Dynamo Kyiv, Ukraine’s Premier League runner-up, advanced to the last 16 of Europa League, the continent’s second most prestigious football tournament, where they will face six times English titleholders Chelsea, after beating Greek side Olympiacos 1:0, in the round of 32, in Kyiv, on Feb. 21.
Dynamo Kyiv qualified for the round of 32 after winning its group, which included Kazakh champion Astana, French side Rennes and Czech Cup runner-up Jablonec.
After a 2:2 draw in Piraeus, Greece, on Feb 14, Dynamo Kyiv took on Olympiacos, Greek Super League bronze medalist, in front of a 48,902 home crowd at NSC Olimpiyskiy in downtown Kyiv.
Ukraine’s side striker Fran Sol scored the only goal of the game on the 31st minute to push Dynamo past Olympiacos 3:2 on aggregate.
Ukrainian champion Shakhtar wasn’t so successful in this year’s Europa League. After being eliminated from the UEFA Champions League, Europe’s top football tournament, the team faced Eintracht Frankfurt, the 2018 German Cup winners, in the round of 32 of Europa League and sagged to another defeat. After a 2:2 draw in Kharkiv, on Feb. 14, the German side crushed Shakhtar 4:1 in Frankfurt on Feb 21, for a 5:3 aggregate.
On Feb. 22, in Nyon, Switzerland, Dynamo Kyiv was drawn against Chelsea in the round of 16, with the two-leg fixture taking place on March 7 and March 14, in London and Kyiv respectively.
Other fixtures drawn in Nyon include: Eintracht Frankfurt – Inter Milan, Dynamo Zagreb – Benfica, Napoli – Red Bull Salzburg, Valencia – Krasnodar, Seville – Slavia Prague, Arsenal – Rennes and Zenit – Villarreal.
