Preview

May 7, Oleksandriia, CSC Nika, 15:00
Live stream – Setanta Sports+, Setanta Sports YouTube channel

Match build-up

The fight for UPL gold continues. Shakhtar lead the standings with 59 points. The difference between the main competitors does not change – the Miners still have 5-point advantage, with Dnipro-1 having a game in hand. Shakhtar remain the best in terms of goals: the most goals scored (57) and the least goals conceded (17). In the middle of the week, Igor Jovicevic’s team travelled to Transcarpathia, where they won a victory over Minaj (1-0) thanks to the goal by Traore, who scored in the second round in a row.

The top goalscorer of the Orange-and-Blacks in the league is Danylo Sikan (8 goals), but the hero of April Artem Bondarenko (6 goals and 4 assists), who was recognized as the player of the month by the fans, came close to him.

The team were preparing for the match against Oleksandriia in Kyiv: Dmytro Kryskiv is already working in the general group, while Ivan Petriak and Dmytro Riznyk stay out of the game.

Opponents

After 23 matches, Oleksandriia are in 5th place in the UPL standings with 37 points (goal difference: 35–28). It will be difficult for Ruslan Rotan’s team to climb higher (10 points behind Dynamo), but they should not lose their position in the European Cup (5-point advantage over the opponents and a game in hand). The spring part of the season is not easy for Oleksandriia: in the first 9 games they won only once, played 7 draws and lost 1 match.

They managed to break their winless streak last Wednesday, when they minimally defeated Lviv (1-0) in the away match. The only goal was scored by 18-year-old midfielder Kyrylo Siheiev, Shakhtar loanee, who immediately became the club’s record holder as the youngest goalscorer in the history of Oleksandriia. The most prolific player of the Yellow-Greens in this championship is Maksym Tretiakov, who scored 7 goals. Midfielder Oleh Kozhushko will skip the game against Shakhtar due to excess of cards.

Match background

Shakhtar and Oleksandriia played 27 matches in the Ukrainian League: the Miners won 19 times, 5 matches ended in draw, in 3 matches Oleksandriia were stronger. Total goal difference: 51–25 in favour of the Orange-and-Blacks.

Previous match

On October 29, 2022, the teams met at Arena Lviv. In the 5th minute, Tsurikov gave the visiting team a lead, and at the end of the first half, Shakhtar equalized the score – Mykhailichenko scored after Taylor’s pass. At the beginning of the second half, Lucas received a second yellow card and left the Miners in the minority for the rest of the game. Even under such circumstances, Igor Jovicevic’s lads managed to score a second goal: Mudryk scored in the 82nd minute. However, in the 86th minute, Demchenko brought Oleksandriia to a draw with a long-range shot – 2-2.