U19. Shakhtar 1-0 Oleksandriya

Goal: 1-0 Konoplya (27)

Shakhtar: Pospelov, Konoplya, Mate, Bondar, Korniyenko, Sobolevskyi (Hudz, 25), Putrya (Pavlish, 90), Yakimets (Zaporoshchenko, 80), Kulakov (Tkachuk, 64), Topalov (c), Andrushchenko (Prodanov, 46)

Unused subs: Kucherenko, Kuzmenko

Coach: Henadiy Orbu

Oleksandriya: Havrusevch, Kalynchuk, Serdyuk, Hura, Koreshkov, Maksymets, Lachinov (Litvyak, 46), Dovhyi, Antoshyk (Stetskov, 64), Mandei (Sapelkin, 17; Pastukhov, 89) Drozd (Hranchar, 64)

Unused subs: Chernyatynskyi, Titarenko

Coach: Serhiy Laktionov

Booked: Sobolevskyi (3), Tkachuk (70), Mate (82)

Referee: Andrii Kholyavko (Lviv)

The previous round win at Arsenal (3-0) brought Shakhtar back among the U19 league leaders. After six games, the Pitmen scored 12 points. In the game against Oleksandriya, the team missed one of the leaders – Oleksiy Kashchuk. He, together with the Shakhtar U19 head coach Serhiy Popov, went to join the Ukraine national team, who have been currently competing  for the U19 EURO 2017 berth.

Oleksandriya have won the last three matches, which allowed them to climb up to the second spot in the table. The charges of Ihor Laktionov scored 14 points in seven games.

From the off, Shakhtar started playing open football, with Oleksandriya, who accepted it, not dropping deep down their box. The Orange-and-Blacks had significant advantage, with danger occurring exceptionally near the visitors’ goal. Already in the opening stages, Topalov and Putrya put Kulakov one-on-one with the keeper, but the goalkeeper won the duel. Shorlty afterwards, the situation happened again, with Shakhtar striker beating the goalkeeper this time only to see the ball go wide. The hosts’ attacking moves were actively supported by the defenders, with Mate’s and Bondar’s attempts going wide, and Yefim Konoplya’s connection in the 27th minute bearing fruit: receiving the ball on the right-hand side of the penalty box, he cut inside towards the middle of the field and sent the ball with his left foot into the far top corner to make it 1-0. Even before the break, the players of Shakhtar had several good opportunities to extend the lead. Kulakov attempted a long-ranger only to see it whizz by the goalpost. Korniyenko was targeting the far corner, with a goalpost interfering with it. And the attempts by Yakimets and Andruschenko were cleared by the goalkeeper.

In the second half, Oleksandriya tried to move the action away from their box, but the Orange-and-Blacks continued to play on top and create chances. Illya Putrya made the away keeper use his reflexes from close range, then producing a great pass to Andriy Kulakov, who - finding himself opposite the goal - hesitated for a split second and was late to fire it home. In response, the opponents were close to taking advantage of the Pitmen’s defensive imbalance, with Valeriy Bondarclearing the ball off the goal line. The final part of the meeting was nervous, with many challenges for the ball and fouls. The visitors boldly charged forward, but the Donetsk team coped with their attacks and several times launched dangerous counterattacks themselves. The substitution players Prodanov and Tkachuk wasted their chances, with Korniyenko’s shots lacking accuracy.

The final whistle marked Shakhtar’s narrow win at Oleksandriya (1-0). This allowed the Orange-and-Blacks to get past the opponents in the table. Shakhtar U19 team will play their next game in four days’ time: on September 28, they are to play Odesa-based Chornomorets away.

- We played the first half very well in terms of organization of the game, showcasing some quality and fluid football, and had to decide the game even before the break. However, from a great many scoring chances, we managed to capitalise on just one. Poor finishing remains our major issue this season. And it turned out that we ourselves created the suspense in the second half. The last 15-20 minutes were tough: the opponents constantly delivered long balls into the box, with numerous challenges for the ball and half-chances occurring near our goal... Again, we could have avoided all that if we had scored another two or three goals in the first hour of the game. We wasted a lot of energy, which might be very helpful to us, given that in three days’ time we are facing Chornomorets. Now, our main objective is the team recovery and preparation for the match in Odesa.