After a one-year break, Pyunik returns to the Champions League. Our club is in the qualifying round of the main European Cup for a record 14th time. In the previous two seasons, our team was the most successful among Armenian clubs in European tournaments.
Under the leadership of Yeghishe Melikyan, Pyunik reached the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League in the 2022/23 season, as well as won the group stage of the Conference League. These are still exceptional indicators in the history of Armenian club football.
In the first qualifying round of the 2024/25 Champions League, our rival is the current champion of Belarus Dinamo Minsk. Last century Dinamo Minsk became the champion of the USSR Premier League, and also reached the quarter-finals in two of the most prestigious European tournaments.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the capital team became the champion of the country 8 times, in the 2014/15 and the following seasons, it reached the group stage of the Europa League.
How did Dinamo take the path of success in the 1980s, where did they get to, and when did the hegemony of the Belarusian club begin and end? The Pyunik press service has studied the origins of the rival before the upcoming match in the Champions League and highlighted the most interesting.
The creation of the club
Dinamo Minsk was founded on June 18, 1927. After 1937, the Belarusian team became champion in its country 3 times in a row. In 1940, the capital team received the status of a masters’ team and acquired the right to participate in the championship of the USSR Premier League.
The prestigious Dinamo stadium in Belarus
In 1934, the National Olympic Stadium was officially opened in Belarus, which hosts only Dinamo Minsk and the Belarusian national team matches. The stadium which received four stars from the UEFA, was first rebuilt in 1939, but was destroyed because of the war shortly after. Last century, the capital stadium was rebuilt several times, as a result the number of seats decreased from 50,000 to 22,246.
In 1980, this stadium hosted 6 matches of the Summer Olympics, as well as during the Soviet Union years, matches of the U18 and U20 European Championships were held here. In the 2008/09, 2011/12 and 2012/13 seasons, BATE Borisov played the matches of the Champions League group stage here.
Dinamo Minsk is deprived of its native and long-standing stadium during these European Cup matches. The UEFA has imposed sanctions on Belarusian clubs and they play in other countries, where fans are banned from entering the stadium.
Due to the UEFA sanctions, our away match (July 10, 22:45) will be played at Mezekeveshd, Hungary, instead of Dinamo National Olympic Stadium.
Historical championship in the USSR
The team representing Minsk participated in the championships of the USSR with ups and downs, regularly withdrawing from the Premier League to the First league. Over time, Dinamo have raised their level of play, surpassing the champion titles in the 1953 and 1956 First League.
In 1982, Dynamo Kyiv and Spartak Moscow were the leaders of the USSR Premier League. Dinamo Minsk seriously joined the championship race that year and managed to make history. At the end of a hard and tense fight in the championship, they scored 47 points and left Dynamo Kyiv behind.
That victory secured a ticket to the main European Cup for the Belarusians, and as it turned out, they were going to represent the USSR decently at the main European tournament.
The fateful quarterfinals
After winning the USSR Premier League in the 1983/84 season, Dinamo participated in the European Cup (currently the Champions League). According to the format, the teams started the competition from the 1/16 finals. The reigning champion of the Soviet Union at that time had overcome two stages, bypassing Swiss Grasshopper and Hungarian Raba (now Gyor).
The Belarusian team hadn’t been able to continue the successful course from the quarter-finals. Dinamo Bucharest, representing Romania, celebrated a 2:1 victory in a tough fight and moved forward.
However, Dinamo’s Viktor Sokol was named the best scorer of that season with 6 goals.
In the 1984/85 season, Dinamo repeated the previous year's results in the UEFA Cup (now the Europa League). First, the team representing Minsk overcame Finnish HJK scoring 10 goals in both legs. Later, Dinamo defeated Sporting Lisbon and Polish Widzew. The final stop for the capital team in that tournament was again the quarter finals, where they lost to Zeleznicar, representing Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Dinamo participated in the third ranked tournament of Europe in the 1987/88 season and reached the quarter-finals. That year, Dinamo overcame Turkish Genclerbirligi and the Spanish Real Sociedad. The quarter-finals, which had turned into a nightmare, haunted Dinamo Minsk there as well; the capital team lost 1:2 to Belgian Mechelen in a tough fight.
The beginning and end of the hegemony in Belarus
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Dinamo established its hegemony already in the national championship. From 1992 to 1997, the capital team became the national champion 6 times, won the cup twice, and once won the Super Cup.
As it often happens in football, long-lasting successes end one day. At the beginning of the 21st century, Dinamo became champion only once, in 2004, and said goodbye to the main championship for 19 years.
Dinamo presented a European Cup autumn to Belarus
After becoming the runner-up in Belarus in 2014, the capital team qualified for the Europa League qualifying round. Dinamo Minsk started the fight from the second qualifying round; the team faced there Finnish Myllykosken Pallo -47, Romanian Cluj and Portuguese Nacional. Dinamo won with big scores and went directly to the Europa League group stage.
The Belarusian team was included in one group with Fiorentina, Paok and French Gangan. The rivals were comparatively more experienced and Dinamo earned only 4 points, taking the last place in the group.
The last round match with Italian Fiorentina was memorable for the Belarusians, where they managed to win 2:1 with 10 players.
In the next season, Dinamo again appeared in the group stage of the Europa League as previously. In the second and third qualifying rounds, the team overcame Bulgarian Cherno More and Swiss Zurich. Already in the playoff round of the qualifying stage the representatives of Minsk had a strong rival, Austrian Red Bull Salzburg. However, the Belarusians managed to beat them in the post-match penalty shootout.
The scenario of the group stage of the previous season repeated once again; the Belarusian team won only once in the group in the penultimate round against Viktoria Plzeň. Dinamo managed to win with 10 players in the 2nd minute added to the main time of the match, earning their first 3 points.
However, the team representing Minsk ended the tournament in the last place with 3 points.
Record holders
The best scorer in the history of Dinamo is Eduard Malofeyev with 103 goals. In the 1970/71 season of the USSR Championship, Malofeyev showed exceptional efficiency: he became the top scorer of the Premier League with 16 goals.
Sergey Gotsmanov is the player who participated in the most matches for Dinamo Minsk, 387 games.
19 year later, they are back
In 2023, the capital team reminded of itself, becoming the national champion after 19 years. The format of the championship in Belarus is spring-autumn. Dinamo won 22 out of 28 games and also registered 3 draws and 3 defeats. Vadim Skripchenko, an experienced coach in Belarus, was at the helm of the team on the way to this success.
Vladislav Morozov was the best scorer of the championship in the ended season with 16 goals. For the 23-year-old footballer, this was the first and, as it turned out, the last season in Dinamo.
Many goals, hot football; who is the coach of Dinamo Minsk?
48-year-old Vadim Skripchenko has been coaching Dinamo Minsk since 2022. Under the leadership of an experienced specialist, the team became the champion of Belarus after 19 years, and also returned to the most prestigious European club football tournament, the Champions League.
Skripchenko assisted Viktor Goncharenko in BATE for 3 years, with whom he won the Belarussian championship three times, and also helped the team to successfully participate in European Cups. Skripchenko achieved his first success as a head coach with Minsk FC, winning the Belarusian Cup.
It is noteworthy that Vadim Skripchenko coached Ararat-Armenia, representing the Armenian Premier League, in the 2018/19 season. The 48-year-old coach has also worked in Russia for many years in clubs Kuban, Ural, Anzhi and Krylia Sovetov.
One of this specialist’s favorite and often used formations is the 4-3-3. Skripchenko believes in attacking football. In the winning season, Dinamo Minsk scored 72 goals. Last time BATE showed a similar impressive result 7 years ago (73 goals).
The current lineup
The average age of the Dinamo Minsk team is 29. 5 players from the Belarusian team are invited to the national team: Sergey Politevich, Artem Bykov, Aleksandr Selyava, Fedor Lapoukhov, Ilya Chernyak.
9 more footballers from the capital club are invited to different age group teams of Belarus.
Artem Bykov is the most experienced member of the current squad of Dinamo Minsk, who is 13th in the list of players who played the most matches in the history of the club (269 games).
Five teams have equal number of legionnaires (6) in the Premier League of Belarus, our rival Dinamo Minsk is on the list of those teams.
The best scorer of the team in the current season is the Nigerian Raymond Adeola with 5 goals.
The capital team also has high hopes for Academy alumnus Artem Sokolovski. The 17-year-old midfielder participated in the UEFA Youth League for Dinamo, overcoming the first round. And already in the main team, he entered the pitch 7 times and stood out with 2 goals.
Armenian footballers in the Belarusian club
Until now, three Armenian footballers have played for Dinamo Minsk, two of them also played for Pyunik at different times. In 2008, our former goalkeeper David Yurchenko defended the colors of Dinamo, and in 2016, Artur Yedigaryan, an alumnus of our club performed for the club. Robert Zebelyan is the third Armenian footballer who played there and scored 2 goals in 9 games for the Minsk team.
Let us recall that the format of the championship in Belarus is spring-autumn. This season, the teams have already played more than half of the league. Dinamo Minsk is currently leading the Belarusian championship. After 15 games the capital team has equal 35 points with Torpedo-BelAz Zhodino and is ahead by personal indicators.
In the last 5 matches, Dinamo Minsk celebrated the same number of victories, one of which was in the 3rd transition round of the cup (there are 3 transition stages before the playoffs in Belarus). It is noteworthy that the team beat two teams out of top four in the last games: Neman Grodno and Dynamo Brest. The current champion of Belarus also defeated BATE, which is currently in the 10th place. Overall, Dinamo scored 18 times in the last 5 games, conceding 2 goals.
Our upcoming rival has not yet tasted defeat in the domestic league this year: 10 wins, 5 draws. The home team has already published the lineup for the Champions League match with Pyunik. It is noteworthy that our former player Steven Alfred, who defended our colors from 2019 to 2021, has recently signed a contract with Dinamo Minsk.
