Mykola Nesenyuk: "We saw that Dynamo can play successfully at the level of this opponent"

Well-known journalist Mykola Neseniuk shared his impressions of the first match of the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League between Dynamo Kyiv and Scottish Rangers (1:1), which took place yesterday in Lublin.

"Each of us is capable of something, but not everyone knows what they are capable of - this phrase from an old movie I remembered during the game between Dynamo Kyiv and Glasgow Rangers. Before the game, both teams did not know their capabilities against the opponent. The reason was obvious - Dynamo hadn't played an official international match in a year, and the team's coach was taking his team to European Cup games for the first time in his life.

Whatever we may say about our league, experience shows that football, which is played in Ukraine, and European Cup football are in some ways different sports. Therefore, the experience of such matches is invaluable for our teams. Let's admit that the defeat of the Serbian "partisans", which brought us so many positive emotions, could not be a true measure of Dynamo's readiness for European competitions for all known reasons. Our level had to be shown not by a duel with the Partizans, whose level is beyond assessment, but by a confrontation with Rangers, who, unlike the Partizans, who do not always act by the rules, go forward openly.

The atmosphere at the stadium in Lublin favored the players of both teams. The blue-and-yellow "Ukrainian" stands, which were even more packed than in the previous game, were enthusiastically supporting Dynamo. That's why a hundred Rangers fans who had been wandering around the center of Lublin all day were almost inaudible. Interestingly, there was not a single flag of Scotland on the guest stand. There were flags of Great Britain and England, plus the club flags of the Glasgow team.

It's been a long time since I've seen such an open game as the teams showed in Lublin. The guests were not going to sit on the defensive and responded to every Ukrainian attack or tried to respond with their own. It seemed to be to our advantage - in a high-speed team game, Dynamo looked stronger than the aggressive but rather primitive representatives of the Scottish Championship. This was the case during the first hour of the game. All that remained was to translate this advantage into goals.

But the Kyiv team was not ready for such a game for all ninety minutes. It was as if they were frightened by their own impudence and began to try to play more reliably. Such an attempt almost always leads to trouble - we all know that when you want to do even better, it often turns out worse. It seemed to me that the Rangers did not believe their luck at first when our team started to play less actively. And when they were convinced that it was true, they started throwing the ball at our goal without thinking about it, hoping for luck. And it came to them in the last seconds of the game.

Was this mistake critical? I think not. We saw that at least at the level of this opponent, Dynamo can play successfully. The main thing is that the players and the team's coaches realize this. So that in an away match they do not deviate from their game in an attempt to maintain the advantage in the score. There is nothing left to save. You can only win. And I think Dynamo players are capable of it. The test by Rangers has been passed," Nesenyuk wrote on his Facebook page.