Preview

Shakhtar are to face Slovenian Maribor. The game will kick off at 16:30 Kyiv time.

All friendlies of the Orange-and-Blacks will be streamed live on Shakhtar’s YouTube channel and the FC Shakhtar app (App Store and Google Play).

Opponents

Maribor, founded in 1960 in the city of the same name, is the most awarded club in Slovenia: the team became the champions of the country 16 times and won another 27 different trophies. The last success of the Violets was the 2022 title, but Maribor finished the 2022/23 season only in the 3rd spot. In the current campaign of the Slovenian League, they are in the 4th spot in the table, 17 points behind the leaders. The European campaign did not work out for Maribor either: starting in the UEFA Conference League qualification with difficult victories in showdowns with Maltese Birkirkara and Luxembourg Differdange, they were defeated by Turkish Fenerbahce in the decisive qualifying round (0-3, 1-3).

From October 2023, Maribor are coached by Slovenian specialist Ante Simundza, who already led the team to championship titles in 2014 and 2015, and won gold of the Bulgarian championship with Ludogorets in the previous season. The most prolific players now are Austrian forward Arnel Jakupovic (8 goals), Slovenian midfielder Jan Repas (6 goals, 3 assists), and also the main star, 35-year-old Josip Ilicic (4 goals, 4 assists).

Shakhtar and Maribor last met in the winter of 2023, also at the training camp in Turkey, and played a super-spectacular match that ended in a 4-4 draw. The goals for the Miners were scored by Oleksandr Zubkov, Dmytro Kryskiv and Artem Bondarenko, who scored twice, and Ivan Brnic and Marko Bozic netted braces for the Slovenes.