U19. Dynamo vs Shakhtar: match preview

The Pitmen started the season with a confident win against Stal (5-0). It was started by defenders: Illia Putria scored a penalty and Valerii Bondar got the ball in the net after a set-play. Subsequently the team captain Dmytro Topalov scored a double, and Oleksii Kashchuk added a goal to his three assists. Thanks to a major win, Serhiy Popov's squad is leading the championship standings.

In the first round Dynamo earned three points in Poltava (3: 2) though it was not that easy. The winning goal in the match against Vorskla was scored two minutes before the final whistle. The Kyiv team won thanks to goals by Rusin, Alibekov and Zubkov. 

This is the first time that the teams will meet at the Valeriy Lobanovskiy Stadium, previously used for Dynamo-2 and U21 games of the White-and-Blues. Prior to that, the opponents played at the base in Koncha-Zaspa.

Dynamo are the winners of the last U19 championship. In summer they got a new coach - Yurii Moroz, who previously worked with the Kyiv's U21 team and U19 national teams. The squad has also changed: the players born in 1998 were joined by Dynamo DUFL graduates and several players from other teams.

The teams met 8 times within the U19 championship of Ukraine.

In four years of the championship's existence, Shakhtar U19 is the only team to have a winning spot every season. The Pitmen became winners in the 2014/15 season, and also took silver (2014) and bronze (2013, 2016) twice.

Shakhtar U19 have not been defeated in an away game since September 2015. The streak consists of 10 matches (eight wins and two draws). At the same time, Dynamo U19 has not lost a home game in their last 14 matches.