Goran Popov and Dynamo Kyiv suffered a 2:0 defeat in the big Ukrainian derby against Shakhtar Donetsk.

Goran started at left-back for Dynamo Kyiv and played the entire game in the road encounter against rival Shakhtar Donetsk.  It was a heated game, especially starting just before halftime when Dynamo Kyiv attacker Denys Garmash was shown a second yellow card by the referee and thus was sent off.  The Dynamo players and coaches were irate at the decision of the referee and the game was stopped for several minutes.  There was pushing and shoving on the sidelines and the Dynamo Kyiv manager was ultimately ordered to the stands by the referee.

Dynamo Kyiv managed to get to halftime with the score at 0:0 but Shakhtar Donetsk then scored two goals in the 2nd half.  The first goal came in the 55th minute when Brazilian player Alex Teixeira scored on a rebound from close range, while the second goal in the 80th minute came on a close range header by Yaroslav Rakitskiy.  Popov and his teammate Andriy Shevchenko got into an argument after the second goal due to the poor marking that resulted in the goal.

With the loss, Dynamo Kyiv is now tied for first place on the table with today’s opponents Shakhtar.  Each club has 67 points with four rounds remaining until the end of the season in Ukraine.