a ticket to execution but roles so different

Both the Ukrainian champion and the country’s runner-up ranked third in their groups at the most prestigious continental tournament. Now, in mid-February next year, both Shakhtar and Dynamo will simultaneously open Eurospring 2021 with the 1/16 finals of the least prestigious tournament: the Europa League. The only difference is that at this stage of the draw, the Pitmen will be seeded, while the Dynamo will not.

Paying equal tribute to our giants for the European fall, I still want to point out, and I am sure I am not alone in my feelings, that in terms of “semantics” and emotions, the performances of our two best teams in the the Championship League turned out to be different. And radically. Cardinally. And it’s not so much about the different amount of points won (eight versus four). And not even in the game. It is an unpredictable insanity, which has become the norm for some, and a sober calculation, which has become a panacea for others.

***

After the first round, without fear of being wrong and without pangs of conscience, it was possible to literally pile the fragments into a common enigma of the impressions of the Dynamo and the game of the miners in the Champions League. After Juve’s ordinary victory in Kiev, more precisely, after Dynamo played well, but without push, without open veins and shouts “behind the country’s rating”, the main helmsman of “Blue and White” Lucescu, with pragmatic wisdom inherent in gray hair, said: that “Dynamo” in this group, if it is possible to catch something, it is only third place.

After the second round, in Budapest, the words of the Lord of Kiev became general dogmas. His players played well again. But, again, there was not a high degree of tension and emotion in his actions against “Ferencvaros” for various reasons. However, on the other hand, there was no longer the usual doom in his actions. Well, you remember those eyes, like those of a sick stray dog ​​after the next flight of some “Malmo” or “Yablonec”. And this is undoubtedly an achievement, an advance. Because this “Dynamo” began to accustom us all to a somewhat forgotten time, when the team regularly, although unpolished, took “their” points.

And on another side of the scale: this crazy, crazy victory for Shakhtar in the first round in Madrid. Castro’s team was escorted to the capital of Spain, as on their last trip. But the road was strewn with roses. Yes, yes, this happened despite. Contrary to the laws of logic and football. It was a true theater of the absurd, a cross between “Sparrow” and “Zagoretskaya”, if anyone knows. But the result of that kindergarten that bears the name of Dentinho is a real bomb.

FC Shakhtarmale

Well, in the next game, against Inter, the same one that not long ago beat our Shakhtar without the slightest chance in the semi-finals of the LE 5-0, this is not going to work. We all think so. In addition, Kashtru re-started the same kindergarten weakened by the covid. (Yes, the coronavirus epidemic is the second common detail for Shakhtar and Dynamo in this Champions League. There will be no more coincidences). But this time too, Shakhtar managed to surprise: their coach learned perfectly (as it seemed then) August’s tactical lesson from Conte, his team showed that, although they have a thin bone, they are persevering and patient.

***

And then everything went wrong again. And against logic and laws. I remember talking to colleagues after the draw, trying to find at least one good thing in the deadly mining pool. And they found this: well, at least there will be a spark with Borussia. We will definitely take our glasses there. Four, sure.

But Kashtra, who had forgotten how to feel the ground under her feet, put the same kindergarten graduation group back on, even though she already had almost all the veterans in the cage. And again, a kind of rubbish, the reception of ZNO pulling Losers, the crazy eyes of the Portuguese and black, not even gray, doom. The return match with Gladbach, that was already a mark. As it seemed then. Ribeiro de Castro Luis Manuel, exiled to the stands by UEFA, in complete prostration, Andriy Pyatov – in the same bewilderment. However, like all his companions. And we are on the other side of the screen. It is almost impossible to recover from this. Again, that’s what it looked like then.

And the Dynamo in the duo with Barcelona looked for the bad from the good, and it was no longer a pity, but an opportunity to simply declare themselves well. In the first game, at the Camp Nou, he succeeded. With the heroes of our young goalkeeper. And his goalkeeper, far from young. Oh, if only a little luck and the Dynamo could get the points out of Catalonia, we regret in unison. But they didn’t spray their heads. Ah, that was just an exception to the rule, – we all said in the same friendly way after the return visit of the “blaugrans” to Kiev. And they still haven’t sprayed their heads.

FK Dinamo

The away game against Juve turned out for the Dynamo the same as the first: no tears or groans, just a natural defeat in operation. “For us, the final is in the last round,” the Romanian philosopher continued to repeat happily. And in the end he will be on top: his team turned out to be better than Rebrov’s. And on his cake, albeit without a cherry, Dynamo and his coach definitely deserve it.

But for Shakhtar, every game was a final. The prosecution is similar to that of Istanbul in 2005, when it was first hot, then cold, and then to the morgue or from the front door. Although, to be honest, I personally didn’t expect anything good from the second game against Real Madrid. Well, this time the kings of the Champions League, already motivated and with the strongest squad (less injuries), will be shown by Kuzkin’s mother. Not shown. Because it showed Shakhtar. Kashtru, nailed to the wall, gave a kind of Revelation to the mountain, and his command, stepping on the throat of his song and his rival, gave another session of unbridled madness. Well what and what else to expect from this team in the game against the same, against the wall, Conte, terribly unlucky in European competition, but incredibly advanced in terms of tactics, if not another execution? But this time Shakhtar broke all the templates. An unprecedented 5-3-2 scheme, a complete absence of forwards and total presence of mind, and another beneficial performance from Trubin, who again put the skeptics to shame (me among them).

At first, Shakhtar squeezed the most out of this group, but in the end he squeezed the least, and this, given the equatorial 0:10, is almost a success. Kashtru, like his team, and like his colleague’s team from Kiev, is also on horseback. And, also, probably deserved for dessert.

***

What do we have in the background, so to speak, in the exhaust? As a result, Dynamo surpassed some kind of class, confidence in the future or something like that. And this is great. If we compare the current team with the teams of Khatskevich and especially Mikhailichenko. There is no more agony, there is a game, although it is far from the ideal and the spectacle. But now we can talk about the kind of Shakhtar with an ax or a diamond crown. This Donetsk team did not have and is not expected to have a normal temperature. So that’s it, everyone is 36.6. They are under forty or in clear collapse. The first, curiously, everyone likes. Even for outsiders. Second, everyone doesn’t like it. Even the dedicated ones. But the main thing is that this team did not leave anyone indifferent. After the academic football of early Fonseca and late Lucescu, this too is a breakthrough.

FK Dinamo

But, as paradoxical as it sounds, from the current Shakhtar, unlike the current Dynamo (more precisely, until Lucescu is in the team) you don’t know what to expect. Because between the North Star and the Mariana Trench, there is too much emptiness and, more importantly, incomprehensible. And how the Castro team uses this space, and in the first place the coach himself, only God knows.

FC Shakhtar

But this also has its own charm. You know, so crazy and inappropriate. It is as if you have a ticket to an execution and for a long time you do not know if you are an actor, a spectator or maybe the victim. Unlike the Dynamo performance, where you are unsure exactly what to expect from this company, and that during the break you will definitely have time to dump a glass of cognac.

It’s true, everything is learned by comparison. Besides taste and color, there are no relatives. But even in such a multi-colored and opposite audacity from our giants in the Champions League group, there are excellent glimpses of the perhaps unhappy, but rather sunny, morning of our club football.