The pearl of Ukrainian football, the famous Dnipro team, was left without a professional club last year, but this does not prevent it from focusing on developing children's, amateur, and veteran football.

A new team led by Oleksiy Markov with support from the Ukrainian Football Association and Hennadiy Butkevych, an alumnus of Dnipro and president of Zhytomyr "Polesye," decided to widely celebrate 50 years of football school "Dnipro-75" by inviting the national team of Ukraine for veterans to play a friendly match with its graduates. The partners for the match were TOV "Agrobusiness" and the Sobuts'ky family charity fund.

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The "Dnipro-75" school has been and remains one of the best in Ukraine, where experienced coaches worked, and graduates played for the national team and top clubs, bringing glory to Dnipropetrovsk. So before the start of the game, organizers honored the best among coaches and graduates, wishing the school to restore its former glory.

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They also sincerely thanked defenders of Ukraine for whom football continues in the frontline region and such important events are held. Special attention was paid to Andriy Donets, a well-known former player who has been serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces since 2022. Before the match, Volodymyr Yezersky presented his unit, where Donets serves, with a modern drone equipped with night vision.

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The national team played in the following lineup: Eduard Tsykhmeystruk, Viacheslav Shevchuk, Yevhen Seleznyov, Serhiy Nagornyak, Viacheslav Sviderskyi, Oleksandr Kosyrin, Andriy Donets, Serhiy Nazarenko, Mykola Medyn, Volodymyr Yezersky, Ruslan Kostishin, Oleg Sheleiev, Vitaliy Mandzyuk, Ivan Krivosheyenko, Mykola Ishchenko, Volodymyr Lisnyak and Vitaliy Samoilov.

Photo AFSU

The main part of the game ended in a fierce draw — 4:4. In the national team, Yevhen Seleznyov (three times) and Oleg Sheleiev scored, while the hosts were scored by Dmytro Stafiychuk, Mykita Yaroslav, Stanislav Podolskyi, and Anton Kicha. The intrigue carried over to a penalty shootout, where the real hero turned out to be Mykola Medyn, a fan favorite of the 1990s in Dnipropetrovsk and this day's goalkeeper for the veterans' team. On the eve of his birthday, the goalkeeper received many greetings and an honorary football shirt, and inspired by the occasion, he brilliantly demonstrated himself in parrying eleven-meter shots. In the end — a victory for the national team.