On Thursday, November 27, the matches of the 4th round of the general stage of the 2025/26 Conference League season are taking place. One of them featured Cyprus’s 'Omonia' against Kyiv’s 'Dynamo'. The match took place in Nicosia.
Conference League, General Stage. Round 4
’OMONIA' (Nicosia, Cyprus) — ’DYNAMO' (Kyiv, Ukraine) — 2:0 (1:0)
Goals: Semedo (34 pen.), Neofytou (59)
Warnings: Maric (4), Uzoho (75) — Popov (33), Kabaev (45+1), Mikhaylenko (45+2), Tiare (57), Guerrero (78)
’Dynamo': 35.Neshcheret — 20.Karavayev (C), 4.Popov (44.Dubinchak, 46), 66.Tiare, 32.Mikhavko — 8.Pikhalenok (5.Yatsyk, 79), 91.Mikhaylenko, 15.Rubinchsky (29.Buyalskiy, 60), — 22.Kabaev, 9.Voloshin (99.Ponomarenko, 79), 16.Ogundana (39.Guerrero, 63).
Substitutes: 51.Morgun, 74.Ignatenko, 2.Vivcharenko, 14.Burtnik, 18.Tymchyk, 77.Blenutse.
’Omonia': 23.Uzoho, 21.Masouras, 27.Simic, 17.Aguzul, 3.Kitsos, 11.Evandro, 14.Maric (C) (31.Kousoulos, 83), 44.Erakovic (6.Eiting, 83), 20.E. Andreou, 7.Semedo (10.Hadziioannis, 72), 85.Neofytou (8.Jovetić, 72).
Substitutes: 40.Fabiano, 98.Kyrakidis, 2.Dionkou, 5.Koulibaly, 24.Hammas, 30.Panayiotou, 74.P. Andreou, 90.Constantinides.
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’Dynamo' started this match very actively and was close to opening the score by the 7th minute: Kabaev, receiving a pass from Karavayev in the right part of the 'Omonia' penalty area, outplayed the opponent and made a curved shot to the far corner — Uzoho managed to deflect the ball with difficulty in a dive.
Further on, 'Dynamo' completely controlled the flow of the game, but by the 15th minute 'Omonia' began to hold onto the ball and started conducting positional attacks. Almost immediately, a dangerous moment arose at Kyiv’s goal — Kitsos took a shot from the left part of the penalty area, but Neshcheret played reliably, covering the ball.
From about the middle of the first half, the game went into an absolutely equal struggle without sharp moments. The attractive creativity that 'Dynamo' demonstrated in the starting segment of the match seemed to evaporate.
And it all ended with a penalty and a goal against Kyiv. In the 32nd minute, in a rather simple situation, Popov brought Andreou down on the grass in his penalty area, the referee without hesitation pointed to the 'spot', and Semedo flawlessly executed the penalty — 1:0.
’Dynamo' almost immediately responded with a dangerous long-range shot by Pikhalenok, after which the ball flew close to 'Omonia’s' crossbar. Later the same Pikhalenok provided an excellent piercing pass bringing Ogundana into a shooting position in the left part of the hosts' penalty area, but for some reason, he decided not to shoot on target and passed to Voloshin, but this pass was intercepted. The last scoring opportunity in the first half for 'Dynamo' came from a long-range shot by Voloshin, after which the ball whistled over the crossbar.
The second half, 'Dynamo' began as actively as the first, but its effectiveness in attack was lower this time. Meanwhile, 'Omonia' aimed to counterattack at every interception. In the 59th minute, this led to a goal: Neofytou, left unguarded, struck from a volley from about 14 meters, hit the crossbar, and then scored on the rebound with a header while falling — 2:0. Moreover, a couple of minutes later, Andreou had all the chances to increase the score significantly, but striking without any protection from 11 meters, he missed the target.
At the 66th minute, 'Dynamo' finally had its moment: after a corner, Guerrero won an aerial duel and headed the ball from about six meters, but 'Omonia’s' goalkeeper made an incredible save. Later, there was an excellent shot by Voloshin from the left part of the penalty box, yet in this situation, Uzoho saved 'Omonia'.
And that was practically it. In the concluding segment of the match, 'Dynamo' acted in attack without creativity. They continued to experience discomfort from 'Omonia’s' nasty counterattacks, which in the 85th minute were very close to success — Jovetić shot unchallenged from six meters towards the crossbar, and only Neshcheret’s skill saved the team from a third conceded goal. Andreou also 'forgave' the guests by missing the target, standing just two meters from the post. 'Dynamo' had a decent shot by Buyalskiy from the left side of the penalty area, after which the ball flew half a meter past the near post. So the match ended with a victory for the Cypriot team at 2:0.
After this result, 'Dynamo' still has 3 points in the Conference League general stage standings, placing them in 27th position out of 36 participants at this stage, but only half of the 4th round’s matches have been played.
In the next round of the general phase of the Conference League, 'Dynamo' will play away against Italy’s 'Fiorentina'. This match will take place on December 11 in Florence.
Alexander POPOV