Preview

The starting whistle will sound at 10:00 Kyiv time (EET). Watch the live stream on Shakhtar TV and Shakhtar Club.

Close acquaintances

Shakhtar footballers Artem Bondarenko, Oleksandr Drambaev, Oleksii Kashchuk, Ihor Kiryukhantsev, Andrii Kulakov, Nazarii Muravskyi, Oleh Ocheretko, Danyil Sikan, Viacheslav Tankovskyi, Dmytro Topalov and Maksym Chekh play on loan at Mariupol. These players do not take part in competitive games against the Miners in the Ukrainian Championship.

4-1 in the league

The teams have already played in the Premier League this season: on October 30, Shakhtar won 4-1. Taison netted two goals, with Heorhii Sudakov, Alan Patrick and Mariupol midfielder Serhii Horbunov scoring a goal each. All in all, the Orange-and-Blacks have 41 wins in 45 meetings, including four draws.

Leaders

Artem Bondarenko is the top scorer of Mariupol this season, although he scored only three goals, including one spot-kick goal (he scored goals against Dnipro-1, Minaj and Inhulets). Andriy Kulakov is in the lead for the number of assists (3). The fullback Petro Stasyuk boasts the most crosses and deliveries in the team (34). He, along with Serhii Chobotenko, has the maximum number of interceptions, with Serhii Horbunov and Ihor Kiryukhantsev dribbling more often than others.

Fifth friendly

Mariupol has been working on the training camp in Turkey since January 7th. Like Shakhtar, the team have had four friendlies so far. Ostap Markevych's men played against the Czech Slovan (1-3, Ocheretko) and the Polish Rakow (2-2, Kashchuk and Tankovskyi, both from the spot), vs the Kazakh Kyzylzhar (4-0, a double by Mishnev, plus goals by Stasyuk and Kulakov) and vs the Serbian Proleter (1-1, Sikan).