Football expert Andriy Shakhov told us what he expects from the match of the 1st round of the main stage of the Europa League between Dynamo Kyiv and Lazio Rome, which will take place tomorrow in Hamburg.
Andriy Shakhov"The Europa League... An old tournament with a new scheme, which is identical to the one in the Champions League. But for Dynamo Kyiv, everything will be new.
For the first time, the Dynamo team will host an opponent not in a country that borders Ukraine, but in relatively distant Germany. For the first time (the initial European Cup years do not count), the team will travel to their home match by three different modes of transportation at once - by train to Chelm, bus to Lublin, and plane to Hamburg. In general, it is the first time in a long, long time that Dynamo players are traveling to an international game by train. For the first time, not in sportswear, but in civilian suits... You can see how many innovations there are.
We would like to add that newcomers can make their debut in European competitions for Dynamo - Colombian Seballos, Panamanian Guerrero, our midfielder Valentyn Rubchynskyi, who showed himself well in the league. If this happens, they will become the 24th, 25th and 26th players involved by Oleksandr Shovkovskyi in European competitions. You must admit that 23 players in six games is a lot. However, the chances of seeing Seballos are reduced, because Denys Popov is traveling with the team to Hamburg. If he is fully recovered and has regained his form of the start of the season, then, let's say, he will play in the center, as was the case in all previous European Cup matches.
Thanks to the efforts of the computer that conducted the draw, Dynamo will play several clubs that Kyiv previously met in the Champions League. "Lazio is the first of them. This is all the more interesting for the match, which will start on Wednesday at 22:00. We're watching and cheering for our team!" Bankova Mail quoted Shakhov as saying.
