The final test match of the off-season, held at VTB Arena, ended with the victory of the blue and whites with a score of 5:2.
As Sandro Schwarz promised, Andrey Lunev took over as starting goalkeeper. Leon Seidenzall was brought in at right back, with Maxim Osipenko and David Ricardo forming the central duo, Timofey Marinkin pairing Daniil Fomin in the holding midfield, and Artur and Yaroslav Gladyshev on the flanks.
Bitello made the most striking plays in the opening minutes. First, he rolled the ball to Gladyshev, whose shot was blocked by a defender. The Brazilian then took a corner kick right into the center of the penalty area, where David Ricardo fired an unstoppable header into the top corner of Vladislav Torop's goal! A couple of minutes later, Konstantin Tyukavin put Bitello one-on-one with the CSKA goalkeeper, but he lost his stride and ultimately passed the ball to Artur, whose lobbed shot was cleared off the goal line by Matvey Lukin.
And yet, the second goal wasn't long in coming: Fomin seized on a rebound in the half-circle and fired a powerful low shot into the corner. The Army Men clearly weren't expecting such an onslaught and couldn't keep up with the movements of the blue-and-whites. After another foul by Moises, Bitello rolled a free kick to Seidenzall, who spotted Tyukavin at the near post, who put his foot out and lobbed the ball beautifully past Torop – 3-0!
Just before the half-hour mark, Marinkin delivered a brilliant through ball, after which Bitello calmly chipped the goalkeeper, making the score even worse. Five minutes later, the Army Men finally managed to respond – Joao Victor headed a corner under the crossbar. That concluded the kaleidoscope of events in the first half.
The second half began with two excellent saves from Lunev: first, he stopped Luciano Gonda with a dive, and a little later, he parried a point-blank shot from the same Argentine. Fomin had a good opportunity at the opposite goal, finishing off a Bitello cross from the left flank, but it went just over the top. The Dynamo captain headed a cross from the right and found the net, but from the outside.
In another moment, Fomin made a superb pass to Tyukavin, who fired at Torop. Lunev continued his impressive display, managing to dive to deflect a clever pass from Kirill Glebov for a corner. But even he couldn't handle Enrique Carmo's shot from the edge of the box in the 84th minute.
It's worth noting that Schwartz had made only one substitution before the 89th minute, replacing Bitello with Danil Glebov. And it was he who would seal the final score, when Danil masterfully converted a through ball from Anton Miranchuk.
Dynamo will now begin focused preparations for their first match of the new season, hosting Krylia Sovetov on July 25. Buy tickets on our website.
