Eleven years after Valeriy Lobanovskyi had guided Dynamo Kyiv to their first European Cup Winners’ Cup success, with a victory over Ferencvaros, the club repeated the feat with 3-0 annihilation of Luis Aragones’ Athletico Madrid at the Stade de Gerland in Lyon.
In fact, Dynamo were so impressive throughout the 1985-86 campaign that they won every home leg in the competition – plus the Final – by at least three goals.
Dynamo dominated Athletico from the start with Olexandr Zavarov, the scorer of the first goal after just five minutes, dictating the play throughout – until he had to limp off midway through the second half.
Lobanovskyi liked his team to play a hard-pressing style, defending as a unit and adopting a precise passing game when in possession. They could also break on the counterattack, and this was epitomized by a brilliant second goal.
Vasyl Rats advanced down the left before drawing in two opponents and passing inside to Ihor Belanov. He took two touches and, without looking, laid the ball off to his right for the advancing substitute Vadym Yevtushenko as a defender closed him down. The sub flicked the ball right to overlapping Oleh Blokhin, who ran onto the pass and neatly steered the ball over Athletico keeper.
It secured victory, yet there was still time for Yevtushenko to add a third, leaving the despondent Aragones to admit: “We just didn’t have a chance”.
The coach and his team
Valeriy Lobanovskyi
Renowned for his highly scientific yet harsh disciplinarian style of management, he had three spells as coach of Dynamo winning a total of 13 league titles, nine domestic cups and the European Cup Winners’ Cup twice.
He also coached at international level, with three stints in charge of the Soviet Union’s national side, plus spells at the helm with the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Ukraine.
He died in 2002, aged 63.
