Preview

September 27, Kyiv, NSC Olimpiyskiy, 17:00

Before the match

It's time for Shakhtar to win. This is the key thought with which the Miners have been working throughout this week, this is what they discuss in interviews and what the fans demand. Luis Castro's men won the MD1 game vs Kolos (3-1), but after the international duty they drew twice - with Zorya in Zaporizhia (2-2) and with Rukh in Lviv (1-1). One way or another, there is no single participant in the league with all wins. A possible victory over Olimpik may well raise the champions from the 7th to the 4th or 3rd spot.

The match vs Rukh echoed with the suspension of Bondar and the injury of Konoplyanka – Yevhen trained individually yesterday. However, Luis Castro has more than enough players to choose from, plus in the last two games there was little rotation, so some players either spent just short time on the pitch or simply continue training and waiting for their chance.

Opponents

Olimpik performed not very well last season - they had a losing streak of 7 games by the end of the first Premier League stage. Just before quarantining, the Spaniard Vicente Gomez left the club, with Ihor Klymovskyi taking charge of the team again. The Donetsk outfit began to gain points (3 draws, 3 wins on the field and 2 default victories over Karpaty) - as a result, they advanced to the 9th position from the penultimate 11th spot.

In the summer, Klymovskyi was approved as the manager. Olimpik had to start the new league campaign with a meeting with Dynamo: the Kyiv team won Mircea Lucescu’s first competitive game with a score of 4-1, with the only goal in Olimpik’s favour being scored by captain Serhii Politylo. Then the newcomers Ruslan Babenko and Benito joined the team, with the latter being on loan from Dynamo. The striker and the winger scored the most goals. Shahab and Teixeira scored 5 out of 6 goals in their victories over Dnipro-1 and Minaj. As a result, the team are approaching the derby vs Shakhtar in an excellent mood and with a point’s lead.

Head-to-head record

The clubs have never met in competitive games in Donetsk, but in the league they have met on 14 occasions to date: Shakhtar won 10 times, with a draw being registered 4 times. The goal difference is 44-11.

Previous meeting

On December 6, the Orange-and-Blacks hosted the opponents in Kharkiv and won 3-0. In the 4th minute, Matviienko netted an early goal for Shakhtar: after three corners in a row and an unsuccessful clearance, Mykola received the ball and fired it right inside the left corner. Over the next hour, the score was tight, although the Miners produced multiple attempts: hitting the goalkeeper, the defenders and sending it wide. But in the 77th minute, a blistering attack involving Patrick, Taison, Kovalenko, Moraes and Marlos ended in the latter’s precision shot, with Ismaily finishing off Taison’s late attempt to make it 3-0!