Historic debut for SC Dnipro-1

On July 25, the team will take part in Champions League qualifying for the first time. Oleksandr Kucher's side will face Panathinaikos of Greece. It promises to be a tough encounter, but anything can happen in football.

Bitter experience

And how can we forget the team's debut on the international stage last year. Dnipro-1 didn't seem to be able to cope with the emotions of their debut in Eurocups, losing to Cypriot AEK in the Europa League qualifying playoffs. Despite their debut, the result could be described as unexpected. After all, Dnipro-1 were expected to qualify from the island nation. One of the main reasons for their failure was time. Some players joined the team at the end of the off-season training camp. And the coaching staff simply did not have the time to lay the groundwork before the start of the European Cup.

The lack of time turned out to be justified. After all, Oleksandr Kucher's players get into shape over the course of the season and played a decent European Cup campaign. After crashing out of the Europa League, the Dnipro-1 players made it through the group stage of the Conference League. Dnipro-1 finished second in the quartet with AZ Alkmaar, Apollo and Vaduz and reached the playoffs. There, due to the luck of the draw, the football club players again had to play Cypriot AEK and lost again.

Active off-season

How did Dnipro-1 prepare for the new season? During the summer off-season, the football club players played six friendly matches with various teams: three clubs represented the UPL (Minaj, Rukh, Kryvbas), two representatives of the Ukrainian Premier League (Khust, Metalist) and one amateur team (Sevliush). The result is five wins and one draw. However, as the Dnipro-1 head coach Oleksandr Kucher says, that only an official match will show the team's true shape and allow conclusions to be drawn.

Dnipro-1 was one of the most active clubs in the UPL on the transfer market. Players who were consistently at the heart of their teams were invited to the Dnipro camp. Vorskla's Vasyl Kravets and Oleksandria's leaders Denys Miroshnychenko and Maksym Tretyakov were the key off-season acquisitions. Sports club have also completely refreshed their goalkeeping ranks, signing Dynamo's Yevhen Volynets and Roman Mysak, who was playing for Armenian Alashkert. Atletico Mineiro's 18-year-old Brazilian central midfielder Vitinho will also join Dnipro-1 on loan.

Familiar faces

Greek side Panathinaikos have a number of experienced players in their squad. Argentinian Sebastián Palacios and Slovenian Andraž Sporar are two of the most prominent. The Greeks also made significant additions to their squad in the off-season. The most important signing of the summer was Dutch midfielder Tonny Vilhena. Panathinaikos paid €3 million for the player from Catalan side Espanyol. Serbs Filip Đuričić and Filip Mladenović, as well as Greek (born in Portugal) Zeca, were also signed for the Greens. Croatian defender Tin Jedvaj has also joined the club on a one-year loan.

What is interesting is that the Greek team includes players well known to Ukrainian fans – Slovenian Benjamin Verbić, who played for Dynamo Kyiv, and Brazilian Bernard, who defended the colours of Shakhtar Donetsk. The latter even played in the same team as current Dnipro-1 head coach Oleksandr Kucher.

Panathinaikos played seven friendlies in the off-season. The Greeks won five of them. One of the Athenians' rivals was also well known to Dnipro-1 - Cypriot AEK. Panathinaikos won 3-1. Ivan Jovanovic's players also drew with Israeli side Beer Sheva and lost to Spanish side Rayo Vallecano.

The first match between Dnipro-1 and Panathinaikos will take place on July 25 in Kosice, Slovakia. We will review the debut there.