Dynamo Kyiv — Noah, photo FC Dynamo Kyiv December 19, 2025, 00:00

Kyiv Dynamo squandered its chance to play next spring in the UEFA Conference League playoffs a week ago, when it first lost to Italian Fiorentina (1:2), and then the rest of the competitors made it so that the current champion of Ukraine had absolutely no opportunity to be in a place that would be higher than 25 in the tournament table. Thus, the match against the Armenian club Noa in Lublin became the final match for Ihor Kostyuk’s team in the European Cup adventure of this season under any circumstances.

By the way, the newly minted helmsman of the “white and blue” is now already working in his position without any unnecessary prefixes like “acting”, so we can really talk about Kostyuk’s team. And on the football field, this is a completely different Dynamo than the one that Oleksandra Shovkovskyi worked on in recent years. More upright, more battle-hardened and ultimately more productive. And the mood of the team has also improved significantly – what can we do without that.

Although at the start of the confrontation with Ferreira’s goal-scoring moment, which ended with Nescheret’s save in the seventh minute, as well as the forced substitution due to Tymchyk’s injury a moment after that, Dynamo could well have returned to the same problems as before. The opponents focused on the opening minutes of the meeting, but in the end they could not achieve what they wanted, so over time they were forced to curtail their attack and begin to fight back against the attacks of Kyiv.

At the same time, Kostyuk’s team was very straightforward, and now most of their attacks are built with an emphasis on the fact that Ponomarenko should squeeze the defender who is trying to restrain him. Due to his size, the forward manages to do this all too often, so Dynamo gets his moments in any case. And if not, then you can always go back to the option with a wide attack, as in the 27th minute, when Voloshyn’s cross from the right wing of the free kick ended with Kabaev’s shot into an empty net.

Noah’s attempt to play back immediately led to Mulahuseynovych’s dangerous shot from close range past the right-hand post on 32 minutes, but that was all there was to the creativity from the Armenian team in attack. Then the banal calculation went to work, and with eight points in the asset, the guests had only minor chances to fly past the playoffs. But pulling yourself out of a possible defeat was not a very attractive thing, because the efforts before the rest risked not justifying themselves.

So when Noah got another ball into his own net at the beginning of the second half, he just stopped. And this time, Ponomarenko was also in the focus of the TV cameras, because Dynamo played not just a vertical attack, but almost a candle to the left flank of the penalty area, which ended with Dubinchak dumping on the overall forward, and therefore in the riding duel, the defender, who also wanted to get something from this situation, seemed indifferent. And when Dynamo scored a second time, neither Sandro Perkovich’s team nor Kostyuk’s wards had any questions.

As a result, Dynamo Kyiv finished in 27th place in the UEFA Conference League with six points, while Armenian Noa scored eight points and made it to the preliminary round of the playoffs from 19th place.

Noah: Chancharevych — Sentini, Silva (Muradyan, 66), Sualeje — Boachi (Avanesyan, 88), Ferreira, Osima, Tourarinsson (Eteki, 80) — Jakolish (Grgich, 66), Ayas (Manvelyan, 88) — Mulahuseynovych.

Warning: Kabaev, Mihavko, Ponomarenko — Yakolish, Muradyan