Preview

April 13, Kharkiv, OSK Metalist, 17:00
Live broadcast on Futbol 2 channel

Before the match

The Orange-and-Blacks started the title race by securing a 1-0 away win at Oleksandriia. There are still 9 more most important games in the UPL stage two. Paulo Fonseca’s men may well extend the clean-sheet run vs Zorya, which already involves 6 rounds, and also claim a win at the OSK Metalist after the first stage draw.

Recently, the team arrived in Kharkiv without the suspended Junior Moraes and Alan Patrick. Olarenwaju Kayode is most likely to be spearheading attacks. Interestingly, the Nigerian made his debut with Shakhtar a year ago (April 1st, 2018) just in the game vs Zorya, coming on as a substitute and scoring a goal.

The managers Paulo Fonseca and Yurii Vernydub will meet each other for the 12th time: Shakhtar under the leadership of the Portuguese won 9 games, with one victory in favour of Zorya and one draw. It is noteworthy that the Miners scored goals against the Black-and-Whites in each of the recent 15 games in all competitions (38 goals).
 
Opponents

Zorya are the fifth in the table, being 2 points ahead of Lviv and 1 point behind Mariupol, having finished the regular part of the championship with suffering a defeat at the hands of Shakhtar at the Slavutych-Arena; the second stage began vs Dynamo, they were 2-0 in front, but ultimately lost 2-3. The best scorer Oleksandr Karavaev (7 goals). Maksym Bilyi was suspended.

Head-to-head record

The teams met 38 times in the Championship: Shakhtar won 32 games, Zorya claimed 5 wins, plus 1 draw. The goal difference is 96-24. At home, the Miners secured 15 wins, 1 draw and suffered 3 defeats (44-13).

Recent league encounter

On March 16, in Zaporizhia, the goal by Moraes in the 25th minute was victorious: Ismaily, Marlos, and Taison took part in the attack, with Bolbat making a great delivery. Early in the second half, the substitute Budkovskyi forced Pyatov to work, and then Shakhtar had two more excellent chances: Felipe rescued his side from Kovalenko’s attempt, with Moraes sending it home past Tymchik from a good position.