Preview

March 16, Zaporizhya, Slavutych-Arena, 17:00
Live broadcast on 2+2 TV channel

Before the match

The first stage of the UPL has reached the final straight. In the final round of its regular part, Shakhtar will face a difficult away match vs Zorya, in which they need to score 3 points to keep the closest pursuers at a distance.

The Miners filled the gap between the 2 competitive games with a friendly vs the U21 team, in which Fernando and Tete scored goals. However, the league debut of the latter is postponed until the next rounds. On Saturday, Paulo Fonseca will rely on the proven footballers.

Shakhtar are approaching the next game after a run of four victories, keeping all clean sheets. Interestingly, in the Premier League away games, the Orange-and-Blacks also kept their goal intact on four occasions in a row (vs Arsenal, Vorskla, Mariupol, and Chornomorets).

Opponents

Zorya secured a place in the top-6, sitting in the fourth spot in the table. After the winter break, Yurii Vernydub’s outfit suffered a major defeat at the hands of Dynamo (0-5), later claiming points vs Vorskla (3-0) and Lviv (0-0).

The Luhansk side have successfully played in Zaporizhia, enjoying an unbeaten run of 6 games since late August last year. It is noteworthy that in those encounters, none of the visiting sides scored more than one goal at the Slavutych-Arena. In the current UPL campaign, Zorya made 285 shots on target (3rd result after Shakhtar and Dynamo), scoring 28 goals (the same number as Oleksandriia).

The left-back Bohdan Mykhailychenko will miss the Saturday match due to the yellow cards earned.

Head-to-head record

Shakhtar beat Zorya 31 times in the Championship, losing five times and drawing once. The goal difference is 95-24. On the opponents’ field, the Orange-and-Blacks won 16 out of 18 games.

Previous league meeting

In October, for the first time in the UPL history, the opponents had to be content with a draw. Back then, Moraes brought the Miners in front in the 38th minute, with a spot-kick being awarded vs the Miners immediately after the break. Pyatov parried away Kharatin’s spot-kick attempt, but the latter still managed to send the deflected ball home – 1-1.