Preview

October 27, Odesa, Chornomorets Stadium, 19:30

Match build-up

This season, Shakhtar have already played against Chornomorets in Odesa, winning 3-0 in the league. Sudakov scored the opener after being fed by Mudryk, Konoplia provided an assist to Alan Patrick before the break, and in the closing stages Solomon’s stunner sealed a major win.

For Roberto De Zerbi, this is a start to the new tournament that consists of single knockout games. It is important for both the coach and the team to display quality football and gradually advance to the next rounds as winning the Cup is one of Shakhtar's goals this season along with the championship.

22 footballers are preparing for the game. In Odesa, the Miners will do without Mykola Matviienko who is recovering from injury, as well as without Taras Stepanenko, Pedrinho and Alan Patrick who were replaced for various reasons in the recent game against Vorskla.

Preliminary player list

Goalkeepers: Shevchenko, Pyatov, Trubin

Defenders: Dodo, Vitao, Kryvtsov, Marlon, Konoplia, Ismaily, Korniienko, Bondar

Midfielders: Maycon, Marcos Antonio, Marlos, Tete, Bondarenko, Solomon, Mudryk, Sudakov

Forwards: Dentinho, Sikan, Fernando

Opponents

In the Cup Round of 32, Chornomorets defeated Prykarpattia. The game took place a month ago (September 23) and ended 4-1 in favour of the Odesa outfit, with Bragaru, Isayenko and Bugai scoring, plus another episode ended in an own goal for the Ivano-Frankivsk-based team.

In the league, Chornomorets have not won eight recent matches since the August game against Shakhtar, although the team were tied in four of them by Oleksandriia, Minaj, Inhulets and Lviv. After 12 rounds, the Sailors whose current backbone includes not only the footballers on loan from Dynamo (there are 16 of them), but also former players of the Shakhtar Academy Beka Vachiberadze, Artur Avahimyan, Illia Putrya and Vladyslav Bugai, sititng in the penultimate spot in the table with the goal difference of -14.

Head-to-head record

The teams had seven encounters in the Ukrainian Cup. In the seasons 1994/95, 2003/04 and 2007/08, the rivals locked horns in the semi-finals where they had two meetings. Shakhtar have always overcome this stage, having five wins (the most popular score of 1-0 was registered three times). And in the 2012/13 season, the Miners beat Chornomorets in the Cup final (3-0).

Previous Cup match

The 2013 final was the last meeting between Shakhtar and Chornomorets in the tournament. In the match that took place at the OSK Metalist in Kharkiv, the Orange-and-Blacks proved successful through the goals by Fernandinho, Alex Teixeira and Taison. Shakhtar raised their 9th Ukrainian Cup, having as many as 13 trophies now.