For my money, it’s the most beautiful ground in the world.
War has renewed the Lobanovski stadium’s former glory.
Dinamo play here, not the Olimpiski, as do Zorya Luhansk, despite leaving Luhansk ten years back.
Continue reading Where the trees sing – Dinamo Kyiv 1 Shakhtar Donetsk 1
Ukraine soldiers on, and so does its premier league.
Football is played in the face of evil. In a sense, its very existence is poetic. And symbolic.
Never a dull moment here. Woken at 3am by a Shahed flying over Kyiv, it was panic stations.
Almost as scary was the five-hour bus to Oleksandriya driven on bad roads by a guy seemingly on steroids whose phone was stuck to his ear most of the way (top tip: NEVER get the bus to Oleksandriya).
Continue reading UPL plays on – FK Oleksandriya 1 Vorskla Poltava 0
Perhaps the most anticipated game in the country’s history, what a shame many Ukraine fans weren’t able to attend. Some, of course, are no longer with us.
Half an hour before kick off a friend in Poltava messaged: “We’ve just got a bomb near my mum. They’re OK but very scared. Have a nice time.”
Which pretty much put everything in perspective. In the two hours or so of this match, it’s likely a few Ukrainians died on the front line fighting Putin.
This game was for them.
Continue reading Ukraine mullered in Munich – Romania 3 Ukraine 0
Les Bleus were bleu-dy awful and this must rank as Ukraine’s greatest day in football – the moment the champion chokers beat a world power convincingly.
Miles from Nowhere 