FC Red Bull Salzburg
·19 August 2024
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Yahoo sportsFC Red Bull Salzburg
·19 August 2024
"The city in which everything starts" was the slogan of the Ukrainian capital, and our meeting with Dynamo Kyiv will hopefully be the springboard for our next UEFA Champions League journey. It will be a clash with two chapters, the first of which takes place tomorrow at 21:00 CEST in Lublin, Poland.
Bilo-Syni - the Blue and Whites - have plenty of more serious challenges to cope with at the moment but are doing very well on the pitch in Europe. After a huge win against Partizan Belgrade (9-2 on aggregate) and a win against the ten men of Rangers (3-1 overall), the Ukrainian runners-up joined us in the play-offs. While our boys are vying for their sixth participation in a row in the competition in the Champions League, Dynamo have already managed to end a brief barren spell in Europe. Last season, Shovkovskyi's side failed to make a European group stage for the first time since 2005/06!
On the subject of Oleksandr Shovkovskyi. The man in charge is a Kyiv legend through and through. After keeping goal for an incredible 25 years as a player, the man with 92 caps for Ukraine has only coached his national team and Dynamo Kyiv. Our boys will go up against his experience in over 100 Champions League games (including qualifying) with their usual boldness and attacking power. They will be hoping for your away support too, with all the information on that here. to the away info
Having got the better of FC Twente in two thrilling encounters, only Dynamo now stand between us in the Champions League. Want to find out more on the 16-time Ukrainian champions? Take a look here!
There will be nothing available on free TV in Austria, unfortunately, when we kick off in Dynamo's temporary home in Lublin on Wednesday at 21:00 CEST. Canal+ has acquired rights to show the play-off first leg – which in addition to a few matches in our league stage (Champions League or Europa League) will be shown on their streaming service. We will keep you in the know with live text updates on our website. The second leg will be shown exclusively on Sky Sport Austria.
Not available are Hendry Blank (thigh), Fernando (thigh), Daouda Guindo (metatarsal), Dijon Kameri (foot), Takumu Kawamura (knee), Karim Konate (knee) and Leandro Morgalla (thigh).
I have said it a lot of times - you have to deserve the right to play in the Champions League. We want to work hard again when we play Dynamo Kyiv and play the good football we have shown recently again. We are pleased to have got ourselves in this situation with two very good performances against Twente. It's a really tough period with lots of matches in a short time period. We need as many fresh players as possible, and the boys coming off the bench shouldn't just be substitutes, but also game changers. We have done that well so far, as you could see against LASK, for example.
Pepijn Lijnders
Dynamo beat Rangers as underdogs with a brilliant away win. Our analysis of Kyiv has shown that we are facing a very clever and strong team. It's important for us to get a good position to take into the second leg in Salzburg. We will work hard to try to achieve that.
Moussa Yeo