Dnipro vs Shakhtar: preview

The Orange-and-Blacks are preparing for the meeting in a good mood. The team’s winning streak in all competitions comprises eight games. On Thursday, the charges of Paulo Fonseca won the Europa League group stage matchday 5 game, beating Konyaspor (TUR) 4-0, currently turning their attention to domestic competitions.

A week ago, Shakhtar beat Karpaty in the league, keeping the eight-point gap from the second-spot Dynamo Kyiv. Due to the yellow cards received in the previous round, Darijo Srna, Maksym Malyshev and Bernard will miss the upcoming game vs Dnipro.

Following Karpaty, Shakhtar will meet another team to have faced a six point penalty by FIFA Disciplinary Committee. Dnipro have the last but one position in the table, having a chance to make it only past Lutsk-based Volyn in the short run.

In the past three Ukrainian league rounds, the charges of Dmytro Mykhailenko drew with Stal, suffered a defeat at the hands of Dynamo and beat Vorskla. The man of the last match is Valeriy Luchkevych, who returned to the squad after recovering from injury, scoring a winner against the Poltava side.

We want to point out that Dnipro’s top scorers in the current league edition are Denys Balanyuk and Ruslan Rotan (3 goals each). The latter returned to the club in the course of the season and scored goals in the last two games.

The teams have had 50 league meetings to date. Shakhtar won 24, Dnipro won 13, with 13 draws. The goal difference is 79-54 in favour of the Orange-and-Blacks.

Dnipro claimed 10 home wins in 25 meetings. The Pitmen won 9 times, drawing on 6 occasions. The goal difference is 39-38 in favour of Dnipro (including the game for the 3rd spot in 1992 in Zaporizhya, where they were the nominal hosts).

The round 5 game in Lviv ended 4-0 in favour of Shakhtar. After positional challenges early in the game, the Donetsk team converted a set piece in the 13th minute: Rakitskyy made a delivery, with Srna crossing it and Ordets sending it home. Just a few moments later, the Orange-and-Blacks doubled the lead: Dentinho scored after Shakhtar taking another corner kick. In the second half, Marlos and Ferreyra sealed the win.

The Pitmen started their goal-scoring league streak on August 28, 2015, extending it to 35 matches (99 goals).

Facundo Ferreyra is topping the league’s top scorers race with 7 goals.