Venhlinskiy inspires Dnipro victory

By Igor Linnyk at Meteor stadium

Oleh Venhlinskiy scored twice as FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk came from behind to defeat Club Brugge KV in UEFA Cup Group C.

Exciting encounter
Dnipro had taken a 14th-minute lead through Venhlinskiy's first goal but allowed the Belgian side to edge ahead with strikes from Nastja Ceh and Boško Balaban. Olexandr Rykun restored parity before the break and Venhlinskiy struck a second-half winner.

Early strike
Both teams started brightly and Venhlinskiy was denied on six minutes by a fine Tomislav Butina save. Soon after, though, Venhlinskiy stole in behind the surprised Timmy Simons to prod the ball past Butina.

Gvozdenovic denied
Within three minutes, Brugge defender Ivan Gvozdenovic had hit the post, forcing goalkeeper Vyacheslav Kernozenko to tip over. Venhlinskiy then missed a fine chance, and his team were soon made to pay.

Quickfire goals
On 37 minutes, Ceh beat Dnipro's offside trap and sent a low shot into the net. Only six minutes later, Balaban was first to a rebound and put Brugge ahead. However, Rykun's long-range shot swiftly made the score 2-2 at the break.

Venhlinskiy decider
Then just after the hour mark, Venhlinskiy more than made up for his earlier miss. Receiving the ball from a corner he shot in from what seemed an impossible angle to delight the 20,000-odd home fans. Try as they might Brugge could not turn the game again, and Venhlinskiy almost increased the lead but was unable to force in when clean through on Butina.

Utrecht trips
Rykun and a combination of Ruslan Kostyshyn, substitute Dmytro Semochko and Venhlinskiy also missed out on a fourth Dnipro goal, but the victory was confirmed with a trip to FC Utrecht to come on 4 November. The Dutch side are also Brugge's next opponents, in Utrecht three weeks later.