Arsenal Kyiv - Back in Respublikanskiy




After groundsharing for a while with Dynamo, Arsenal are now back at Respublikansky, and although I missed the first game with Zorya (which ended in a 1-1 draw) because it was on a Friday evening they didn't disappoint this time.


6 years ago when Arsenal were playing at Respublikanskiy I met some of the people who have become my best friends in Ukraine, so it was good to catch up with Bo and Ewig from the old days when we used to have a few beers and sing all game. The 'Ultras' are a younger bunch now and fancy themselves as hooligans, which is a bit lamentable. It appears that Ewig and Bo still control a lot of other things, including the printing of a fanzine ( which I haven't seen yet) and tickets for the sector that celebrate 5 years of the Arsenal Ultras.


I was accompanied by the family for the game and thankfully it was a cracker, and the atmosphere was better than Dynamo, so at least the kids are more likely to follow Arsenal than Dynamo.


Vorskla opened the scoring with a goal from Chichikov on 19 minutes, which had us wondering if they were as bad as we had thought they were. They certainly didn't appear to be. Demetradze equalised on 25, in an unusual starting appearance - he usually comes of the bench to little effect. However, Tsuppi converted a penalty 10 minutes later to put Vorskla 2-1 up at half time.


Arsenal started the second half brightly, with Jose getting stuck in as usual, but it wasn't until Bito came on that things started to really take shape. Seleznov finally got an equaliser after 77 minutes, before converting a penalty in the last minute. It was the third penalty appeal and gave Arsenal a derved victory, especially as Vorskla had spent long periods of the game time wasting when they were 2-1 up.


Most of the crowd went home happy, and I was happy to be following Arsenal once more in the Respublikansky Stadium.
Notes on pictures from top to bottom:
1. Action on the pitch shortly after kick off, after attracting 40,000 to the first game at Resrublikansky ( free beer was involved) attendance fell to the usual 5,ooo mark.
2. The self styled ultras. I found it quite funny that they still sang songs in English that I had introduced all those years ago.
3. They think it's all over....... but the ref adds 4 minutes on due to Vorskla's time wasting earlier in the game.

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