The intrigue is still on

Supporting Ukrainian soccer teams is growing more interesting, it seems, even for those people who have traditionally paid not that much attention to the sport. After the Dnipropetrovsk Dnipro won the Europa League semifinal match against the Italian Napoli on May 14 and reached the final of the European competition, for the first time in the club’s history, there was considerable excitement about its May 17 domestic championship home match against Dynamo from the capital of Ukraine. The Kyivites won after a hard battle (the end score was 1-0, set on the 84th minute by Dynamo’s Croatian player Domagoj Vida), and won the Ukrainian championship of 2015 before the tournament even ended. By the way, the capital club’s national championship is its 14th. Previously, Dynamo last won the title in 2009, while the Donetsk Shakhtar held it ever since. Having won the gold medals of the championship, the Kyivites are now concentrated on taking the Cup of Ukraine. Meanwhile, the tense denouement of the season is still in the future for Dnipro. Myron Markevych’s lads will meet with the Donetsk Shakhtar in the semifinals of the Cup of Ukraine on May 20 (the other pair is Dynamo vs. Olympic); another crucial match against Shakhtar in the Ukrainian championship will be played on Sunday, May 24, while Wednesday, May 27, will see Dnipro in the Europa League final in Warsaw, pitting it against the Spanish Seville.

“Dynamo was objectively the strongest team of the season, and all doubts that this club would be the national champion went away by the spring’s beginning,” soccer expert and editor-in-chief of the Profutbol TV show (2+2 channel) Volodymyr Zvieriev commented for The Day. “Of course, the big issue this year was the fact that the clubs from the east of the country did not play at home, at their own stadiums... but none of the players is to blame for this. The Kyivites won only because they were stronger. Meanwhile, Dnipro’s players are finishing the season with a cool head, since they have already calculated their schedule and rated their strength. Markevych has revealed that his emphasis is on the Cup of Ukraine and the Europa League final, so the club will put in the field the first team both on May 20 and in a week against Sevilla. It looks, though, like they will finish the championship with the reserve team’s players. In general, the Ukrainian soccer is now fascinating more than ever before. There was almost no intrigue left as past years’ championships ended, and rounds looked uninteresting. Now, on the other hand, the intrigue is still on in both the Europa League and the Cup of Ukraine. The soccer fans like it greatly.”