Hello all!
Couldn’t post much in the last week as was away, so , this will be a long post! As the title suggests we ended up winning two trophies but lets see how the events unfolded in the March, April and May.
March
The RPD returned to action in March after a 3 match absence and the first side we were gonna face was against Krasnodar at Home.
As Alexandr Samedov was injured, i handed a rare start to loanee Bebe, as he was impressing in the reserves, and he repaid that with an early goal in the 3rd minute. Smolov added one just after the break and ‘that guy Niakhaichyk bagged a brace.
MOTM – Niakhaichyk.
Next up were CSKA Moscow.
The Derby clash should have ended in a Dinamo victory when wonderkid Adryan scored and gave us the lead. Some rare clumsy defending resulted in our Goal Keeper scoring an Own Goal and handing CSKA a point. It didn’t have any effect on our League position though.
MotM- Adryan
Olympiakos was up next in the 2nd Knockout Stage of the Europa League.
The match didn’t start as planned and Shytau was sent off in the 38th minute. David Fuster scored for the Home side with the resulting penalty and we were on the verge of getting knocked out in the very first leg. However the side held their nerve and fought back to score two goals through Niakhaichyk and give us an away victory. We took a goal deficit to Moscow for the second leg knowing an Away goal then would send us out.
Motm- Niakhaichyk
The next match was against our other Moscow rivals Lokomotiv.
Lokomotiv were struggling throughout the season and we piled the misery on them by winning the Derby at the Arena Khimki. Sapeta and Samedov scoring two late but vital goals to keep our form going.
MotM – Ilhar Shytau. After getting Sent Off (and warned) in the previous match, he came back nicely by being a rock in the defense.
Olympiakos came to Moscow next for their return Leg of the Europa League.
Don’t look at the scoreline! Olympiakos gave us plenty of reasons to be happy in the 20th minute itself when they got two of their players sent off. Adryan scored for us and the players became too careless. Olympiakos scored 10 minutes later and David Fuster, who also scored against us in the last match scored at the stroke of half-time, The aggregate scores were level and Olympiakos were taking the game to Extra Time. All this with just 9 men! Dinamo deserved the hairdryer in the dressing room. The players finally responded in Extra Time! Nastasic towering above the Olmpiakos defense to score a header and substitute Kokorin bagging another to seal the win. I wasn’t happy at the overall performance. You don’t play 120 minutes against a team with 9 men!
The Draw of the Quarter Finals pitted up against Ukranian side Metallist with the winner going on to face either Chelsea or Bordeaux in the Semi-Finals. The thought of facing Chelsea in the Semis was enough motivation for us to do well against Metallist.
The team played well after in the last game of March with clinical performance against Rostov. Nastasic opened the scoring by heading from a corner and the ‘Belarusian Ronaldo’, Niakhaichyk added another two goals to his impressive tally. Rostov scored a late consolation goal. Another good aspect from this match was the use of Possession. Veteran midfielder Igor Semshov completed 100 successful passes out of the 108 he attempted. This was a good way to end the month of March and continue our unbeaten run.
MOTM – Niakhaichyk
April matches
The first match of April saw us host the ‘Oil-rich’ Anzhi at the Arena Khimki. Fedor Smolov scored the opener for us but Eto’o and Boussoufa scored for Anzhi in the second half but leandro Fernandez managed to get the goal that saved us from defeat.
MotM – Boussoufa
The mighty Zenit were next up against us and we took advantage of their poor form and got a comfortable 2-0 result. The ‘Belarusian Ronaldo’, Niakhaichyk scored again to keep his own goal scoring streak going and Gatagov also getting a goal of his own.
MOTM – Mario Suarez
Metalist Vs Dinamo: Europa League Qtr Final 1st leg.
Fedor Smolov gave us the lead in the very first minute to give us a fantastic start at Kharkiv. Dinamo players however couldn’t score other goal and conceded a goal in the 91st minute. A goal at either end of the match left the tie evenly poised for the second leg. Despite the fact that they conceded a late away goal, I was pleased with the performance.
MotM – Niakhaickyk, again.
The next match was against Amkar Perm and it ended in a comfortable 2-0 victory. Niakhaichyk and Smolv getting the goals.
MOTM- Adryan
The next match was against KamAz who like Amkar and Rostov were battling in the Relegation Zone. It ended in an easy 3-0 victory with the returning Samedov scoring and Smolov bagging a brace. The win strengthened our position at the Top of the Table and left us needing to win just one game of the remaining four to take the Title. The next RPD fixture was against our rivals and our closest competitors for the Title, Spartak Moscow.
MOTM – Smolov
The League Title was on my mind but, something more required a priority. The next two matches were against Krasnodar and Metalist and winning them was neccessary if we had to progress through to the Semi Finals of the Russian Cup and the Europa League respectively.
The Russian Cup Qtr Finals were won easily with Voronin, Kolodin and Fernandez scoring and cancelling out Krasnodar’s early goal against us. It was an easy win.
MOTM – Niakhaichyk
Europa League Qtr Final 2nd Leg: Niakhaichyk’s early goal was enough for us to pick a 1-0 win and a 2-1 aggregate win. We were through to the Europa League Semi Finals! Elsewhere Rangers knocked off Juventus, Bordeaux defeated Chelsea and Marseille beat Ajax! This meant Bordeaux were our next opponents as mentioned earlier in the post. A negative for tus was that Semshov picked up an injury and he was gonna miss the Semis.
MoTM – Niakhaichyk
The last April fixture was against Spartak Moscow. Even though there were 3 league games after this fixture, I wanted to win this match at any cost. Victory would have handed us the Title and also the bragging rights. Spartak were closest to us in the Title chase with the other teams far behind and had we lost this match then it would’ve been very difficult to win the Title in May as we were gonna play 3 games in 4 days in May!
The match was won thanks to a Pavel Niakahichyk goal at Half-time. Spartak didn’t cause any trouble and even Dinamo players did nothing clumsy to let in a goal. The Title was won with 3 League games to go! The only sad thing was that Samedov was injured and would miss the Semis of the Europa League.
MOTM – Shytau
League Title won in APRIL itself
The inbox mail says it all! We won the trophy thanks to Pavel Niakhaichyk’s talismanic efforts in the second half of the season though everybody played their part.
The League win pleased the Board, the fans and Club Legends as well!
WE also carried our unbeaten run to 30 games ( earning a Steam achievement 
)
MAY- 3 games in 4 days
The above fixture list shows us playing actually 6 games in 2 weeks! The fixture list was cruel to say the least. We were supposed to play Kuban Away in just 24 hrs after a long and tedious trip to Bordeaux for the first leg of the Europa league Semi-finals.
We even had injury troubles at the wrong time.
Important players like Semshov and Samedov were going to miss through injury. Niakhaichyk was suspended for the Semi Final 1st leg. It was going to be an uphill task against Bordeaux, a team which defeated Chelsea.
We were playing fairly well till the 84th minute, keeping a clean sheet even though our depleted side failed to make any inroads into their defense, when disaster struck. Mario Suarez, a guy whose efforts got us this far in the tournament, conceded a foolish penalty which Bordeaux scored and we went back to Moscow with a mountain to climb.
After the rigorous journy against Bordeaux we had to place Kuban on the very next day. The long trip and the injuries took a heavy toll on our side as most of the regular starters had fitness levels of just about 60-70%. I fielded an entirely different playing XI full of Youngsters and Reserves and they were hammered. I didn’t start Niakhaichyk in this match with the hope of keeping him fresh for the return leg against Bordeaux. The youngsters didn’t get going at all at an away ground and were mauled by a mid-table side! Many of them made their full debuts in this forgettable match. This hammering ended our Unbeaten StreaK! This was our ONLY Defeat in the league so far. Howeever, as we had already won the Title, this match was useless.
The next RPD game was away against another similar team, Tom. This time I fielded a balanced XI with some regulars playing alongside the youngsters. Tom were 2-0 at Half-Time and we were likely to see a similar thrashing. I didn’t want that would’ve shattered the spirits against the crucial encounter against Bordeaux. Niakhaichyk was thrown onto the field and he got a goal. Youngster Solojov got the leveller in the 92nd minute to complete the fightback. Better late than never. I was happy with the comeback.
The Crucial Return Leg of the Europa League Semi Finals was next. The match started with Bordeaux sitting back and enjoying the 1-0 lead they had. We were trying hard to break the deadlock and it came through a Sapeta goal in the 85th minute. It was perhaps too late to snatch another goal and the game went into Extra Time. As the shadow of the Penalty Shoot-out was looming over, Nicholas Anelka, yes Anelka, scored a goal followed by a killer goal from Diabate. Bordeaux claimed a 3-1 aggregate win and our dreams of making the Finals were broken. This was actually a very good performance by us in the Europa League overall as we were expected to just make the 1st Knock-Out Round.
The Final RPD game of the season. I rested all the Senior players and played the youngsters and Reserves who played against Kuban. This time they did better by drawing the match.
The Russian Cup Semi-Finals against the team who destroyed our youngsters, Kuban. We were seeking revenge, not really revenge but a victory, against them. Leandro Fernadez and Mario Suarz scored our goalsand we won with a slender margin but qualified to the finals nevertheless.
Russian Cup Finals
The Cup Finals pitted us against our rivals Spartak. We had already won the League by beating them and We killed off their Cup bid with this win! They were hungry for revenge and took the fight till the death. Voronin, playing in his possibly last game for Dinamo – more on that in the next post, gave us the lead in the 15th minute. Jano pulled one back for Spartak in the 20th minute, Mario Suarez scored in the 34th minute and Niakhaichyk finished off the game in the very next minute to send us cruising at half time. Rafael Carioca pulled one back in the 80th minute to start a fightback for Spartak but the Dinamo defense thwarted any attacking moves to claim a priceless Cup Victory for us against our rivals!
The Celebration was just beginning and the plaudits kept on coming.
We won the Russian Cup for the first time in 18 years!
This is how the League Table looked at the end of the Season
We won by a 10 point difference! We suffered just 1 defeat in the League.
This was a great season for us. I did not expect to win the Double this season but we just kept on going! Apart from a few hiccups in May we ended the season on a High!
This was perhaps the longest post I had ever written. I will write about the players and the targets of the coming season in my next post.
Dasvidaniya!
