Former coach of Dnipro-1 Alexander Grytsai shared his impressions of the match of the 3rd round of the main stage of the Europa League between Italian Roma and Kyiv Dynamo (1:0), as well as revealed what he expects from the central match of the 11th round of the Ukrainian championship “Dynamo” — “Shakhtar”.
— The starting lineup for the match against Roma certainly surprised Alexander Shovkovsky. The Dynamo coach was probably keeping in mind the next UPL game against Shakhtar. Shovkovsky decided to play with a 5−3−2 scheme, which is unusual for Dynamo under the current coach. As far as I remember, they didn’t play like that before the match in Rome.
In terms of gameplay, the Dynamo players looked quite good. Yes, they had to spend a lot of time playing without the ball. But the Kyiv team created attacks and opportunities. The wonderful moment from Tymchyk in the first half deserves highlighting! Compared to previous matches, the game against Roma can essentially be considered a success. The only downside is that they again couldn’t score.
— Dovbik scored for Roma in this match, converting a penalty. Artem has scored 5 out of 10 goals for the Romans this season.
— Yes, in this regard, Dovbik really did well. You can say that he is leading Roma.
— Overall, if we take the performances of Shakhtar and Dynamo in this week’s European competitions, both teams lost 0:1. How to assess such results?
— The negative part is that we are not scoring. There are not many teams left in European competitions that have not scored this season. So the negativity lies in the fact that our two flagships still cannot score on the European stage. The positive part is that Shakhtar showed some gameplay in the second half of the match against Arsenal. If only they tried to play like that all the time! Perhaps they do try, but it doesn’t succeed. Maybe Arsenal started to tire a little in the second half of the match. Although, probably, Shakhtar still improved. Therefore, the second half of the game against Arsenal can definitely be considered a success. In the first half, they managed something at times. In the second half, maybe Shakhtar had more emotions.
— And now, after these European matches, Dynamo will face Shakhtar. It will be interesting to see how the teams perform in this derby!
— Let's see what the lineup of the Kyiv team will be in the match against the Donetsk club. Although I will say that the lineup that came out for the match against Roma looked no worse than the Dynamo that played in previous matches of this Europa League. The guys went onto the field and performed normally.
But Classico is Classico! I think the players from both teams will give their all on the field. It is hard to predict what the result might be. But it seems to me that it will be quite an interesting game. We are expecting a good and engaging game in this Classico!
Dmitry Kotkov