Preview

May 25, Zhytomyr, Central Stadium, 15:30
The live broadcast will be available on UPL.TV

Match build-up

Shakhtar approach the last match of the season as the champions and winners of the Ukrainian Cup. The Orange-and-Blacks won the UPL gold medals early with 2 more rounds to the finish: the Pitmen currently have 71 points with a 63-22 goal difference, and the Miners' unbeaten streak in the league has reached 17 games. Marino Pusic rotates the team in the last matches, giving playing time to players who did not appear on the field so often. For example, 20-year-old goalkeeper Denys Tvardovskyi, a graduate of the club Academy, made his debut for the first team in the last round against Dnipro-1.

After a difficult clash in Dnipro lasting more than 4 hours, the coaching staff of the Miners gave their men 3 days off, so the team had only 2 training sessions before the match against the Zhytomyr outfit. We would like to add that Brazilian winger Eguinaldo will miss the match due to disqualification.

Opponents

Polissia have a strong tournament motivation in the last round – the team are competing for a place in the European competitions in their debut season in the Ukrainian Premier League. Serhii Shyshchenko's men are currently in 6th spot in the table with 47 points (goal difference: 37-30). The Green-and-Yellows must beat Shakhtar and hope for the defeat of one of the competitors, Dnipro-1 or Rukh (both have 49 points), in order to get into the cherished top five.

The Zhytomyr-based team are confidently spending the last 2 months: 4 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat in 7 league matches. The team has a chance to catch up with their opponents even in the last round, when they had an advantage over Metalist 1925, but they lost after conceding twice in the last minutes (3-3).

Match background

Shakhtar and Polissia met in the UPL on November 24, 2023 for the first time. The match at the Arena Lviv turned out to be quite competitive: from the beginning of the match, the teams each had several dangerous moments, but they could not convert them, and after the break, the Zhytomyr team focused on the defence of own goal, increasing the defensive forces as much as possible, and kept the draw in the game with the current champions – 0-0.

Polissia vs Shakhtar match will be officiated by the judging panel headed by Oleksii Drevinskyi. Assistants: Oleksandr Berkut and Semen Shlonchak. VAR system will be used during the game (Ihor Paskhal will be the VAR referee).