Preview

September 26, Veres, Avanhard, 17:00

Match build-up

Shakhtar, who are 13-time winners of the trophy, are returning to the tournament 2 years after their last cup match. In the fall of 2021, the Miners beat Chornomorets (3-0) also in the last 16, but the competition was not completed due to the beginning of the full-scale war and the Ukrainian Cup was not held at all in the previous season.

This will be the third game during the week for Patrick van Leeuwen's side: after the Champions League kickoff against Porto (1-3), the Orange-and-Blacks had a very difficult UPL match against Rukh (1-1) at the weekend, playing almost the entire match with one man down. At the same time, Shakhtar remained the leaders in the league with 18 points and no defeats. The most productive footballers of the team in the season are Oleksii Kashchuk and Mykola Matviienko (3 goals each).

Opponents

Veres started their Ukrainian Cup campaign from the last 32 match against first-league Epitsentr, winning 3-1 thanks to the goal by Haiduchyk and the double by Vladyslav Sharai. The league results are not so positive for the Rivne-based outfit so far: Serhii Lavrynenko's side have 5 points and are in the 15th spot after 7 rounds. The Red-and-Blacks shared the points with Obolon (0-0) in the last UPL game last Friday. Top scorers of Veres in the current season are brothers Vladyslav and Stanislav Sharai with 3 and 2 goals respectively.

Match background

Shakhtar and Veres previously met 15 times: the Miners won 12 matches, 2 matches ended in a draw, with the Rivne-based team proving stronger in one clash. Total goal difference: 31-8 in favour of the Orange-and-Blacks. In particular, the teams locked horns in the 2017/18 Ukrainian Cup when the Pitmen defeated the opponents in the quarter-finals (4-0).

Previous meeting

On August 2, 2023, Shakhtar and Veres met in the UPL MD2 game in Rivne. The Miners scored first when Mykola Matviienko was productive in the 45th minute, but got short-handed immediately after due to Bondarenko's sending-off. In the 62nd minute, Yevhenii Shevchenko equalized the score, and this result did not change until the end of the match – 1-1.