THE great Dynamo Kyiv teams of the 1970s and 1980s regularly dealt formidable European rivals the sort of heavy and humiliating thrashings which Partizan Belgrade were on the receiving end of last month.
But the 9-2 aggregate defeat which the shellshocked Serbian side suffered at the hands of their Ukrainian opponents in the second qualifying round of the Champions League was a major surprise.
Dynamo have been a pale imitation of the force they were when the renowned Valeriy Lobanovskyi was their manager in modern times due to a variety of on and off-field factors - not least their ongoing war with Russia.
Last term, they failed to make it through to the group stages of the third tier Conference League.
So why have they suddenly found their form again? Are the two-time European Cup Winners’ Cup champions and ex-UEFA Super Cup winners capable of maintaining it and recapturing their former glories? And will they have too much for a Rangers team in the third qualifying round double header which gets underway in Lublin tonight?
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Andrew Todos, an English-born football reporter of Ukrainian heritage who writes for the Zorya Londonsk website and hosts the Ukraine + Football podcast, believes they just might.
Todos has seen how Oleksandr Shovkovskyi, the former Dynamo and Ukraine goalkeeper who succeeded Mircea Lucescu as manager back in November, has completely transformed their fortunes by changing their tactics and recruiting well and suspects they may just edge the tie.
“Dynamo had added motivation because their opponents had recently gone to Moscow to play in the Fraternal Cup against Dynamo Moscow, CSKA Moscow and OFK Beograd. That really riled their players up. They were absolute desperate to get the job done. They certainly didn’t hold back on the goals.
“It is the best they have played in Europe for some time. They have been pretty poor in the past few seasons. In fact, they have been pretty poor in the past eight seasons. But there is certainly hope now that they could be on the verge of bouncing back.
“The team has been affected by the war. When they got to the Europa League group stages a couple of years ago they didn’t win a game and finished fourth in their section. That was partly attributed to fatigue because they were constantly travelling to and from Poland by bus.
“However, most Ukrainian players, especially the ones who play in Europe regularly, are used to that now and have adapted well. Personally, I think the fact they were so poor before was because Lucescu, their former manager, wasn’t particularly good.
“Since he left last year and Shovkovskyi came in, they have been playing relatively well and getting wins. They rallied in the league last season and ended up finishing second. Shovkovskyi lost just one game and that was against Shakhtar Donetsk, the eventual champions.
“There is far more of a game plan now, an understanding of what they need to do on the pitch. There is less aimless passing, there are fewer passes back to the goalkeeper, there are fewer hopeful long balls forward. There are now a lot of passing combinations. Play is built up from the back.”
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So who are the players who have been integral to the turnaround and who will James Tavernier and his team mates need to be especially wary of when the first leg of their double header kicks off in the Arena Lublin this evening.
“Dynamo’s central midfielder Volodymyr Brazhko is an important player for them,” said Todos. “He is a great passer and is very good at both starting attacks and getting involved in attacks as well. A lot goes through him, out to the wings, up to the forwards. They look a lot more confident and are scoring a lot more as well.
“It feels like they are on the up. They have had a lot of poor transfer windows in recent years. They have brought in a lot of foreign players who weren’t very good and didn’t live up to expectations. The Ukrainian players they signed weren’t up to the standards of Dynamo Kyiv of old.
“But this summer they brought in a couple of Ukrainian players who had already played in the Premier League and were ready to go straight into the first team. They are in better shape than they have been for some time.
“Oleksandr Pikhalyonok was brought in after Dnipro-1 went bust. He came on as a sub in the first leg of the Partizan tie and got an assist and scored the sixth goal. He was really sharp in the second game. He is a central midfield who is quite attack-minded, he looks really good.
“He was one of the better Ukrainian players outside of Shakhtar and Dynamo when he was with Dnipro. He had a good partnership with Artem Dovbyk before Dovbyk moved to Girona last year. They linked up very well. I think he will become a key player for this Dynamo side.
“You have also got Maxsym Braharu, a winger, and Valentyn Rubchynskyi, a central midfielder, who have just arrived back following the Olympics. They were probably two of the country’s better players in France. On top of all of them, you have also got players who were already there who are now playing to the expectations of the club.”
“Andriy Yarmolenko is well known to anyone who follows the Premier League from his time at West Ham. He is ageing, he is 34 now, but a lot will be demanded of him on the right wing on these matches against Rangers.
“Then you have Vladyslav Vanat, the striker who was the top scorer in the Premier League last season with 14 goals. He is a slight, jinky little forward and is just 22, but he has lots of pace and likes to run in behind the last defender.
“Rangers appear to be in a state of limbo at the moment judging by their pre-season results and result at the weekend. Based on that and the Partizan result, I think Dynamo could get through this. They have confidence running through their veins, they are exciting on the ball. They are the underdogs with the bookies, but I think they could cause an upset.”
Todos stressed that having to play their European games in Poland is no longer an issue for Dynamo and other Ukrainian teams – but he did question if taking on Rangers in front of a 50,000-strong crowd at Hampden in the second leg will pose problems for them.
“Playing Poland is the new reality, the new norm, sadly,” he said. “There weren’t that many supporters for the Partizan game, less than 5,000 supporters in a 15,000 seat stadium. It is a shame. But they have chosen to play in Lublin because it is easy to get to and back from.
“I think the away leg at Hampden will be a bit of a shock to the system for them because there will obviously be a big crowd there for that. That will take a bit of getting used to for them.”
