Dynamo Kyiv Prepares for Conference League Clash Against Zrinjski

Oleksandr Shovkovskyi, head coach of Dynamo FC.

Dynamo Kyiv are preparing for the Conference League 2025/26 third-round match against Zrinjski from Bosnia and Herzegovina. At a pre-match press conference, the Kyiv head coach Oleksandr Shovkovskyi spoke about the squad’s situation, the opponent’s unpredictability, and the key aspects of Dynamo’s play. After a defeat to Shakhtar (1:3) in the league, the team is getting ready for Europe, where at the start of the group stage they suffered defeats to English Crystal Palace (0:2) and Turkish Samsunspor (0:3).

In the third round, the Kyiv side will meet the Bosnian-Herzegovinian champions – Zrinjski, who in their group-stage opener hammered Gibraltar’s Lincoln (5:0), before losing to German Mainz (0:1).

Ahead of the match with Zrinjski, the White and Blues approach with squad losses. After the pre-match press conference, Shovkovskyi said that midfielder Volodymyr Brazhko and defender Kristian Bilovar will not be able to help the team in the match.

We have only one loss – Volodymyr Brazhko. Unfortunately, he won’t be able to help us at least in this encounter. He remained in Ukraine, traveled to Kyiv to recover, to undergo the necessary procedures to prepare for the next game. This loss adds to the absence of Kristian Bilovar, who continues to recover

Physical and Psychological State of the Team

The head coach noted that under a tight schedule the team is working in a focused mode, and there is little time for full preparation. He emphasized that recovery and adaptation to the upcoming match are now the priority.

The team is currently in working mode. With such a tight schedule, talking about whether the team is in crisis or on the rise would be inappropriate and wrong. We can’t even carry out full preparation. We have time for recovery and preparation directly for the match, playing on a schedule of two on the third, three on the fourth

Key Focuses for the Upcoming Encounter

The coach highlighted the importance of quality play in the first half, which had previously appeared in clashes with Shakhtar, and the effectiveness of set pieces. According to Shovkovskyi, the team aims to develop smart aggression and work on the stability of actions on set pieces to capitalize on any advantage on the field.

We always try to talk about this, always emphasize it, focus on intelligent aggression. But it really happens that only after some events on the field does the team wake up. We notice, repeat, emphasize, take targeted actions on this, but, to be honest, it’s sometimes unclear why it happens. Indeed, this is already a real problem. We can’t turn a blind eye to this… Set-pieces are one of the key situations on the football field that can be an additional advantage. We are also working on this

The final focus before the clash was the lack of full preparation due to the match schedule, underscoring the importance of quality recovery and tactical readiness for the match against Zrinjski.

Dynamo will play the Conference League third-round match against Zrinjski on Thursday, November 6, at 22:00 Kyiv time.