FC Dynamo Kyiv - Arsenal FC MATCH PRESS KIT Valeri Lobanovskiy, Kiev Wednesday 17 September 2008 - 20.45CET Group G - Matchday 1 Contents 1 - Match background 7 - UEFA information 2 - Match facts 8 - Match-by-match lineups 3 - Squad list 9 - Competition facts 4 - Head coach 10 - Team facts 5 - Match officials 11 - Legend 6 - Domestic information This press kit includes information relating to this UEFA Champions League match. For more detailed factual information, and in-depth competition statistics, please refer to the matchweek press kit, which can be downloaded at: http://www.uefa.com/uefa/mediaservices/presskits/index.html Match background FC Dynamo Kyiv will go into their UEFA Champions League Group G opener against Arsenal FC with something to prove after a hugely disappointing performance in last season's competition. • The Ukrainian side did not pick up a single point in the 2007/08 group stage – the worst record of any of the 32 teams. Their troubled campaign involved two changes of coach, Oleh Luzhny replacing Joszef Szabó who himself had succeeded Anatoliy Demianenko after Matchday 1, and ended with Dynamo rooted to the foot of their section with a goal difference of -15. • Dynamo, who finished second in the Ukrainian Premier League last season, have a new man at the helm in Yuri Semin and will hope for a positive start against an Arsenal side who, for all their pedigree, have lost on all three previous visits to Ukraine. • Semin's team certainly reached this season's group stage in some style, beating Russia's FC Spartak Moskva 8-2 on aggregate in the third qualifying round. • Two goals apiece from Ismaël Bangoura and Artem Milevskiy earned Spartak a 4-1 victory in Moscow and they achieved an identical success in the return, Olexandr Aliyev opening the scoring before Bangoura and Milevskiy (2) found the net once more. • Surprisingly, given the scale of that victory, Dynamo had previously made heavy work of beating Drogheda United FC in the second qualifying round. It took an 86th-minute Aliyev strike to win the first leg 2-1 in Ireland and Dynamo were held 2-2 at home in the return, despite another Aliyev goal and Milevskiy's penalty. • For Arsenal's part, they were comfortable 6-0 aggregate winners against Dutch side FC Twente in the third qualifying round. • Third in the Premier League in 2007/08, Arsène Wenger's side secured a 2-0 first-leg advantage in Arnhem thanks to goals from William Gallas and Emmanuel Adebayor. Arsenal then strolled to a 4-0 win in the return, Samir Nasri, Gallas again, Theo Walcott and Nicklas Bendtner scoring. Last updated 16.09.2008 10:08:27CET www.uefa.com Match background 1 FC Dynamo Kyiv - Arsenal FC Wednesday 17 September 2008 - 20.45 CET MATCH PRESS KIT Valeri Lobanovskiy, Kiev • Arsenal reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League last season. After defeating AC Sparta Praha in the third qualifying round they advanced from the group stage in second place in their section, with a record of W4 D1 L1, and then beat holders AC Milan 2-0 in the first knockout round. However, their run then ended with a 5-3 aggregate defeat against Premier League rivals Liverpool FC. • Dynamo have had the better of past matches against Arsenal. When the teams met in the 1998/99 UEFA Champions League group stage, Dynamo earned a 1-1 draw at Highbury and then won the return 3-1 in Ukraine. • Serhiy Rebrov, Olexandr Golovko and Andriy Shevchenko scored for a Dynamo side who finished group winners en route to reaching the last four, while Stephen Hughes struck a late consolation for the visitors. • The lineups for that match on 4 November 1998 were: Dynamo: Oleksandr Shovkovskyi, Oleh Luzhny, Olexander Golovko, Vladyslav Vashchuk, Yuriy Dmytrulin, Vitalii Kossovskyi, Andriy Shevchenko, Sergiy Rebrov, Andrii Gusin, Vasyl Kardash, Valentin Belkevich (Yuriy Kalitvintsev). Arsenal: David Seaman, Lee Dixon, Nigel Winterburn, Steve Bould (Gilles Grimandi), Martin Keown, Nelson Vivas (Remi Garde), Ray Parlour, Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit, Luís Boa Morte (Stephen Hughes), Christopher Wreh. • Dynamo won the sides' second meeting in Kiev 2-1 in the 2003/04 group stage. Maksim Shatskikh and Valentin Belkevich struck for the home side with Thierry Henry replying late on. However, Arsenal won the return 1-0 through an Ashley Cole goal and ended up topping the group with Dynamo down in fourth place. • The lineups for that match on 21 October 2003 were: Dynamo: Olexandr Shovkovskiy, Georgi Peev, Goran Gavrančić, Serhiy Fedorov, Andriy Nesmachniy, Oleh Gusev (Diogo Rincón), Yuriy Dmytrulin (Goran Sabljić), Jerko Leko, Tiberiu Ghioane (Aleksandr Khatskevich), Valentin Belkevich, Maksim Shatskikh. Arsenal: Jens Lehmann, Lauren, Kolo Touré, Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole, Ray Parlour (Fredrik Ljungberg), Edu (Patrick Vieira), Gilberto (Nwankwo Kanu), Robert Pirès, Sylvain Wiltord, Thierry Henry. • Arsenal's other previous trip to Ukraine ended in a 3-0 defeat at FC Shakhtar Donetsk in the 2000/01 group stage. • Dynamo's overall home record against English teams is P8 W3 D3 L2. Their most recent visitors from England were Manchester United FC, who prevailed 4-2 in Kiev last October. • Arsenal got the better of an FC Lokomotiv Moskva side coached by Semin in the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League group stage. After a goalless draw in Russia, the London team won 2-0 at home in their final game to secure first place in the section – and eliminate their opponents. • As coach of AS Monaco FC, Wenger oversaw a 1-0 aggregate defeat of Ukraine's FC Chornomorets Odesa in the 1990/91 UEFA Cup second round. • FC Porto will face Fenerbahçe SK in the other Group G game taking place on Matchday 1. Match facts Dynamo UEFA milestones • None UEFA Champions League statistics • Eleven Dynamo players appeared in all four qualifying games: Betão, Pape Diakhate, Tiberiu Ghioane, Ognjen Vukojević, Taras Mikhalik, Badr El Kaddouri, Miloš Ninković, Olexandr Aliyev, Ismaël Bangoura, Artem Kravets and Artem Milevskiy. Disciplinary information • El Kaddouri serves a one-game suspension on Matchday 1. Last updated 16.09.2008 10:08:27CET www.uefa.com Match facts 2 FC Dynamo Kyiv - Arsenal FC Wednesday 17 September 2008 - 20.45 CET MATCH PRESS KIT Valeri Lobanovskiy, Kiev Latest domestic information • Saturday 13 September: FC Olkom Melitopil 0-5 FC Dynamo Kyiv (Yarmolenko 6 70, Asatiani 13, Kravets 45, Shudryk og 62) Dynamo reached the last 16 of the Ukrainian Cup with an emphatic victory at second division Olkom, 18-year-old striker Andriy Yarmolenko scoring in each half with debutant Malkhaz Asatiani also getting an early goal having joined Dynamo on loan from FC Lokomotiv Moskva. Kravets struck on the stroke of half-time and Dynamo's other goal came from the home side's Denys Shudryk from an Andriy Nesmachniy cross. • With head coach Yuri Semin in England to watch Arsenal's Premier League game at Blackburn Rovers FC, Dynamo were coached by his assistant Oleh Luzhny. "We gave a chance to the players who are not used often or at all in the Dynamo first team or their national teams," Luzhny said. "They met this challenge and received an additional boost to their confidence. The first-team players are concentrating on the opening fixture of UEFA Champions League." • Dynamo rested the majority of their first team at Olkom, with goalkeeper Olexandr Shovkovskiy and defensive pair Asatiani and Nesmachniy the representatives from the senior squad. • The Kiev club have reached the cup final in each of the last four seasons, lifting the trophy in 2005, 2006 and 2007 but losing to FC Shakhtar Donetsk in the 2007/08 showpiece. • Dynamo had started the season with a defeat by FC Shakhtar Donetsk in the Ukrainian Super Cup on 15 July, going down 5-3 in a penalty shoot-out after a 1-1 draw. • Before the international break, the Kiev club had collected 16 points from their first seven Premier League matches, suffering only one reverse when they lost 2-1 at home to FC Metalist Kharkiv on 2 August. • Milevskiy and Bangoura scored 17 of Dynamo's 26 goals from their opening 12 games of the season in all competitions. Milevskiy is the top scorer with ten goals, including a double in each leg of the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round tie against FC Spartak Moskva. • Milevskiy was voted the Ukrainian Premier League's best player for July and August following a poll of top-flight players and coaches. • By defeating FC Arsenal Kyiv on 23 August, Dynamo set a Ukrainian league record of going 48 matches unbeaten on their travels. They last lost on the road in June 2005, succumbing 3-2 at Shakhtar on the final day of the season. • Aliyev, Bangoura, Betão, El Kaddouri, Milevskiy, Mikhalik, Vukojević and Ninković have played all seven of Dynamo's league games in 2008/09. • Dynamo are yet to concede a league goal in the first 30 minutes of their 20 matches this season; they have also been breached just once in the first half-hour after the restart. Injury news • Oleh Gusev – out since 15 April (knee) • Carlos Corrêa – out since May (fractured left fibula) • Artem Milevskiy – out 6-12 September (ankle) • Corrêa and Milevskiy are both back in training after their respective injuries, although Gusev remains a long-term absentee. Summer transfers •In Betão (Santos FC) Stanislav Bogush (FC Metalurh Zaporizhya) Malkhaz Asatiani (FC Lokomotiv Moskva, loan) Ognjen Vukojević (NK Dinamo Zagreb) Roman Eremenko (Udinese Calcio, loan) Florin Cernat (HNK Hajduk Split) Goran Sabljić (HNK Hajduk Split) Emmanuel Okoduwa (KFC Germinal Beerschot Antwerpen) Last updated 16.09.2008 10:08:27CET www.uefa.com Match facts 3 FC Dynamo Kyiv - Arsenal FC Wednesday 17 September 2008 - 20.45 CET MATCH PRESS KIT Valeri Lobanovskiy, Kiev •Out Kléber (SE Palmeiras) Rodrigo (São Paulo FC) Diogo Rincón (SC Corinthians Paulista) Michael (Santos FC) Vitaliy Mandzyuk (FC Arsenal Kyiv) Goran Gavrančić (PAOK FC) Marjan Marković (FK Crvena Zvezda) Vladyslav Vaschuk (FC Lviv) Denys Oliynyk (FC Arsenal Kyiv) Vitaliy Fedoriv (FC Amkar Perm) • Dynamo also announced a deal for Serhiy Kravchenko who will join from FC Vorskla Poltava in January.