Dynamo Kyiv — University of Cluj: before the match

So, less than a day remains until the start of the Ukrainian teams in the 2026/27 European Cup season. Our first club in the Euroseason will be Dynamo Kyiv, and its opponent will be the Romanian University from the city of Cluj-Napoca. We spoke in detail about the first opponent of Kyiv immediately after the draw, and now we will talk about what happened at the University during this period. If the Kyiv team played matches with more or less serious opponents from five different countries, including the Romanian Rapid (1:3), the University, which also trained in Austria, was limited to four matches. At the end of June, the team lost 1:2 to the youth national team of Croatia under 19 years of age in Slovenia, played 0:0 with Ujpest from Budapest, but at the beginning of July they suffered two big defeats with a score of 0:3 – against Serbian Vojvodina and another Hungarian team, the second year of the elite league Nyiregyhaza, which fought for relegation last season. The results, to put it mildly, are not very good - no victories, two big defeats and one scored goal! Nevertheless, we know very well, and there are many examples of this, that the results of pre-season test matches are by no means the key factor in assessing the strength of a team. There are many cases when the team failed at the start of the official season after great matches at the meeting, as well as vice versa. The starting line-up in the last match with Niredhaza is not very similar to the main one and looked like this: Lefter - M. Silva, Kristja, Kodrya, Techeres - Stanoev, Simion, Dramme, Adams - Chukwu, Trike During this time, two players left the team who were close to being in the starting line-up. Antonio Suchiu and Oleksandra Botha went on loan to the teams of the second echelon of Romanian football. Stefan Opris left, who became a player of Dynamo Bucharest, but also spent the last season on loan at Polytechnic from Iasi in the second echelon of Romanian football. But there were no full-fledged newcomers during this time. A number of footballers have returned from loan spells after playing in the lower leagues of Romanian football. Rumors that the right winger Isuf Makalu, who, let's recall, gave 14 assists in the last championship, becoming the best in this indicator in the championship of Romania, will go to Steaua, have not come to life yet. Bosnian center forward Jovo Lukic, who participated and even scored in the current World Cup, is also in the squad, although, as you understand, he did not spend pre-season with the club. He will not play with "Dynamo" either. After the FIFA World Cup, the players are entitled to a three-week holiday and Jovo, who qualified for the play-offs with Bosnia and Herzegovina, will miss both matches against Dynamo, as well as the Romanian Super Cup match, in which the Red Caps will play national champions Craiova. The match will take place next Sunday. In Romania, they write that Lukic will be in line for the first match of the championship, on July 19. However, even without playing, Jovo brings good money to the club. Again, according to FIFA regulations, a team player's day in the national team (preparation for the World Cup is also taken into account) is worth 11,000 dollars. Taking into account that Lukich spent 41 days in the national team, the FIFA deductions amounted to 451,000! However, a part of them will be received by the University of Craiova, as the deductions go to the teams for which the footballer played in the last two seasons. There was talk in Romania that the University was thinking about signing the Kyiv Romanian Blenuce, but everything stopped there. Recently, it has been speculated that another center forward of the students, Atanas Trike, will go to Dinamo Bucharest. But, firstly, we have to see if he will leave, and secondly... Last season he was not the main player (18 matches, 0+1), but it is quite possible that in the absence of Lukich, he will play against DK. But another attacking player, Omar El-Sawi, did return from loan to Rapid. The parties have not yet agreed on a full-fledged transition. During the meeting, the head coach of the University, Cristiano Bergodi, gave an interview in which he said that he is very satisfied with the transfers, but he is confused by the very intense start of the season, because in the first 25 days the team will have to play 8 official matches, that is, the team will play every third day. And if Dynamo is more or less used to such a schedule, as it regularly plays in Europe, the Romanian team is not. In his opinion, Dynamo is a good team with very young players and a high-quality attack. The university will have to play very well and try very hard to get through: "I have watched this team and they are very good, although they did not perform brilliantly in the championship. They finished 4th and won the Cup." UEFA also did not sit idly by and named referees