Dynamo Kiev – Ghent. Prediction and match announcement – Champions League

At midnight on September 29, the Dynamo can uncork the champagne: if a true miracle does not happen, the Kiev fans must head to the group round of the Champions League. There, in the main draw of the main continental tournament, the “blue and white” have not been for three years. It is time and it is an honor to know. Also, the opponent on the way to the coveted group is not the strongest, and there is a margin of safety in the form of a guest victory.

After a confident but not very convincing victory in Ghent, Mircea Lucescu’s pupils played a match on the UPL calendar against Minay. The fight against the debutant of the Ukrainian championship was perfect for the “Blue and Whites”. Already at the opening of the match, they got a numerical advantage, and went to rest with the score 2: 0. In the second half, the Dynamo took the score to a crushing 4: 0 and, in good spirits, began to prepare to the second leg against the Belgian runners-up.

Despite Mircea Lucescu still experiencing some personnel problems, the Dynamo coach is quite successful in his rotation. In particular, Sirota, Duelund, Shepelev and Andrievsky were in the starting lineup in the match with Minai; these players are most likely not playing Gent. Mister gave De Pena, Rodrigues and Buyalsky a break, Karavaev played only 15 minutes, Sidorchuk, Supryaga and Shaparenko – at the break, a little longer – Tsygankov. That is, on the one hand, the Dynamo’s grassroots players got the necessary respite, and on the other hand, Lucescu had the opportunity to finally really vary the lineups. But it seems that the Romanian coach will put practically the same squad for the game against Ghent as in Belgium. After all, the winning squad doesn’t change, and the players Lucescu trusts still don’t let him down.

But in “Gent” everything falls out of control again. It seemed that in the person of De Dekker, the buffalo finally found at least a shred of stability: with ex-assistant Laszlo Boloni, the runner-up from Belgium defeated Rapid in the third qualifying round for the Champions League and beat Mouscron in the championship. Belgian. But then again with the usual rake. The home game against the Dynamo was a failure and leading forward Roman Yaremchuk was injured. But that’s not all: on Saturday at the local stadium within the seventh round of the national championship, Gent unexpectedly lost to the rookie of the elite division Leuven – 2: 3. Interestingly, until the 71st minute the Buffaloes lost 0: 3, but then in three minutes they were able to play two goals, both from the penalty spot. It seemed that the hope of salvation was dawning, but the advantage of the game was realized, although De Dekker’s team did not achieve a draw.

Incidentally, despite the derogatory criticism in the Belgian press of the team’s Ukrainian legionnaires after the defeat to Dynamo, De Dekker put Plastun and Bezus on the base for the match with Leuven. Surely Yaremchuk would have been out from the opening minutes, but Roman was offside with a hip injury. After the seventh round, the current runner-up from Belgium is only 15th place, ahead of the relegation zone by just three points. And if in the previous Belgian championship “Gent” became the most productive team, now their “rate of fire” is clearly low: they have only scored seven goals.

In general, “Gent” does not seem like a rival that could prevent Mircea Lucescu’s team from entering the group stage. Dynamo hasn’t been there for three years. In the second leg against Gent, little remains to be done to finally make it through the qualifying round of the playoffs. We believe and hold our fists for the people of Kiev!

Approximate compositions:

“Dynamo”: Buschan, Kendzera, Zabarny, Mikolenko, Karavaev, Sidorchuk, Shaparenko, Tsygankov, De Pena, Buyalsky, Supryaga

Ghent: Roff, Castro-Montes, Ngade, Fortuna, Plastun, Arslanadzic, Odija, Dorsh, Ovusu, Kums, Depuatre.

September 29, Tuesday