Club Brugge vs Dynamo Kyiv
KO: (UK time)
A 1-1 draw in the reversal of this fixture leaves the tie in a more interesting state as Club Brugge have an away goal to sit on, meaning that the Ukrainian heavyweights need to come out and play more here. That’s what Lucescu’s teams prefer to do anyway but I don’t feel that same sense of comfort and trust in this team as I did with his Shakhtar Donetsk side, and that’s because he’s simply not been there as long.
Dynamo Kyiv are putting into place some very important and impressive building blocks after years of malaise, on and off the pitch. They’ve always had a very strong academy so the kids they’ve got coming through are very helpful in addition to their more experienced players. He may not be popular in this part of Ukraine, Lucescu, but he sure does know what he’s doing. However, he’s not yet had enough time to make this team brilliant, and that makes Dynamo Kyiv susceptible against the right opponents.
What I still find with the Ukrainians is that they’re too easy to break down (for teams that are capable of doing the unpredictable more often than not), and they’re not all that comfortable with sending enough men forward. Both will improve in due course, but let’s just say that being forced into playing in such a way against an experienced, fast, and determined Club Brugge side is likely to have some bad repercussions. Their hosts may be missing defenders for this encounter, but it’s Dynamo Kyiv that are going to struggle here. They’re going to need to play on the front foot, and for their attackers to do enough at their end to send them through. That might happen, but I wouldn’t put money on it because pushing forward against this team generally leads to problems, and Club Brugge are very good at countering such teams.
If Club Brugge had more defenders fit, I would probably back them to win tonight. The Belgian champions have a habit of giving chances away as a byproduct of their naturally attacking style of play. Sometimes they concede those chances, and sometimes they don’t; it doesn’t tend to affect Club Brugge themselves as they know they’ve got the attacking power to outscore opposing teams anyway. In Europe it’s different though, which is why they tend to struggle. Ironically, I tend to find that they perform better in Europe than they do domestically but also record less favourable results, usually leaving games wondering how they’ve not scored four but acknowledging that they’ve deserved to concede four too. The two UEFA Champions League group stage games against Bv09 Borussia Dortmund were pristine examples of such with the Belgians doing more than enough to win both – but the scoreboard showed a heavy defeat in each encounter!
That’s the problem with Club Brugge at this level. I really can’t think of a time they’ve actually been outplayed in a European game over the past couple of years – but I can think of plenty of occasions where they’ve been on the receiving end of one-sided scorelines through a lack of consistency at both ends. That’s what makes it so hard to know whether to back them or not. However, the one thing you’re guaranteed with this team is entertainment, and that tends to walk hand-in-hand with goals. They’re not going to sit on their away goal tonight, Club Brugge, because it’s not their way, and because they’re not good enough to do it. No, they’re going to try and win on the night to make things absolutely certain, and that should make the match an interesting and eventful one.
I’m not going to pick a winner here for reasons already mentioned. Backing both teams to score at 19/20 is very appealing though.
Verdict: Both teams to score at 19/20.