Rio Ave 0 : 3 Dynamo Kyiv - Dynamo ease past Rio Ave

Posted Friday, September 19, 2014 by PA

Dynamo Kiev cruised to a 3-0 win at Rio Ave as they got their Europa League campaign in Group J off to a great start at the Estadio dos Arcos.

Andriy Yarmolenko and Younes Belhanda converted the Ukrainian side's early dominance with two goals in five first-half minutes before Artem Kravets rounded things off with a third after the break.

The result leaves Serhiy Rebrov's side second in the group just behind Steaua Bucharest, who smashed Aalborg 6-0, with those two sides set to go head-to-head in a fortnight.

With both Kiev and Rio Ave going into this match unbeaten in their respective leagues a draw might have looked likely beforehand but Kiev soon seized the initiative.

The hosts, just about stopped them breaking the deadlock twice in the 15th minute, with Cassio first parrying away Domagoj Vida's curled effort from the edge of the box.

Belhanda picked up the loose ball and crossed it back in, but Aleksander Dragovic's subsequent shot was blocked by some great last-ditch defending from Ricardo Tarantini.

Ten minutes later, however, the visitors were two goals to the good as the Primeira Liga leaders wilted under the early pressure.

Yarmolenko, who was close to a move to Liverpool in January, showed why he has been courted by Premier League clubs as he cut in from the right and unleashed a left-footed curler that went in off the post in the 20th minute.

Belhanda doubled Kiev's lead soon after as his low diagonal drive found the bottom corner past Cassio, who was slightly unsighted after Prince-Desir Gouano forlornly tried to block the shot.

Rio Ave, who beat Swedish side Elfsborg on away goals to progress to the group stage, were stunned into action and pushed forward but were unable to make any headway before half-time.

Tiago Pinto had the hosts' best chance shortly after the interval as his sweetly-struck right-footed drive from outside the box forced a save out of Olexandr Rybka for the first time.

Rio Ave coach Pedro Martins threw on an extra striker in William Jebor with 25 minutes remaining, but the hosts continued to toil and Cassio was left picking the ball out of his net for a third time in the 70th minute.

The veteran keeper actually did well to get a fist to Belhanda's superb shot from distance, but he could not get enough purchase on the clearance and Kravets picked up the rebound and rounded the despairing Cassio to complete the scoring with his sixth goal of the season.