Dynamo Kiev vs Olympiakos Prediction - Will Dynamo Grab Their Third Consecutive Pre-Season Win?

Next Thursday, 17th July 2014, Dynamo Kiev and Olympiakos will measure forces at the Schwaz training camp in Austria on a match that will serve both sides, which need to prepare their new season.

The current war conflict in Ukraine, with the Pro-Russian Separatists on one side and the Government loyal troops on the other, is destroying an entire nation and is also inflicting some deep wounds on the Ukrainian football and their respective teams. The all-time Ukrainian giants Dynamo Kiev, currently under the helm of the Serhiy Rebrov, have not yet suffered with the footballers’ exodus that has been taking place in the country currently as the team is doing everything they can to maintain their most important footballers, such as Andriy Yarmolenko at Kiev.

Rebrov’s side has managed to win five of their seven pre-season matches so far and they will certainly try to extend that good moment on their next clash against the Greek champions, Olympiakos. With the Ukrainian Super Cup match against their big rivals of Shakhtar Donetsk just around the corner (22nd July 2014), there is not much time left for Dynamo to work out some rough edges and the match against Olympiakos is the team’s last opportunity to do that. Rebrov replaced former Soviet superstar player Oleg Blokhin at the helm of Dynamo and he has been managing to implement several changes on the team’s game style since then. Rebrov seems to have had a close look at Lobanovsky’s “football guides” and he built up a team that apparently enjoys playing an attacking short-pass football and, although they are still miles away from their past super teams, they seem to be on the right path. Despite having finished fourth on the country’s Premier League, especially because of their poor performances during Blokhin’s era, Dynamo managed to defeat Shakhtar on the Ukrainian Cup final and lifted the trophy for the first time in seven years.

As for Olympiakos, the match against the Ukrainian historical team will be their second preparation clash this season after they lost to Krasnodar last Saturday. Olympiakos completely dominated Greek football league last season and Michel’s boys also managed to make a strong stand at the UEFA Champions League, where they almost eliminated Manchester United. With a great deal of new players coming in for the new season, Michel will almost need to start from scratch once again in order to build a quality and competitive team similar to the one he constructed for last campaign.

Although it is hard to attribute favouritism to any team at this stage of the season, Dynamo have to be considered favourites for next Thursday’s clash, since they started their preparation much sooner than their Greek rivals.

Dynamo Kiev

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - WWLDW

Dynamo Kiev (4-4-2) - Koval - Danilo Silva - Vida - Dragovic - Makarenko - Husyev - Belhanda - Bezus - Rybalka - Yarmolenko - Kravets

Olympiakos

Stats: W-0 L-1 D-0

Recent Form - L

Olympiakos (4-4-1-1) - Roberto - Papadopoulos - Abidal - Papazoglu - Torres - N’Dinga - Ghazaryan - Fuster - Kasami - Dominguez - Saviola

Prediction: Dynamo Kiev 2 Olympiakos 0