On Wednesday, July 16, Kyiv’s “Dynamo” held their final friendly match during the pre-season training camp in Austria. The opponent of Alexander Shovkovskiy’s team was the Croatian “Osijek”.
Photo — fcdynamo.com
Friendly match
“DYNAMO (Kyiv, Ukraine) — “OSIJEK” (Croatia) — 0:1 (0:1)
Goal: Yakupovich (37)
“DYNAMO” (starting lineup): 35.Neshcheret, 7. Yarmolenko (C), 8. Pykhalenok, 10. Shaparenko, 11. Vanat, 20. Karavaev, 22. Kabayev, 32. Mikhavko, 40. Bilovar, 44. Dubinchak, 91. Mykhailenko.
The match began with an attack from the Croatian team, which immediately showed that it was not going to give Dynamo an advantage. Already in the first minute of the game, an Osijek forward could have scored, but he shot over the goal from a few meters.
Dynamo responded to this moment with a shot from Kabayev from the edge of the penalty area, but the nominal guest goalkeeper reacted well and did not allow the “white-blues” to score first in the match. It seemed that we would see a fairly productive match, but instead we had not football, but almost only conflicts between players on the field. The Osijek players acted very roughly in some episodes, simply recklessly kicking the Kyivans in the legs...
Nevertheless, we returned to football directly in the 37th minute of the confrontation, when Yakupovich managed to beautifully convert a free kick — the ball flew straight into the nine of Neshcheret’s goal — 0:1. Shovkovskiy’s charges could have equalized literally a minute later, but Yarmolenko lacked accuracy at the end of the attack — after his shot, the ball miraculously missed the frame of the Osijek goal.
The second half of the match started with a red card! Shaparenko reacted to another provocation from the opponent by pushing him away from himself — the Croatian player theatrically fell, and the referee believed him. As a result, Dynamo’s midfielder received a direct red card, but according to an agreement between the teams, Yatsyk replaced Shaparenko on the field, and the Dynamo players continued the match with a full squad.
However, the pattern of the game did not change much further — Osijek continued to attack dangerously. The same Yakupovich had two more clear chances, but Neshcheret saved the “white-blues” each time, parrying the shots in front of him. Dynamo, for its part, became more active in attack closer to the end of the match, but the shots from Vanat and Yarmolenko lacked accuracy.
In the 84th minute of the confrontation, the main hero decided to become the referee, who, after yet another conflict between players, decided to END the game prematurely and left the field. After that, both teams headed to the post-game area...
We remind you that this series of friendlies for Dynamo within the Austrian camp has come to an end. Next Tuesday, July 22, Alexander Shovkovskiy’s team will play their first match of the 2nd qualifying round of the Champions League against “Hamrun Spartans.” The start of the meeting is at 20:00 Kyiv time.
Vladimir BOBYRY
