Preview

In the Premier League round 21, the Orange-and-Blacks will play Zirka.

February 25, Kharkiv, OSC Metalist, 17:00
Live broadcast on Futbol 1 TV channel
 
Before the match
 
Shakhtar have three days to recover from the UCL game vs Roma and prepare for the next round of the UPL. Thanks to the successful start in the second part of the season, the Miners train in an excellent mood. And their major motivation is the league table standing as they are still three points ahead of Dynamo.
 
Fred, Ivan Petriak and Ruslan Fomin have served their suspension terms and can now appear in the game vs Zirka. At the same time, Yaroslav Rakits’kyy is forced to miss two more league meetings.
 
We want to note that the Orange-and-Blacks will hold three games in a row in Kharkiv since February 16. The tickets are available online at shakhtar.com. In March, they will play away in Lviv and Rome.
 
Opponents
 
Zirka locked horns with Paulo Fonseca’s Shakhtar three times, with different specialists heading the team every time: Serhii Lavrinenko, Darijo Drudi and Roman Monarev. The latter is the current head coach.
 
Shakhtar’s opponents sit in the 9th spot with 18 points. Karpaty have the same number of points, Chornomorets have one point less, Stal have three points less. In the second round, the Kropyvnytskyi side met with the pursuers and never lost (they drew with Karpaty Lviv and Chornomorets Odesa, also defeating Stal Kamianske).
 
In the 20th round, Zirka suffered a home defeat at the hands of Mariupol (0-3, a hat-trick by Andrii Boriachuk).
 
Head-to-head record
 
The opposition comprises 15 games: 13 wins for Shakhtar, 1 draw and 1 win for Zirka. The goal difference is 36-12.
 
The Donetsk team proved stronger in 6 home games out of 7, with the aggregate goal difference of 16-6.
 
Previous league meeting
 
On September 23, 2017, the teams had a prolific encounter: Shakhtar won 4-2 in Kropyvnytskyi. Zirka responded to the goal by Ferreyra with an accurate strike by El Hamdaoui, with Marlos and Facundo winning the lead back before the break. In the 76th minute, Rassadkin reduced the deficit to a minimum, with Kovalenko sealing the win at the end of the meeting.