Cup Winners Cup. Apart from Celtic, the draw was nice to all stronger teams from start to finish. Well, there were few of them… fewer every year. Up to the ¼ finals, the only really tough draw was in the first round: Atletico Madrid vs Celtic. Those reaching the quarter-finals were the better teams only in terms of this year tournament – in general, not exactly leading European teams at the moment. And the results were quite predictable, no surprises: Rapid Vienna lost to Dinamo Kiev, Dynamo Dresden lost to Bayer Leverkusen, Crvena zvezda Belgrade – to Atletico Madrid. Dukla Prague eliminated Benfica Lisbon thanks to away goal, but this was battle between equals. In the semi-final stage Dinamo Kiev was a bit lucky, drawing the weakest, Dukla Prague – and beating it accordingly. Meantime Atletico Madrid extracted 2 small victories from Bayer Leverkusen – both times by a goal difference. Thus, Atletico Madrid and Dinamo Kiev reached the final. No question about ambition – both teams craved success. Both were in good shape at this time. Was there a favourite? Dinamo was in excellent form and had at last wonderful squad. Atletico Madrid was no joke either and may be even more ambitious than Dinamo, because they had no real European success so far. As for the squad… it was already weakened a bit by the transfer of Hugo Sanchez to Real, but it was old news by now. The 1978 World champion Ubaldo Fillol replaced Sanchez – well, it is not even remotely similar to exchange a great striker for goalkeeper, but nevertheless Fillol was important acquisition, a great star on his own right. Dinamo had the best of the Soviet football, of course.
The final proved to be surprisingly entertaining and quickly Dinamo got the upper hand, scoring in the 5th minute.
Zavarov scored the opening goal, but it was the flying winger Belanov, who captured all attention. Atletico never gave up and tried to play attacking football as well, but was outplayed most of the time.
Naturally, Blokhin got most attention, for he was famous, but it was more than that – now a veteran, he played still wonderful football, perhaps even better than 10 years ago, when he was rather simple left—winger. Now he was taking more playmaking functions and operated on wider zone. Near the end of the match he scored his customary goal and a bit later the substitute Yevtushenko completed the destruction of Atletico Madrid. Atletico played well and the result does not give them justice, but Dinamo was not only excellent, but also scored – and Atletico did not. To a point, the final repeated the one for the European Champions Cup: the winners played against hostile crowd of enemy’s supporters, having practically none of their own.
Final, Stade de Gerland, Lyon, 2 May 1986, att 39000
Dinamo Kiev (1) 3 Atlético Madrid (0) 0
5′ 1-0 DK: Zavarov
85′ 2-0 DK: Blokhin
88′ 3-0 DK: Yevtushenko
Dinamo Kiev: Chanov; Baltacha (Bal 38), Bessonov, Kuznetsov, Demianenko; Rats, Yakovenko, Yaremchuk, Zavarov (Yevtushenko 70); Belanov, Blokhin
Atlético Madrid: Fillol; Tomás, Arteche, Ruiz, Clemente; Prieto, E.Quique, Marina, Landáburu (Setién 61); Cabrera, Da Silva Referee: Wöhrer (Austria)
Captain Anatoly Demyanenko received the Cup Winners Cup.
Dinamo Kiev won the trophy for second time, but perhaps Oleg Blokhin was the happiest of all – the only survivor of the first victory, more than 10 years ago, the only Kiev player to win the Cup Winners Cup twice.
Dinamo Kiev made so dazzling performance, it is easy to dismiss Atletico – but they played well really. Unfortunately, they were not at the same level with Dinamo. Yes, this was strong period for the club, but they were still unable to succeed in Europe. Perhaps the making of the team had something to do with it – only the Argentine Ubaldo Fillol was true world star and he was getting old by now and did not play long in Madrid. Against them played a whole national team (including the substitutes) on the rise. A matter of class and Atletico was outclassed. Too bad.
Dinamo Kiev was unquestionable winner and their second victory was more convincing than the first one – 10 years ago they played against weak and somewhat transitional squad of Ferencvaros Budapest. Now they met opponent in top condition. Naturally, both winning squads were compared and it was tough call: at both occasions the whole Dinamo side were national team regulars. And there were national team players among the reserves as well. But this squad was deemed stronger – it was younger team with great talent, not even fully flourishing in the cases of some players. Back then most players, including Blokhin, were already known – no new discoveries. This time was different: the world discovered the great talent of Belanov, Yaremchuk, Yakovenko. And the noticed promising talent of Zavarov was confirmed. Blokhin was formidable – even better than before, a great case of longevity at top form. Was this vintage better than the old one? Unanswerable question, but one thing was sure – Dinamo played fantastic football and many of the team had long lasting impact, for they – unlike the first winners – eventually went to play professionally in Western Europe. Dinamo had its second great team at last – Lobanovsky did it again. As for Blokhin – may be he really convinced everybody that he was a true world-class player: Lobanovksy was merciless coach, never given to any sentimentality – aging Blokhin was not discarded as some of his former teammates, but remained and continued to be the key player. And Lobanovsky was also vindicated – often under criticism for his methods and failures, he proved his worth by making a second great team and winning again at the European stage.