Match Preview: Dynamo U-21 vs. Strogino U-21: Where to Watch, Our News and the Opponent

You can follow the progress of the match in the match center on our website, as well as on the club’s social networks VKontakte and Telegram.

You can watch the live video broadcast of the game:

– in the official account of the Super League on VKontakte using this link

The meeting starts at 11:00 Moscow time.

As always, our girls are waiting for the support of Dynamo fans at the stadium. All home matches of the Dynamo youth team this season are held at the training base in Novogorsk. How to get to VTB UTB Novogorsk-Dynamo and support the Dynamo girls can be found here.

Entry to the match with Strogino will be free.

View the full schedule of home and away matches for the youth team "Dynamo" in the 2024 season can always be found here.

In the previous round, the blue and white played away not only against the leader of Group D, but also against one of the main contenders for victory in the championship - Zenit St. Petersburg. In the home match, Roman Levendeev’s team could resolve all issues with their entry into the next round. To do this, it was enough for her to play a draw. However, given the strength of the Zenit youth team, it was clear that the St. Petersburg players would only play to win.

And so it happened. As in the first game of the group stage, Zenit started with a quick goal. Then forward Daria Sorokina opened the scoring in the 2nd minute, now the blue-white-blues needed three minutes longer to do this. This time, in the 5th minute, midfielder Elena Golik took advantage of a mistake by Dynamo's defense, gained space in the penalty area and sent the first ball into Arina Taranchenko's goal.

The St. Petersburg players could have increased their advantage almost immediately, but Dynamo’s next goal came after the break. And almost immediately after it. The second half started exactly the same as the first. Zenit scored a quick goal again, and did it in the same 5th minute - this time Yulia Udovichenko scored. The hosts took advantage of Dynamo's mistake in attack, quickly moved the ball into the attacking zone and ran three to two - a goal, and the scoreboard is 2:0.

As in the first half, the young Dynamo team tried, made every effort, but they could no longer stop the accelerating Zenit, and they themselves did not have any super-dangerous moments at the opponent’s goal. As a result, another defeat from the St. Petersburg team, and another match with zero goals scored. The blue and white have not been able to break their goalless streak against Zenit for two seasons in a row.

— Despite the defeat, I have no complaints about the girls. Zenit is a very strong team, we tried to play to win, and we didn’t have any task of sitting in our own penalty area and fighting back. In principle, we managed to carry out good attacks, but, unfortunately, we made more mistakes than our opponents. At the same time, the level of motivation and dedication was at a very high level, so I can only thank our players. Not everyone always succeeds, we will continue to work.

As for the quick goals at the beginning of both halves, this is a consequence of our individual mistakes, — head coach of the Dynamo youth team Mikhail Kobyakov summed up the results of the away meeting.

Dynamo defender and captain Arina Volobueva named the reasons why she and her teammates again failed to take points from the season favorite:

— There was a good pace. I think we were let down by a technical defect. The girls wanted to give their all, they tried, a lot didn’t work out, but everyone improved their moment and tried to get the most out of any episode of the game.

The halves plus or minus were equal. Both we and the opponent had chances, it’s just that Zenit managed to convert them. And so, both halves were quite eventful and difficult for both teams.

Despite the defeat, Dynamo, before the final round of the first stage, retains second place in Group D, which will allow the blue and white to advance to the next round and continue to fight for Youth League medals. For getting there to become a reality, Mikhail Kobyakov’s team needs not to lose to its closest rival, ZhFK Strogino, on its home field in Novogorsk.

The blue and white's opponent in the 6th round is the capital's Strogino club. The long-lived team by the standards of Russian women's football has existed since 2004, but is taking part in the Youth League for the first time.

Despite this, the Strogino football school is considered one of the most famous in terms of the quantity and quality of its graduates, performing at various levels of Russian football. Among them are football players who now play for the Dynamo youth team: defenders Valeria Shilnova and Ulyana Ryzhikh, forward Galina Geibieva. It’s interesting that Geibieva hit the goal of her former club more than once: the Strogino graduate scored 4 goals, and these were doubles - one in an official match (4:0) in 2023, one in a friendly game (4:4) in 2022 -m. So we can rightfully consider Strogino her club. And not only due to the fact of “football blood”.

If we talk about the history of the confrontation between Dynamo and Strogino, what is striking is the number of friendly matches that the clubs played among themselves. There are already four of them, and no one has an advantage - Dynamo and Strogino have one victory each, two draws. But in official games, a noticeable advantage is on the side of the blue and white: 2 wins, one draw.

It is important that Dynamo won one of these victories this season: in the opening match of Group D, they beat Stroginok away - 4:1 (a double by Yakovenko, goals by Petrova and Mustafaeva). A major victory allows Mikhail Kobyakov’s team to feel relatively calm now. In order to move Dynamo from second place and advance to the next round instead, Andrei Medyansky’s team needs to beat the blue and white with a very large score, which, given an away game in Novogorsk, seems unlikely for the Stroginki.

The new meeting of the two clubs within the Youth League, which will take place in Novogorsk, will be served by a refereeing team led by Anastasia Varfolomeeva, who will be assisted by assistant referees Anna Fedina and Mona Al Osta (all from Moscow).

Previously, Varfolomeeva had already worked at Dynamo matches: twice against Chertanovo - in the Youth League (2:1) and the Super League (1:1); and against the current opponent Strogino (11:1) - in the 1/16 of the Russian Cup.

Balance of victories and defeats of Dynamo under refereeing Varfolomeeva: 3 matches - 2 wins, 1 draw, goal difference 14-3.