Dynamo Kyiv recorded their first UEFA Europa League group stage victory this season after defeating Dutch opponents AZ Alkmaar on Thursday night.
With just one point from their two previous Group E matches, Oleh Luzhnyy’s men clearly realised the importance of getting three points from this game. They put AZ under expected pressure from the starting minutes, but the hosts stayed strong. In the 16th minute their perseverance paid dividend. Roman Eremenko’s cross found Artem Milevskyy inside the box and his close-range shot gave Dynamo the lead. Ten minutes from half-time, though, the scores were level as Falkenburg converted a left-footed shot from 12 yards.
After scoring an equaliser, the hosts began to look much livelier, making occasional problems for our team and forcing them to play defensively. However, it didn’t prevent the White-Blues from grabbing the winner six minutes before the interval when Yevhen Khacheridi headed home an Oleh Husyev’s corner from the left. The second half proved even more nervous, but the scoreline remained unchanged. Deep into added time, AZ defender Moisander was sent off for a second booking.
2010/2011 UEFA Europa League, group stage, Matchday 3
AZ – DYNAMO – 1:2 (1:2)
AZ: 22.Romero, 5.Viergever, 25.Moisander, 4.Moreno, 3.Marcellis, 8.Schaars – cap, 7.Falkenburg (23.van der Velden, 80), 16.Wernbloom, 11.Martens (17.Gudmundsson, 77), 9.Jonathas, 27.Holman (19.Sigþórsson, 68).
Dynamo: 35.Koval, 3.Betão, 5.Vukojević, 7.Shevchenko – cap (2.Danilo Silva, 58), 10.Milevskyy (49.Zozulya, 90), 17.Mykhalyk, 20.Husyev (9.Yarmolenko, 76), 23.Eremenko, 30.El Kaddouri, 34.Khacheridi 44.Almeida.
Goals: Falkenburg (35) – Milevskyy (16), Khacheridi (39).
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