After eliminating FK Žalgiris from the first qualifying round 11-10 on penalties following a 2-2 aggregate score, Hamrun Spartans host Ukrainian giants FC Dynamo Kyiv in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round at the Tony Bezzina Stadium on Tuesday, kick-off at 19:00.
This will definitely be no easy task for Giacomo Modica’s side but if the Spartans manage to show the same determination which enabled them to come back from the two goals down they suffered in the first leg against Žalgiris to win 2-0 last week at the Centenary Stadium to force extra-time and eventually win on penalties, they would definitely give their opponents a hard time.
Dynamo Kyiv, who recently signed Colombian forward Angel Torres, who used to play for Balzan, won a record of 17 Ukrainian Premier League titles, thirteen Ukrainian Cups and nine Ukrainian Super Cups and earlier, thirteen Soviet Top League championships, nine Soviet Cups, three Soviet Super Cups and seven Cups of the Ukrainian SSR. They won the UEFA Cup Winners Cup in 1975 beating Ferencvaros 3-0 and in 1986 beating Atletico Madrid 3-0 and the UEFA Super Cup in 1975 beating Bayern Munich with a 3-0 aggregate score.
Since becoming the first Soviet football club to participate in UEFA competition in 1965, Dynamo Kyiv has played in European competitions almost every season. In fact, they have been participating uninterruptedly in European competitions since 1985.
Last season, they eliminated Partizan Belgrade and Rangers but were then knocked-out by Red Bull Salzburg from the UEFA Champions League. Therefore they moved to the group stage of the UEFA Europa League where they collected a win and a draw in eight matches.
In the Ukrainian Premier League last season, they finished top, three points ahead of Oleksandria and eight ahead of Shakhtar Donetsk. In the Cup, they were losing finalists to Shakhtar Donetsk on penalties.
The second leg will be held on Tuesday 29 at the Arena Lublin in Poland.
The team which qualifies from this tie will be facing the winner of the tie between Pafos FC of Cyprus or Maccabi Tel Aviv of Israel in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League.
The loser of the clash between Pafos FC or Maccabi Tel Aviv also awaits the loser of the clash between Hamrun and Dynamo Kyiv in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.