Shakhtar vs Hoverla: preview

In the 3rd round of the Pari-Match League, Mircea Lucescu’s charges will meet with their Hoverla Uzhhorod counterparts. We bring to our attention the traditional match preview.

August 1, Lviv, Arena Lviv, 19:30.
Live broadcast available on Futbol 2 TV channel.

Shakhtar got off to a confident league start,  claiming two convincing victories over Oleksandriya and Volyn. These results were due to a good attitude to the game and top concentration. Similarly, in no case should the Pitmen get complacent ahead of the game vs Hoverla, who haven’t suffered any defeats this season yet. The Uzhhorod-based team renewed during the pre-season due to the appearance of some loaned players, taking points away from the country’s representatives in the European club competitions - Dnipro and Vorskla.

Match officials

Referee – Oleksandr Derdo (Illichivsk)
Assistant referees – Natalya Rachynska (Kyiv), Ihor Alyokhin (Khmelnytskyi)
Fourth official – Yuriy Mozharovskyi (Lviv)
Referee observer – Oleksandr Shamich (Kyiv)

Personnel

The match against Hoverla is listed on Shakhtar’s calendar between the two legs against Fenerbahce. Mircea Lucescu will decide on the starting line-up based on the players’ readiness and the need to deploy them before the return leg against the vice-champions of Turkey. We want to make a special mention of the fact that Serhiy Kryvtsov already trains in the general group.

We cannot but mention the following fact regarding Hoverla: in the opening two rounds, the team fielded the same starting line-up (Rudko, Lulka, Jagodinskis, Lukhtanov, Tsurikov, Chumak, Savchenko, Khoblenko, Khudobyak, Hemeha, Khlebas).

The teams’ average league performance:

Shakhtar - 3 goals per game;
Hoverla - 1 goal per game.

Statistics

General team performance

The first domestic league match took place on July 7, 2001. In Donetsk, at the CS Shakhtar, the hosts claimed a major 5-1 win at the then Zakarpattya. Henadiy Zubov (brace), Julius Aghahowa and Oleksiy Bakharev put their names on the scoresheet. Andriy Oksymets scored an own goal. The consolation goal for Uzhhorod was netted by Serhiy Bohatyryov.
 
The most frequent score is the 1-0 win for Shakhtar (4 times).
The most prolific game was played last season, when Shakhtar and Hoverla scored 10 goals together (the Pitmen’s 7-3 away win).  
The sides’ league matches were attended by over 236,000 spectators, or about 14,800 per game on average.

Individual performance

Coaches. Ukrainian League

The teams’ previous league meeting:

Ukrainian League 2014-15. 23rd round
May 9, 2015. Uzhhorod. Avanhard stadium. 15C

Hoverla (Uzhgorod) 3-7 (1-3) Shakhtar (Donetsk)
Goals: 0-1 Gladkyy (1’), 0-2 Costa (13’), 0-3 Gladkyy (18’), 1-3 Khlebas (41’), 2-3 Khlebas (47’), 3-3 Myakushko (53’), 3-4 Rakits’kyy (63’), 3-5 Adriano (76’), 3-6 Stepanenko (78’), 3-7 Teixeira (90’, pen.)

Hoverla: Koval, Lyulka, Yagodinskis (Kaverin, 22’), Akakpo (Lukhtanov, 79’), Kacharaba, Tudose, Rajevich (Trukhin, 73’), Simic, Myakushko, Khlebas, Feshchuk (c)
Unused subs: Bon, Rodic, Akimov, Tom
Head coach: Vyacheslav Hroznyi

Shakhtar: Pyatov, Srna (c), Kryvtsov, Rakits’kyy, Shevchuk (Dentinho, 46’), Stepanenko, Fred, Teixeira, Costa (Adriano, 57’), Marlos (Kovalenko, 72’), Hladkyi
Unused subs: Sarnavskyi, Volovyk, Kucher, Fernando
Head coach: Mircea Lucescu

Booked: Kacharaba (60’), Tudose (67’), Adriano (69’), Rakits’kyy (82’)
Referee: Yuriy Moseychuk (Chernivtsi)

The match in Uzhhorod was very prolific. Midway through the first half, Shakhtar scored three goals. Being his 150th appearance for the Pitmen, Oleksandr Gladkyy opened the scoring as early as in the 1st minute. Then, another hero of the day Douglas Costa fired home a precision goal (in his 200th appearance for Shakhtar). After Gladkyy grabbed a brace, the match outcome seemed to be final. But Hoverla didn’t agree to that. Khlebas made the score tight after notching goals before and just after the break, with Myakushko levelling it 3-3 a bit later! Shakhtar needed to prove their mettle, and they did it: following Rakits’kyy’s goal, the Donetsk side were back to their confident and risky performance, claiming a major win in the closing 15 minutes of the meeting.

This is a reminder that tickets for the match can be purchased online on the official website of FC Shakhtar as well as at the stadium’s ticket office.