A well-known Ukrainian journalist Mykola Neseniuk dedicated a post on Facebook to the victories of Dynamo Kyiv over Partizan Belgrade (6:2 and 3:0).
There are football matches that remain in the memory for their own sake, regardless of the tournament in which they were played and what happened before and after. Such will be the case with the two matches between Dynamo Kyiv and Partizan Belgrade in July 2024, won by the Kyiv team with a score of 6:2 and 3:0.
In addition to the well-known political implications of these matches, there was another purely football one. We saw two vectors of football development in the once powerful football countries. Neither Partizan nor Dynamo are able to compete financially with superclubs capable of making multimillion-dollar transfers and inviting world-class players. In this situation, the Kyiv team, willingly or unwillingly, relied on Ukrainian players who had been trained in the club structure and reached a certain level. As for the Serbian club, it was packed to the brim with mid-level players from all over the world. One of the two leading teams in Serbia has three or four local players on the field. And this is in a country that has been supplying all of Europe, and not just Europe, with top-class players for decades!
It is not without reason that Partizan fans cited the fact that eleven Ukrainians took to the field in the first game as one of the reasons for the defeat of Dynamo Kyiv. Please do not think that I am not aware of the realities of modern football, where the leading European clubs are variants of the world's national teams. It can't be otherwise now - you can't win the Champions Cup without world-class players.
When there is no opportunity to assemble a world team, there are two options. Either rely on the pupils of your own school, looking for and finding talented players, or gather free or almost free players around the world who have a certain basic level.
In the matches between Dynamo and Partizan, we saw a competition between the two principles of team recruitment. We now know who won - the Ukrainians won! And not just won, but confidently defeated a team of football migrant workers from all over the world who were ready to play for money with teams from a killer country from which the entire civilized world turned away in horror.
So let's rejoice in this victory, which will be remembered for a long time to come, no matter what happens next. I want to believe that there will be more victories. And not only on the football field.
Mykola NESENYUK