After his loan ended, Aliyev was promoted to the main team of Dynamo, where he began to shine especially under new Russian head coach Yuri Semin during the 2008–09 season. In September 2008 Ukraine legend Serhiy Rebrov hailed Aliyev's transformation into a "team player", when he thought "Aliyev was just about fun". He was key in Dynamo's campaign in the 2008–09 UEFA Champions League. On 21 October 2008 he scored a beautifully flighted free kick from at least 30 yards out to give Dynamo Kiev the win against FC Porto. On 25 November, at the end of the game against Arsenal, Aliyev pushed the referee, Alain Hamer, and received a red card for his action. Later, during the interview he called Hamer a "kozel" (the goat -eng.) which means similarly to "idiot" in this context.