Europa League: Besiktas vs. Dynamo Kyiv
Turkish side, Besiktas, and Dynamo Kyiv will meet again in the Europa League round of 32 and Besiktas coach, Bernd Schuster, will once again see his side come up against the Ukrainians, having already played against them during his tenure at Shakhtar Donetsk.
Previous meetings
The two sides played against each other for the first time 24 years ago in the 1986/87 European Champions Clubs’ Cup quarterfinals in a 2-legged affair.
Dynamo Kyiv had the better of their Turkish opponents that time as they won 5-0 in Turkey in the first leg and then won 2-0 at home to cap-off an amazing 7-0 aggregate win.
However, the last time these two sides met was back in the old UEFA Cup 2002/03 third round. Former coach, Mircea Lucescu, who is now in charge of Shakhtar Donetsk, guided the Istanbul based side to a 3-1 win at home in the first leg and then drew 0-0 in
Kyiv.
The Ukrainians will be looking to extract revenge on the Turkish side that has had a poor domestic season and are way off the top 4 in the Turkish league.
Besiktas have been pretty dominant against Ukrainian sides recently and in the last 6 games, Besiktas have managed to beat Ukrainian sides twice at home so the Turks would be looking to improve on that record.
However, Dynamo Kyiv have been pretty good against Turkish sides in recent years and have won three times in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Turkey-c3026 while losing just one. The only defeat was against Besiktas in the above mentioned 2002 UEFA cup match. Away from home in Europe, Dynamo Kyiv
have been excellent and have won 3 games out of 5 and have lost twice.
Group Stage record
Besiktas finished 2nd behind Group L winners, FC Porto, and collected 13 points and lost just one game (3-1 home defeat to Porto), so they will go into this game with great confidence. Dynamo Kyiv on the other hand, topped their group (Group E)
above surprise package BATE Borisov.
Interesting facts
When Besiktas travel to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ukraine-c3032 for the second leg, they will be playing in Europe for the 150th time while tonight’s game will be Kyiv’s 50th game in the UEFA Cup/ Europa League.
Dynamo striker http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/FC-Porto-c39186 striker Falcao.
The above mentioned striker has been fouled 30 times in Europe this season and his side has been fouled a total of 118 times.
Dynamo Kyiv playmaker, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Arthur-Boka-c6707.
Dynamo defender, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Yevhen-Khacheridi-c37378, needs to improve his tackling after picking up 4 yellow cards in the group stage.
Besiktas summer signing, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Guti-c15452, faced Dynamo Kyiv 7 times during his time at Real Madrid and won three times and lost just once.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Andriy-Shevchenko-c6014 played against Besiktas twice while he was an A.C. Milan player in the 2000/01 edition of the UEFA Champions League and scored two goals in the first leg, which Milan won 4-1 and then he scored again in Istanbul as Milan won 2-0.
Whichever team wins the two legged tie will either face, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Aris-Thessaloniki-FC-c38419, or, Manchester City. The two sides drew the first leg and now the Greek side will travel to Manchester for the 2nd leg.
Prediction
Besiktas have been pretty good in Europe but their domestic season has been crumbling of late so they would be aiming to beat a tough Ukrainian side in order to progress to the round of 16.
On the other hand, the Ukrainians have been a good attacking side this season but their defence can be their downfall, which has been pretty leaky. A draw might be a good result for Kyiv, who will then host Besiktas in the second leg.
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