In last week's article, I wrote about the difficulties faced by Dynamo Kiev, the first match of the Champions League qualifying round against Fenerbahçe in Poland and a bit of nostalgia over Mircea Lucescu. Those who want to read the full article can reach from the link.
In a rematch of last week's first leg, the sides met tonight in Istanbul, this time at Fenerbahce's stadium, the Ulker Arena. The stadium, which has an average capacity of 50,000 spectators, was mostly full and despite the hot summer night, the fans were very interested in the match.
I watched the match on TV with my friends and everyone was aware of the difficult situation Dynamo Kiev are facing and they are fighting a battle that must be respected. It must be very difficult for them to stay motivated and organised on the pitch when they are going through difficulties that I don't want to mention. They were applauded before the match by all the fans in the stadium and by us who were watching on the screen.
Contrary to what I expected, the match was hard and full of cards. The 0 - 0 draw in the first match made Fenerbahce the favourites. Add to that Kiev's difficulties and it was natural that Fenerbahce would be the favourites. The first half was dominated by Fenerbahce, who had more possession and looked the more organised team, but Dynamo Kiev had some dangerous attacks with long balls and players behind the defence. The score of the first half was the same as the first match, 0 - 0.
Fenerbahce started the second half with pressure and in the first 5 minutes of the second half, Dynamo Kyiv launched a succession of dangerous attacks inside the penalty area. An interesting moment happened in the 53rd minute. The local announcer (in Turkish) was giving additional information about Fenerbahce's player Ismail. He was talking about his style of play, his intelligence and that he was a favourite of the Fenerbahce coach. At that very moment Ismail was sent off for a second yellow card. For a short while I had a laughing fit mixed with half anger because I attributed this red card to the evil eye because of the announcer's unnecessary praise. lol. The evil eye is a superstition, but it has validity for me. lolol
57th minute was a happy moment for Dynamo Kiev and Ukraine. After an organised attack, Kiev's Vitali Buyalsky put the ball into the Fenerbahçe net to put his team ahead. This was the first goal in the match between the two teams, including the first match.
Vitali Buyalsky unexpectedly celebrated his goal in a way that provoked the Fenerbahçe stands. However, the country and people of Ukraine and Dynamo Kiev are very popular in Turkey. There was no tension between the players on the pitch until that moment, we and our friends found his provocative gesture a bit strange and we had a short dialogue about "why he did that", but we could not find out the reason.
The night that had started well for Fenerbahce started to go badly. It was now both deficient and defeated in the score. In the 70th minute Enner Valencia came on the scene and forced the Dynamo Kiev defence to make a mistake with the ball in front of him with his own efforts and the Kiev players made the same mistake and Valencia won a penalty for his team. It was one of the interesting moments of the match, Valencia, who won the penalty, took the ball to use the penalty. And he missed the penalty!
While we were expecting Dynamo Kiev to win the round, Attilla Szalai scored with a header from the corner kick in the 88th minute to make the score 1 - 1. My Fenerbahce friend who was sitting next to me at that time spilled hot tea on him but he didn't feel the heat too much with the joy of the goal. lol.
As the first match ended 0 - 0 and the second match ended 1 - 1, there was no winner and the match went into 2 overtime periods of 15 minutes each.
Dynamo Kiev dominated the first extra time period in terms of positions. Dynamo Kiev players failed to capitalise on their successive chances and the short half ended without a goal. In this half, it was possible to feel the disadvantage of Fenerbahce playing with missing players. The players looked tired and not ready yet.
Both teams played more cautiously in the second extra time. It was known to everyone that it was difficult to compensate for a lost goal. At minute 114, Oleksandr Karavaev shot the ball centred from the left and sent the ball into the net to put Dynamo Kiev ahead once again. Fenerbahçe goalkeeper Altay was at fault for this goal. I cannot understand why a team that spends so much money on transfers does not buy a good goalkeeper.
Dynamo Kiev tonight performed a miracle in the history of the club and the country and brought joy to the Ukrainian people who are going through hard times. Their struggle deserves applause and they cheered the Ukrainian people with their struggle. I congratulate them.