Missing Trip #8 - Part 3 - Ukraine March 2019 Metalist 1925 1 Dnipro-1 1

 The title of this post with all the numbers in it is enough to make your head ache, but it was a match between the new incarnation of Metalist Kharkiv and one of the incarnations of Dnipro, so it was billed as a new derby between two of the ex-heavyweights of Ukrainian football. 

On the day Dnipro prevailed and in the end gained promotion whereas Metalist are still plying their trade in the first league. Metalist 1925 were founded by ex-fans whereas Dnipro-1 have some really dodgy foundations and aren't that popular now they are in the Premier League. Many Dnipro fans of the old team don't see them as the rightful heirs. How things will pan out for Metalist though is anybody's guess, as there is a new team Metal who are storming the 2nd league with some inspired signings. Yaroslavkiy, the old owner of the old Metalist is also making sounds that the old Metalist name will be resurrected, although many still believe that he is the man behind Metal too. What is clear is that Kharkiv ultimately only has space for one Metalist and hopefully everybody will get behind a single banner in the not too distant future.

Anyway, back to that trip in March 2019. I set off from Kyiv early on the Saturday morning and met Tolya in Kharkiv, we went and got some Metalist 1925 beer and then went to his friend Lyudmilla's house who was putting me up for the night.

Ahead of the match there was a fan procession from the main square (which is the biggest square in Europe for all you trivia fans) to the stadium with fireworks and smoke bombs being set off, but with no animosity and with the police support.

At the stadium I was invited to watch the match from the press box. 

The match itself was Ok and not without controversy, a lot of people thought one of the Dnipro penalty wasn't a penalty, but I am not sure even after seeing it 100 times. Before the match, which was the first after the winter break, Metalist were the favourites to win. They looked like a good bet to win too when Aleksandr Zhdanov put them ahead after only 10 minutes. However, Stanislav Kulish equalised after 28 minutes with the aforementioned penalty and one minute after Metalist were down to 10 men when Dmytro Hrankin was given his marching orders. After this it was always going to be difficult for Metalist and ultimately they came up short against Dnipro - when Orest Kuzyk scored just after the break they were able to shut up shop and hold on for the win against Metalist's 10 men. This was perhaps a defining moment as Dnipro used this to spearhead their promotion whereas Metalist fell short as they did the season after and look likely to this (although hopefully the winter break will given them a chance to find their scoring boots).

After the match we went to the Press Conference and I was also interviewed for TV, but I don't think that it ever aired. 












































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