midfielder, Saprissa), Kike Saverio (Ecuador/Spain, left midfielder, "Deportivo), Valentino Fattore (Spain/Argentina, right-back, Sevilla V), Franco Ferrari (Argentina, left-back, APOEL Nicosia) Jules (Cameroon, left-back, Gurnik Zabrze), Domagoj Pavicic (Croatia, centre-back, Konyaspor) - and all of them are free agents!
However, Aris also unloaded a lot of players. Only from the squad of the last match of the Greek championship with Panathinaikos, seven gloomy men led by goalkeeper Siabanis left the Thessaloniki team. Among those who left there are well-known personalities - Gervinho (36 years old), Iturbe (30)... Of course, also representatives of the famous KSL team - the club of downed pilots. And the 28-year-old Mauritanian Aboubakar Kamara, who played in the centre of attack, just had his loan from Olympiacos expire.
The second detail: a wild number of rookies a la Fenerbahce from a year ago.
All in all, we will be dealing with a more or less new team, and the more valuable is the information that Dynamo coaches will get in the near future. For now, I assume that Aris will not change its 4-3-3 scheme. In it Vladimir Darida - "under" has been very useful for six months, and 32-year-old Jamaican Andre Gray (a dozen of English clubs under his belt, as well as right-back Odubajo, 32/8 championships in the season-2022/23) - on the spearhead. Whether Moron will compete with him is another question.
It remains to be noted that in the first round of the Conference League the Armenians in a dramatic encounter (1:1 in Yerevan, 4:4 away, including 2:2 in extra time, the opponents in both matches played in extra time, the victory on 11-metres - 4:2) passed Albanian "Egnatia". The Hellenes have played only two sluggish friendlies so far, so their form raises certain doubts," Frankov said
