U21. Shakhtar 3-0 Stal

Goals: 1-0 Mihunov (2), 2-0 Arabidze (89, pen.), 3-0 Hlushchuk (90+3)

Shakhtar: Kudryk, Kiryukhantsev, Sahutkin (Bezuhlyi, 71), Kacharaba, Mihunov (V. Hrachev, 90+2), Masalov, Ihnatenko, Pikhalyonok (c), Zinkevych, Arabidze (Avagimyan, 90+2), Hlushchuk

Substitutes: Hrytsenko, Hlahola, Yalovenko, Senytskyi

Head coach: Valeriy Kryventsov

Stal: Penkov, Plutenko (Khotsianovskyi, 80), Danielyan (Kushnarenko, 87) Ulyanov, Pavlyuk, Antoshyn (c), Meskhi, Zaderaka, Danso (Kostenko, 59), Klymchuk, Debelko (Slastinov, 64)

Unused subs: Zlotar, G. Hrachev, Yakimov

Head coach: Yeghishe Melikyan

Booked: Ihnatenko (52), Danielyan (70), Sahutkin (70), Slastinov (75), Zinkevych (82), Pavlyuk (88)

Sent off: Slastinov (78, second yellow card)

Referee: Yevhen Aranovskyi (Kyiv)

The Pitmen, who beat Dnipro in the previous round (4-1) sit in the second spot in the table (38 points). Stal have the eighth position in the championship (18 points). The first-leg meeting between the teams on Kameske field ended in a major win for Valeriy Kryventsov’s side (3-0), with Mykyta Adamenko netting one and Andrii Boriachuk grabbing a brace. Both strikers have not taken part in today's match, which took place on a synthetic pitch: the former one due to injury, and the latter due to his preparation for the senior teams’ meeting. Yuriy Hlushchuk took over Adamenko’s roleon the left wing, with Oleksandr Masalov coming on at left back, with the trident Mihunov – Pikhalyonok – Ihnatenko operating in midfield.

The kickoff was promising: less than two minutes into the game, Shakhtar opened the scoring. Oleksandr Mihunov broke into open space in the penalty area and skilfully beat the goalkeeper after receiving a pass to make it 1-0. The Pitmen immediately dropped down their half of the field, not losing control of the game even for a second. As a result, all the dangerous situations in the first half happened near the away goal. Following an attempt by Arabidze, the goalkeeper caught the ball just under the crossbar, with Mihunov trying to finish off on the edge of the box an excellent move involving Zinkevych, Hlushchuk and Arabidze only to see the ball hit the bar. A large amount of assisting work was carried out by the central forward Oleksii Zinkevych. After one of his passing moves, Yuriy Hlushchuk found himself one-on-one with the keeper only to see Penkov make a save following a tight-angle attempt.

Early in the second half, Stal seized the initiative and, taking advantage of the hosts’ defensive errors, created a series of threatening situations. A few brilliant saves by Oleh Kudryk rescued Donetsk, and even he was caught off guard, the defenders backed him up. The Orange-and-Blacks responded with blistering counterattacks, however Kiryukhantsev, Arabidze and Mihunov wasted their chances. The pressure from the Steelworkers lowered after sending off Danylo Slastinov on 78 minutes, who managed to earn two yellow cards during a couple of minutes for diving. Towards the end, the Pitmen raised their pace and extended the lead. On 89 minutes, Giorgi Arabidze earned a penalty after his dribbling and converted it himself after beating the keeper and making it 2-0. And in injury time, the Donetsk team launched a counterattack, with Yuriy Hlushchuk firing home an Volodymyr Hrachev high ball. 3-0 – Shakhtar have thrashed stal again.

On December 11, the Pitmen will have their last and most important match in 2016: the next round will involve a Clasico vs Dynamo Kyiv.

- Today we had a difficult game, even though we got off to a powerful start: we scored an early goal, tried to combine a lot and operate in a versatile manner. We must give the opponents their due. It is evident that the team are organised and tactically trained. That is exactly why we faced some issues. Besides, our guys broke the performance discipline. To differ from the previous matches which were eventful and full of quality football securing the results, today the opponents have outplayed us, but again, because of our own mistakes. As a result, the meeting was nervous, tough and it gave our coaches a lot of information to analyse. In a week’s time, we are facing the most important second leg against Dynamo. Despite the fact that the guys feel exhausted after six months of performance, we will try to prepare the players and get the message across to them in order to make the team mobile and aggressive again.