Oleksandr Shovkovskiy's team had an unsuccessful start to the main round of the second most prestigious European Cup.
Dynamo Kyiv suffered a crushing defeat to Lazio Rome in the first round of the main stage of the Europa League season 2024/25. The match, nominally home for the Ukrainian club, at the Volksparkstadion arena in Hamburg, Germany, ended with a score of 0:3.
The Romans took the lead in the 5th minute of the match – Boulaye Dia received a pass from Pedro and shot low from the penalty area into the right corner.
In the 19th minute, the head coach of the “white-blues” Oleksandr Shovkovskiy was forced to make a substitution – the newcomer of the Kiev team, Colombian defender Bryan Ceballos, was injured. Christian Bilovar came on the field instead.
In the 34th minute, the “eagles” managed to double their advantage in the score – Matias Vecino with a through ball put Oluwafisayo Dele-Bashiru one-on-one with Georgiy Bushchan and he hammered the ball into the right “nine”.
A minute later, the score became devastating – Dia scored a double, heading in a pass from Dele-Bashiru from the right flank.
At the start of the second half, Marco Baroni’s men could have scored for the fourth time, but Bushchan diverted Pedro’s shot from the left flank of the penalty area into the post.
In the 72nd minute, Dynamo was still down a man – Maxim Bragaru, who had come on as a substitute for Andriy Yarmolenko eight minutes earlier, received a straight red card for stepping on Mattia Zaccagni’s foot in a fight from behind.
Ten minutes later, the teams’ lineups were even – Rome’s forward Tijani Noslin, who had come on as a substitute a few minutes earlier, elbowed Vladislav Dubinchak in the face, for which he was punished with a straight red card.
However, Dynamo still failed to score even a consolation goal, despite 12 shots throughout the entire match (7 on target). By the way, Lazio also had 12 shots (6 on target).
Review of the match Dynamo – Lazio
In the updated format of the Europa League, all 36 teams play in a single league, where they will play against eight different opponents (four matches at home and four away).
All of Dynamo's opponents in the main round of the Europa League: Roma (Italy), Lazio (Italy), Ferencvaros (Hungary), Real Sociedad (Spain), Galatasaray (Turkey), Viktoria Plzen (Czech Republic), RFS (Latvia), “Hoffenheim” (Germany).
In the second round of the Europa League, the Kiev team will play away against the German “Hoffenheim” on October 3, and “Lazio” will host the French “Nice” on the same day.
The eight best teams of the main stage of the Europa League will reach the 1/8 finals. The clubs that take places from 9th to 24th in the overall standings will play paired play-off matches for a place in the 1/8 finals. The rest will finish their performance in European competitions.