Dnipro's debt to Dynamo

By Igor Linnyk

A goal down from the first leg of their UEFA Cup third-round tie against Olympique de Marseille, FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk are hoping that home-based talent will help them secure a place in the fourth round on Wednesday.

Odds against
The Ukrainian side went into this meeting with the French aristocrats with the odds seemingly stacked against them. Lacking the European pedigree of their opponents, they were also handicapped by the fact they had not played any competitive football in 2004.

Winter hibernation
As coach Yevgen Kucherevskyy explained: "Our biggest problem is the lack of competitive matches. The season in Ukraine kicks off on 7 March, and it's hard to be in good form before that. But our players are skilled enough to complete this task and qualify for the fourth round."

Soviet coup
Kucherevskyy is something of a club legend having achieved the notable coup of leading Dnipro to the Soviet league title in 1988 and the Soviet Cup the following year. Unwilling to sign foreign players on principle, the coach has maintained an absolute commitment to Ukrainian talent.

Dynamo link
Key to his plan has been enlisting players deemed surplus to requirements by Ukrainian giants FC Dynamo Kyiv - almost half of Dnipro's squad were previously with the Kiev club, and some of their best performers in this season's competition honed their skills at the Lobanovskyi stadium.

Great goalkeeping
A typical example is goalkeeper Viacheslav Kernozenko, a product of the Dynamo academy who joined Dnipro after the club's regular No1, Mykola Medin, was injured in the autumn. While Kernozenko could not stop Didier Drogba's penalty in France last week, his heroics between the sticks helped keep the scores down at the Stade Vélodrome - giving Dnipro the chance of achieving a shock result as Marseille head for Ukraine.

Near miss
In defence, former Ukrainian internationals Volodymyr Yezerskyy and Olexandr Radchenko are also both ex-Dynamo players. Yezerskyy, formerly an amateur boxer, came desperately close to sucker-punching Marseille last week when his shot from a corner hit the post.

Former team-mates
Elsewhere in the squad, midfield players Dmytro Mykhailenko and Roman Maksymyuk were both Ukraine and Dynamo players in the 1990s before moving on to become integral members of the Dnipro team. Both featured in Marseille, while three more Dynamo old boys, Gennadiy Moroz, Andrey Spevak and Vitaly Lysytskyi, watched the action from the substitutes' bench.

Striking addition
The Dynamo connection extends to the forward line too. On 28 February, Kucherevskyy signed Dynamo and Ukraine striker Olexandr Melaschenko on a three-year contract, although he is ineligible for UEFA Cup duty, having played for Dynamo in the UEFA Champions League.

Key injury
Another player Dynamo will be unable to call on at the Meteor stadium is injured striker Oleg Venhlinskyy. "Oleg is returning to Ukraine from Germany a day before the game," said Kucherevskyy. "He has been there a month, recovering in Hamburg and in Munich. It's a shame but he's far from being fit. As soon as he starts training the injury flares up."

Nothing to fear
Venhlinskyy's absence will be a blow to Dnipro, as it was in the first leg, but as underdogs the Ukrainians have nothing to lose on home soil. And having learned the game at the famous Dynamo academy, a good proportion of the Dnipro squad will know they also have nothing to fear.