U21. Karpaty vs Shakhtar: match preview

May 7, Lviv, Ukraina stadium, 14:00

Opponents

In the penultimate round, Shakhtar will go on a visit to the ninth team of the U21 League - Karpaty. It should be noted that in the 2009/10 season, the reserve team of Lviv became the champions of Ukraine, with the Pitmen not winning on Karpaty pitch since May 2007. Since then, in the following eight away games, the Pitmen drew thrice, and it happened for the last time in the autumn of 2011. On the other hand, in the home games Shakhtar reserve team have not had any issues against Lviv (enjoying eight wins in 10 matches with the goal difference of 30-8). In the spring part of the current league season, Karpaty managed to finetune their performance, being confirmed by five wins in eight meetings and the home draw against the leaders Dynamo (2-2). In the previous round, Lviv beat Vorskla away (1-0) owing to the goal by the team captain Volodymyr Savoshko. He is also the top scorer of Karpaty this season, boasting nine goals.

Before the match

A week ago, the team of Miguel Cardoso lost a key match to their main competitors Dynamo. The Kyiv side are now three points ahead of the Pitmen in the table, and in this matchday they will claim a technical victory over Metalurh Zaporihya, finishing the league season away against Metalist. Shakhtar, alongside the game vs Karpaty, will have a home game against Zorya. On Saturday in Lviv, the Pitmen’s coaching staff will have to do without the suspended Artem Ivanov. Karpaty’s Nazar Verbnyi will not play due to the same reason.

Referee – Oleksandr Derdo (Chornomorsk)
Assistant referees – Volodymyr Fedunets’ (Ternopil), Volodymyr Zhurybida (Lutsk)
Fourth official – Oleksandr Kalenov (Lviv)
Referee observer – Yevhen Herenda (Kalush)

Match background

In the entire history of the Youth championships, Shakhtar and Karpaty had 19 meetings. Nine wins belong to the Pitmen, with Lviv having six wins, with four other meetings ending in a draw. The goal difference is in favour of the Donetsk club: 42-26. In December game in the first round, Donetsk won on the synthetic pitch in Schaslyve (2-0), with Andriy Boryachuk grabbing a brace for the winners. In the previous league season, Karpaty claimed a home win at the stadium in Rava-Russkaya (2-1). In Poltava, in the closing league season game, they had a draw (1-1), with the visitors opening the scoring following Vladimir Savoshko shot midway through the second half, with the Pitmen responding with a goal 10 minutes before the final whistle.

Interesting facts

The league’s top scorer Andriy Boryachuk (20 goals) still pretend to set a new club record for Shakhtar in terms of the number of goals scored in the season, and at the same time try to claim the all-time record in the youth championships, belonging to Oleksandr Aliyev (21 goals).

Shakhtar reserve team players Oleh Kudryk, Vasyl Sahaidak, Taras Kacharaba and team captain Mykhailo Shyshka were born and raised in Lviv oblast, where they had started playing football.

The opponents will meet for the first time at Ukraina stadium, where, until recently, the Lviv first team used to play their home games.

Karpaty reserve team is the most undisciplined in the current league season, with 63 bookings and 7 suspensions.

FIFA referee Oleksandr Derdo ormerly used to work at four matches of the reserve teams of Shakhtar and Karpaty: in Donetsk, Shakhtar won three wins with an aggregate score of 15-1, while in Lviv it was 2-1 in favour of the host side.