Nesmachniy refuses to let Dynamo dream die
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Article summary
Despite suffering a painful 2-1 home defeat by FC Porto and slipping to third spot in Group G, FC Dynamo Kyiv captain Andriy Nesmachniy promised his team would "forget bad things quickly and move forward".
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Frantic finish
Dynamo went in front through Artem Milevskiy on 21 minutes and seemed to be in control until Rolando headed in a Raul Meireles cross from a free-kick on the right with 69 minutes gone. After a frantic finale with chances for both sides, Lucho finished off a quick counterattack two minutes into added time to lift Porto to second place on six points. It was a painful way to end the game, but Dynamo skipper Nesmachniy remains upbeat. 'Yes, it is disappointing to lose like that but what can we do about it?" asked the left-back. "Our life does not end here. If we hang our heads and think 'oh God, we lost', we will not get anywhere. You have to forget bad things quickly and move forward. We just have to learn from our mistakes."
Costly mistakes
It was Dynamo's first defeat in this year's UEFA Champions League group stage and the Ukrainian Premier League leaders conceded twice as many goals as in their three previous matches, while Porto ended a run of three defeats in all competition to reignite their qualification aspirations. 'We lacked concentration late in the game," added Nesmachniy. "They had the ball but we were leading and everything was OK. But then we started to make mistakes. A good team does not let you do that and Porto are a good team. After [Ognjen] Vukojević hit the post, they attacked on the counter and got that ridiculous goal. There were three defenders against [Lisandro] and we didn't stop him making his pass."
Anything possible
Dynamo have a real task on their hands if they hope to progress from the group as they travel to Arsenal FC next before hosting Fenerbahçe SK. Yuri Semin's men trail Porto by one point with Arsenal another two ahead, but anything could still happen. "Porto also have difficult matches to play so everything will be decided over the two last games," said Nesmachniy. "We have to win and collect points before looking at how Arsenal and Fenerbahçe played. This defeat will not shake us. There are no wins without defeats. There are still two games to go so everything is still in our own hands."