A soccer match between two Ukrainian teams lasted nearly five hours on Monday night, a national record caused by multiple delays due to air raid alerts in a country that has been locked out since February 2022 of Russian investment.
Kick-off took place at 5:15 pm local time, but the players of Dnipro-1 and FC Oleksandria did not retire to the locker room shortly before 10:00 pm, after “almost 280 minutes,” it was reported by Dnipro. – 1 on your X account (formerly Twitter).
This is the longest match “in the history of the Ukrainian championship”, specifically four hours and 36 minutes, surpassing the four hours and 27 minutes taken by FC Rukh-FC Metalist last season for the same reason, delays due to air raid warnings.
The fight took place in Dnipro, a large city in central-eastern Ukraine that has not been spared Russian attacks since the war began in February 2022.
The first division championship was suspended when the conflict broke out, but it continued in July 2021. However, matches, played without spectators for safety reasons, must be suspended in the event of an aerial alert.
The match was interrupted several times
And these sirens, a sound familiar to a large number of Ukrainians, were repeated “several times” during Monday’s match, which “still managed to finish,” as explained by the Ukrainian Football Federation ( UAF) on its Web.
In fact, the game started a quarter of an hour late because of the first siren. After second-placed Dnipro-1 scored the only goal in the 34th minute, the players had to return to the locker room shortly after the start of the second half.
After the game resumed, VAR disallowed a goal against FC Oleksandriya, but a new siren forced the match to be stopped within an hour. And there’s only one minute left, one last break, it’s an hour and a half.
“I want to finish the game”
One of the players of Dnipro-1, Eduard Sarapiy, He said it was the first meeting “in a very long time” for his team. “I want to finish the game,” he confessed.
The war had a devastating effect on Ukrainian clubs. Some couldn’t play in their city because it was too dangerous, others saw their stadium destroyed by clashes.
Shakhtar Donetsk played its Champions League matches this season in Hamburg after a few hours’ stay in Warsaw.
The players also lost loved ones. In September, The brother of Dmitro Riznyk, Shakhtar Donetsk goalkeeper, died after the mine explosion.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
