Preview

November 22, Kharkiv, OSK Metalist, 19:00
Live broadcast on Futbol 1 channel

Match build-up

After a fortnight’s break, the Championship resumes with the game involving the champions team this coming Friday night. The recent international duty is over now, with Shakhtar footballers Andriy Pyatov, Serhii Bolbat, Sergii Kryvtsov, Mykola Matviienko, Viktor Kovalenko, David Khocholava, Valerii Bondar, and Dodo having played for their national teams.
 
The Miners got back to work on Sunday. The coaching staff will have to check every player’s state to decide on the line-up to be fielded vs Lviv. Taison was suspended, Manor Solomon is recovering from an injury, while Junior Moraes and Marlos have already trained.
 
The tickets are on sale now. After the match vs Lviv, Shakhtar will go to England to meet with Manchester City in the UCL MD5 game.
  
Opponents

Before the international break, Yegishe Melikyan made his debut for Lviv as a manager. His outfit immediately defeated the bottom-of-table Vorskla (2-0 through goals by the Brazilians Renan and Pedro), currently having 3 points more than Poltava. Before that, the blue-golden team had had no wins in 8 consecutive rounds, which explains their penultimate position. With the same 11 points, Lviv’s fellow countrymen Karpaty sit just side by side with them.
 
We want to point out that Yegishe Melikyan opposed Shakhtar in the 2017/18 Premier League: his Stal suffered a 1-2 defeat, with Blanco Leschuk sealing the win only in the 5th minute of stoppage time. At the same time, Lviv have not scored a single goal vs Shakhtar in 5 matches.

Head-to-head record

Shakhtar have had 5 league victories over Lviv, along with one draw and one win in favour of the opponents. The goal difference is 14-2.

Previous league meeting

In August, at the Arena Lviv, Luis Castro’s men secured a comfortable score already before the break. In the 31st minute, Matviienko extended the corner kick by Marlos, with Dentinho racing past the defenders and planting the ball into the back of the net. A little later, Ismaily found in the penalty area Marlos who sent his volley right home. In the second half, Patrick scored one from the spot, but the referee unruled it and pointed to the spot again, with Sarnavskyi stopping the second attempt. The scoreline is 2-0 in favour of Shakhtar.