Star player of the Dnipro team from the 80s Andriy Dilay recalled his first days in this team.
Andriy Dilay— When you arrived at Dnipro, did you speak Ukrainian?
— At first, I tried, and they said to me: “Oh, so you are Bandera?”. And I replied: “Do you at least know who that is?” But at that time in Dnipro, no one spoke Ukrainian, so I had to switch to Russian. I thought: “My God, I am not that proud. Nothing will happen if I talk to them in Russian.”
Then later, when Ivan Vyshnevskyi, Vasyl Storchak, and Oleg Fedyukov arrived, I said: “Thank God, ‘Bandera’ has started to come here, we will teach you all Ukrainian language here.”
— Let’s talk about the championship year 1983. Which game, besides Spartak, do you particularly remember?
— Only Spartak. (Smiles)
— In the decisive game against Spartak, did you have a personal task?
— I had to keep an eye on the actions of Gavrilov and Morozov. Frankly, we were afraid of the Muscovites. We had a very short briefing before the game. Yemets said: “What should I tell you about how they play at Spartak? You know them all well.” The day before, we watched their game in the UEFA Cup against Birmingham, against Aston Villa. Spartak played excellently there and won against the English club 2:1. So the coaches told us — prove to everyone that you are not worse.
— Were you motivated materially?
— Of course. They said: if you win the championship — you will receive big bonuses and cars. We gathered together, thinking: well, we will fight. However, I think that even if we lost in that game, nobody would scold us. After all, the team had already exceeded all the wildest expectations. Even if we had taken second or third place, that would also have been a success.
— How much did they promise for a victory over Spartak?
— One thousand rubles. Plus cars — GAZ-24 “Volga”.
— Towards the end of the championship, there was a strong psychological pressure on Dnipro. What happened in Odesa in the match against Chornomorets?
— In the games against Chornomorets, there was always some tension. Perhaps there were some personal misunderstandings between the management of the clubs. Odesa treated us a bit unfairly. We lost 0:1 then. But despite this, we managed to get out of that situation.
— Is it true that when Odesa's Sakhno scored his goal, he started showing offensive gestures?
— Well, it seems to be Ivan Shariy. He said something there in a profanity, like,... you to be champions. I was still young and didn't understand everything that was going on there.
— Did Ukrainian clubs not help you become champions?
— Some could have helped, but they did not. In the penultimate round, Shakhtar in Donetsk hosted Spartak. We hoped that the miners would take points from the Muscovites and help us become champions ahead of schedule. After all, even a draw in Donetsk would have suited us. But they took a heavy defeat (0:4, — ed. note). I don't know how true this is, but later it was said that Shakhtar "gave" that game to Spartak.
— Have you ever participated in matches that the team threw?
— I had to. However, there were times when I did not know about the agreement. Not all players were aware of this. Over time, everything would come to light.
Oleksandr Petrov
