Dnipro-1 is currently second in the Ukrainian Premier League
Ukrainian top teams Dnipro-1 and FC Oleksandriya played the longest match in the league’s history, with the game ending four hours and 36 minutes after kick-off following multiple air raid warnings.
Monday night’s game, played at the Dnipro Arena in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, started 15 minutes late because of an air raid siren.
The home team took the lead in the 34th minute, but at the start of the second half the players were forced off the pitch again.
Oleksandriya scored shortly after the restart, but it was canceled by VAR after an hour-long delay caused by another siren.
With a minute of regular time remaining, the game was postponed for another hour and a half due to another air raid warning.
The 1-0 win in the game, which started at 5:15 p.m. local time and ended just before 10 p.m., gives Dnipro-1 second place in the Ukrainian Premier League.
Defender Eduard Sarapiy told the club websiteexternal link that his team was desperate to finish the game.
“This is the first such long game for us and it could have ended badly for us. We wanted to play the whole game. We went on the pitch and tried to end the game with just a win,” he said.
The Ukrainian Premier League told the BBC that it was the longest game in its history.
“The game lasted four hours and 36 minutes and that is a new record. The longest match so far was last season’s match between FC Rukh and FC Metalist, which lasted four hours and 27 minutes. The reason was the same – an air raid siren,” the league said.
Dnipro returned to its home games at the Dnipro Arena in September after being relocated to western Ukraine following Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.
Although Dnipro is some distance from the front line, an elderly man was reportedly killed in a Russian airstrike in the area a day before the game.
Source : www.bbc.co.uk