Manchester United emerged unscathed from a testing examination here last night after a match in which all the gold stars went to their defenders.
For long periods they were forced into a rearguard action against a lively Dynamo side for whom Maksim Shatskikh twice struck the woodwork in the second half. But on a night when the greasy surface played a significant contribution, and against a side that Alex Ferguson has nominated as their main rivals in Group G, the United manager should be satisfied enough that his team avoided being sucked under in the near quagmire.
The average monthly income here is £32 but even with an admission price of £7 a crowd of more than 10 times Dynamo's usual league attendance had made it to the Respublikanski. Semi-finalists two seasons ago, Dynamo's credentials make for heady stuff: 21 championships in 29 years, three league doubles in succession and 15 straight wins at home.
As if to demonstrate they meant business, the entire team visited a barber on Monday to have their hair shorn. Bad news, perhaps, for match commentators but United have a couple of "grade ones" themselves so if it was intended to intimidate, it was never likely to succeed.
A heavy pitch caused by 48 hours of dank, east European weather persuaded Ferguson it was an inopportune moment to recall Jaap Stam while he is troubled by a recurring achilles problem. Never one to conform to predictability, the United manager re-united Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke for their first start of the season, with Teddy Sheringham relegated to the bench and Nicky Butt's combative talents preferred to Paul Scholes's attacking guile.
If that suggested Ferguson was intent on keeping things tight, it looked like an astute decision throughout the opening exchanges as Dynamo's brand of swift and incisive attacking threatened. Once they had settled down, however, United started showing a few slick touches of their own, Yorke toe-poking a shot narrowly wide and Cole stretching the Dynamo goalkeeper Olexandr Shovkovskyi.
As United gradually began to take command, Cole also saw a powerful left-foot effort fly just wide before Roy Keane tested Shovkovskyi from 20 yards. Dynamo remained potent, especially on the counterattack, and Raimond Van der Gouw had to be alert to deny Valiantsin Bialkevich after he had manoeuvred a shooting opportunity from the edge of United's penalty area.
But United were struggling to get their game going and Kiev coach Valery Lobanovskyi's suggestion that United were "vulnerable" was given some credence early in the second half when the Uzbek forward Shatshikh eluded some debatable marking to drive a shot against the crossbar from the right of Van der Gouw's goal.
From the game's best moment the Dutch goalkeeper, deputising for Fabien Barthez, then turned a dipping 20-yarder from Shatskikh against the inside of his left-hand post, gratefully scooping up the rebound.
After that it always looked likely that the game would be settled by one goal - but with David Beckham well chaperoned, Ryan Giggs subdued and Roy Keane more often that not on defensive duty the ammunition for Cole and Yorke was meagre in its supply.
Dynamo Kiev: Shovkovskyi; Dmytrulin, Vaschuk, Holovko, Nesmachnyi; Khatskevitch, Bialkevich, Kaladze, Husin (Fedorov 86); Demetradze (Kuzmichev 68), Shatshikh. Subs not used: Kernozenko, Guerassimenko, Yashkin, Bodnar, Serebrennikov.
Manchester United: Van der Gouw; Irwin, G Neville, Johnsen, Silvestre, Irwin; Beckham, Butt, Keane, Giggs; Cole (Solskjaer77), Yorke (Sheringham 67). Subs not used: Bosnich, Wallwork, Stam, P Neville, Scholes.
Referee: K Nielsen (Denmark).
