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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Zalgiris, Vilnius, 0 — Dynamo, Kyiv, 1

30 July, 1999 - 00:00

Dynamo Kyiv has speedily overcome the first leg of the Champions League qualification tournament. In principle, no one doubted this, perhaps even in Lithuania itself. However, there are victories and there are victories...

Last Wednesday in Vilnius, Valery Lobanovsky's pupils won a purely pragmatic victory. The team applied a minimal effort, and after the only goal scored by Serhiy Rebrov, it was, so to speak, walking over the field. Victors are not subject to judgment? Yes, Dynamo has won a victory and qualified for the next leg. But the question is whether the players themselves, team coaches and executives, derived full pleasure from this game and victory, let alone the fans for whom big-time sports exists after all. Kyivans are passing the season that began a month ago rather sluggishly and blandly. Team coaches used to assure at post-match press conferences that the crisis would soon be over. The first European Cup leg is over. Unfortunately, both in the first and second matches against the Lithuanian champion, our team failed to show its true strength. Do we really love our Dynamo for “strained” victories?




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