Oleksandr Lipenko's column. Bottles flew at Dynamo players, firecrackers exploded...

Kyiv Dynamo played more than a hundred away matches in the Champions Cup, Champions League, Cup Cup Winners' Cup, UEFA Cup and Europa League. I was lucky to attend many of them.

"Dynamo won, drew, lost to opponents. But all these meetings, sometimes very difficult and principled, were held at the stadiums of Europe in a normal atmosphere. Although, understandably, often local fans fiercely supported their favorite team.

But in the history of performances in the Champions Cup was a duel with Polish "Gurnik" from Zabrze, held in 1967, which is remembered as a nightmare.

Here is what my good senior comrade, a brilliant journalist, writer, famous sportsman (swimmer), winner of the 1960 Olympics in Rome Igor Ivanovich Zaseda (may he rest in peace), who was at the match in Zabrze, told me many years ago about the guest match in Poland.

- The mood of Dynamo fans was quite combative. Despite the fact that on October 17 on the pitch of the Republican Stadium in Kyiv Dynamo lost (1:2) to Gurnik from Zabrze. Then in the first round of the Champions Cup our Dynamo players knocked out of the fight for the honorary trophy its current holder Scottish Celtic from Glasgow (2:1 away and 1:1 in the Ukrainian capital).

On October 29, the Kyivians played the return match with the Polish champion. Several Ukrainian journalists traveled by train with the team to Lviv. There they got on a bus and safely crossed the border (the guys in green furs looked at Dynamo players more than at their passports). We settled in Katowice.

On the day of the game around 15:00 we took a bus to Zabrze, a mining town. We drove in silence, everyone was deep in his own thoughts. Losing to Gurnik in Kyiv in the first match caused a flood of criticism of Dynamo coach Viktor Aleksandrovich Maslov.

At the stadium gates our bus was waited for by a rather impressive crowd of excited local fans, who shouted, threatened....

The stands of the hundred-thousand stadium were filled to capacity. They welcomed Dynamo with a deafening roar and whistle.

Viktor Aleksandrovich put out the following lineup for the second match against Gurnik: Viktor Bannikov, Vladimir Shchegolkov, Vadim Sosnikhin, Sergiy Krulikovskiy, Leonid Ostrovskiy, Vasiliy Turianchik, Anatoliy Puzach, Fedor Medvid, Viktor Serebryanikov, Anatoliy Byshovets, Vitaliy Khmelnitskiy.

The appearance of Puzach instead of Jozsef Szabo confirmed the fact that Maslov strengthened the offense and bet on the attack.

The match was officiated by the refereeing team from Sweden, headed by referee Johan Bostriom.

Our guys started the game actively. Khmelnitsky and Byshovets were making breakthroughs on the flanks. And the hosts' defenders could hardly contain this speedy and technical duo of Kyiv forwards. As a result, our team scored - Turyanchyk scored after a corner kick (37 minutes).

And before the break, the famous striker Vladzimizh Lubanski gave a pass to Siegfried Szoltysik and he equalized the set. This result suited Górnik and its raging fans.

The Polish fans decided it was their time to get into the game. And so it went - empty vodka bottles flew onto the field, firecrackers exploded along the edges of the pitch. Foreign objects flew towards the Dynamo bench.

I was surprised that the police did not react to this mess, did not rush to the stands, but gradually retreated back - away from the visitors' bench, near which firecrackers were exploding and smoke bombs were lit.

The roar of a hundred thousand throats was so powerful that it made my eardrums ache. The match organizers, unfortunately, were not prepared for such a blatant outrage at the stadium.

The referees were confused and practically did not react to the hooligan behavior of spectators and frankly rude play of Gurnik players. Although the referee Bostriom could have canceled the match, and then the Poles could have scored a defeat. But, apparently, the referees were frightened by the angry local fans and the inaction of the police.

But the main thing was ahead. As soon as the final whistle sounded, thousands of fans poured onto the pitch. Drunken spectators started beating the Dynamo players. Leonid Ostrovsky, discouraged by the failure, gave someone back and... he hardly managed to get into the locker room. True, other Kyivians held back, realizing the danger of the situation - the jokes are not good with the maddened crowd. With difficulty everyone got into the under-tribune room.

The confused police chief did not hide his excitement and said that in the near future our team has nothing to think about leaving the stadium. And added: "Your lucky you didn't win...". Only an hour and a half later, surrounded by police cars, the Dynamo bus left for Katowice.

It was a pity that Dynamo stopped their performance in the Champions Cup, although Górnik were not stronger at all. Moreover - the coach of the Polish club Hungarian Geza Kalachai said after the match: "If only I had such guys!".

Not much time passed and Maslov was unwanted in Kiev. Without warm words of gratitude for the good, for Dynamo triumphs, all the titles and great work done, he left Kyiv...

Oleksandr LIPENKO for Dynamo.kiev.ua