An unusual ending

The meeting of the two giants ended unusually, with both sides happy at the final whistle. In public, at least. And their coaches, at least.

After losing 3–0 to Shakhtar in the cup, Maciej Kędziorek pulled off a surprise against the reigning champions in the league. Dynamo kept a clean sheet and arguably edged the chance count, against a side playing in the Champions League proper.

Arda Turan, meanwhile, extended his unbeaten run against Dynamo despite going a man down and underlined why Shakhtar have the best defence in the league. The coaches struck slightly different notes in their immediate post-match interviews. Both agreed, though, that a goalless draw at Arena Lviv was a good result.

Playing the clásico on the eve of Ukraine internationals is a risk. Euro 2016 is the painful example: after Andrii Yarmolenko and Taras Stepanenko fell out, Mykhailo Fomenko’s Ukraine flopped in France. We had already seen a heated exchange between Oleh Ocheretko and Taras Mykhavko in the cup, with the Dynamo defender sent off. Fortunately, in the league it was a Brazilian who boiled over. Vladyslav Dubinchak knew exactly how to provoke Vinícius Tobias. Just before a corner, Dynamo’s left-back grabbed the Brazilian, who reacted by hitting him on the back of the head. The referee initially booked him, then changed his decision after a VAR review, leaving Shakhtar down to ten.

A prolonged scuffle and a round of arguments followed. Oleksii Sych’s part in it warranted another yellow, too. The referee missed the Dynamo defender’s shove to Tobias’s chest in real time, and his VAR colleagues left it out of the replay.

Shakhtar had the upper hand while it was still eleven against eleven. Alisson could have scored twice. First the Brazilian lost a one-on-one with Heorhii Bushchan, then he struck the post from outside the box. The shot came so hard and so suddenly that Bushchan stood rooted, watching the ball as if hypnotised.

Dynamo had a chance of their own. Matvii Ponomarenko put Nazar Voloshyn through one-on-one. Voloshyn took a few seconds to get the ball onto the foot he wanted and still could not beat the Ukraine goalkeeper.

After the break, Dynamo had the territorial advantage you would expect against ten men. They had only one clear chance, though, from a corner in the closing minutes. Thiare got to Mykola Shaparenko’s delivery before Dmytro Riznyk but missed from point-blank range.

Shakhtar could have snatched the win even with ten men. Newerton broke through at a tight angle and shot straight at Bushchan when he could have squared for Alisson on his right.

Maciej Kędziorek, Dynamo’s interim head coach: “Of course, I liked this game more than the cup tie. We had more time to train and prepare while Shakhtar were travelling a lot. I think we used that time very well. You could see it on the pitch, even when both teams had eleven players. We controlled the game the way we wanted. I’m very happy about that, because Shakhtar play in the Champions League. It says a lot about the level of our play, defensively and in attack. I hope that after a few weeks of our work everyone has seen that we always aim to play high up the pitch, with intensity and aggression.”

Arda Turan, Shakhtar head coach: “We started well. We controlled the game and had more of the ball. I can remember only one first-half incident when we let them create a clear chance. In attack, we lacked quality in the final phase. Overall I’m happy with the way we played, especially given that we had to play the whole second half a man down. I’m pleased that the team didn’t shrink back and kept playing its football, that the red card didn’t scare us. I see this as a point gained, which matters a lot to us, rather than two dropped. Nine games in 30 days is always stressful and difficult. At some point in that run we may have lost the absolute focus we needed. I certainly don’t want to use that as an excuse for our setbacks, but I do want to look at where we are in a more positive light.”