On Saturday, August 16, in the 3rd round of the VBET Ukrainian Premier League Dynamo will face Epicentr from Kamianets-Podilskyi away.
The match will take place in Ternopil, at the R. Shukhevych Ternopil City Stadium, and will kick off at 18:00.
EPICENTR (Kamianets-Podilskyi)
Season start
Epicentr began its historic debut season in the Premier league with a match against one of the giants of Ukrainian football, Shakhtar Donetsk, who had previously defeated the famous Turkish side Beşiktaş twice in the Europa League. Serhiy Nahornyak’s team put up a worthy fight against the “miners” but ultimately lost, conceding the only goal late in the game, in the 79th minute. The debut match was played in front of a record crowd in Ternopil – 9,850 spectators.
In the second round Epicentr traveled to Cherkasy for a match against the local LNZ. Once again the Kamianets-Podilskyi side suffered a narrow defeat, this time conceding in the middle of the first half.
Squad changes in the offseason
Upon promotion to the Premier league Epicentr was quite active in the summer transfer market, mainly signing free agents. Interestingly, the club brought in three Spanish players.
Among them is Spanish winger Joaquinete Cifuentes, who most recently played for the Andorran club Santa Coloma.
Central midfielder Jon Ceberio joined from Spanish side Lugo, having earlier in his career played for the reserve teams of Real Sociedad and England’s Bolton Wanderers.
Central defender Nil Cos Montaña also has solid experience, having played for multiple clubs in Spain, mostly from lower divisions.
The club also signed Dynamo academy graduate Denys Yanakov, a winger who played last season for Chornomorets, which was relegated to the First league.
Experienced forward Andriy Boryachuk, who played for Metalist 1925 last season, also joined the team.
At the same time, the core of the squad that secured promotion to the top division has been retained.
DYNAMO (Kyiv)
Season start
Dynamo prepared for the new season in Austria where they held a training camp and played friendly matches. In total, the White-blues played six friendlies – exchanging wins with Hungarian side Kisvárda (0:2 and 3:0), losing to Denmark’s Midtjylland (1:3), drawing with England’s West Bromwich Albion (1:1) and Romania’s Corvinul (0:0), and losing to Croatia’s Osijek (0:1).
The official season began for Dynamo with the Champions league qualifiers. In the second round Oleksandr Shovkovskyi’s men comfortably defeated Maltese champions Hamrun Spartans twice, with an aggregate score of 6:0. Vanat scored twice, while Buyalskyi, Voloshyn, Brazhko and Mykhavko each netted once. However in the next qualifying round, White-blues suffered a setback, losing both legs to Cypriot side Pafos (0:1, 0:2).
In the Ukrainian championship Dynamo’s opener was an away game in Rivne against local side Veres. A lone goal from Mykola Shaparenko in the middle of the first half secured a narrow victory. In the second round Dynamo recorded a convincing 5:1 win in Lviv over Rukh. Taras Mykhavko, Vitaliy Buyalskyi, Maksym Braharu and Oleksandr Yatsyk all scored, with another goal coming from an own goal by the hosts. With two wins Dynamo topped the table after the first two rounds.
Squad changes in the offseason
In the summer Dynamo parted ways with full-back Valerii Luchkevych, while utility player Navin Malysh and central midfielder Roman Salenko (both to Zorya), central defender Maksym Diachuk (Lechia, Poland) and Georgian central midfielder Alexandre Peikrishvili (Dynamo Tbilisi) left on loan.
There were no new signings for the White-blues in the summer; the only additions came from the return of midfielder Oleksandr Yatsyk and forward Vladyslav Supriaha from loan spells at Zorya.
Photo FC Epicentr, FC Dynamo
