Thus, the coaching staff of the White-Blues, headed by Mircea Lucescu, will not be able to count on Viktor Tsygankov and Denis Popov.

The mentor of Kiev said this at a pre-match press conference.

" But we also lack two more players - Tsygankov, who will miss the match due to an injury received in the first match, and Popov, also injured,"

Separately, the Dynamo coach shared his general expectations from the second duel with Benfica.

" Organized, with good combinations. All football players are experienced and of high international level and have great potential.. Rafa Silva is probably the best and it's a surprise to me that he still doesn't play for a big club in another country.

We need to win back not three, but two goals, and continue to play extra-times, as we are used to having already twice on the road to the Champions League qualification. While the Lisbon team is prepared? much better than us. We will try to show a good game before the start of the Ukrainian championship.

I am sure that tomorrow there will be a great atmosphere in the stands, many fans will come. Benfica are the best team in Portugal and will play at the highest level. And we have young players who have not seen their families for more than two months,"

The second leg of the play-off round between Benfica and Dinamo will take place on Tuesday, August 23, at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon. The starting whistle will sound at 22:00 Kyiv time;

Text online broadcast of the meeting \;

The winner of the two-legged confrontation " The loser will play in the group stage of the Europa League.

On the way to the 2022/23 Champions League qualifying playoff round, the Kyivans defeated Turkish Fenerbahce and Austrian Sturm. In turn, the Lisbon club dealt with the Danish “Mitjylland”.

We add that the first match between the Kyiv and Lisbon clubs ended in the defeat of Mircea Lucescu's wards with a score of 0:2.