U21. Shakhtar vs Vorskla: preview

February 25, Schaslyve, Kniazha Arena, 13:00

Before the match

The Pitmen kick off the season’s spring part, holding the 2nd position in the U21 domestic league with a 3-point gap between the leaders. At the same time, the Donetsk side remain the most prolific team in the championship (with 46 goals scored) demonstrating the most reliable defensive performance (10 goals conceded).

Valeriy Kryventsov’s lads bridged the winter break by having the training camp in Turkey, where they had hold 10 test matches from 23 January to 17 February.

In the duel with the Poltava side, the top scorer of the Orange-and-Blacks Mykyta Adamenko will miss out through the injury, having 10 strikes to his name this season. Another Shakhtar prolific striker Giorgi Arabidze (with 10 goals under his belt) had a spell with the first team at the winter training camp but is currently back in the reserve team.

Referee - Ivan Bondar (Kyiv)
Assistant referees - Maksym Chos, Leonid Yarmolinskyi (both Kyiv)
Fourth official - Serhiy Skrypak (Kyiv)
Referee observer – Viktor Shvetsov (Odesa)

Opponents

Following 18 rounds this season, Vorskla currently rank 9th in the domestic league table, having earned 18 points (4 wins, 6 draws, 8 defeats). Poltava have registered the least number of goals in the league (15 goals), still trying to compensate that for their good defensive display (25 goals conceded). The side’s most prolific scorer of this season’s opening part became Oleksandr Sharylo (4 goals)

6 players left the U21 Vorskla side in winter. They were replaced by Myhailo Udod (from Dynamo), Vladyslav Sydorenko, Semen Kliuchyk, as well as Serhii Kosovskyi and Nazar Mukha, who joined the teammates from the U19 side. On top of that, the youth National youth team players Dmytro Reznyk, Oleh Ostapenko, Taras Sakiv, Mykola Kvasnyi, Bohdan Melnyk, Ivan Tyschenko and Dmytro Shapoval had the training camp together with the Poltava first team.

Match background

As part of the Ukrainian U21 and U19 league fixtures, Shakhtar and Vorskla had 24 matches in total: 13 wins by the Pitmen, 4 meetings ended in a draw, 7 wins by the Poltava side. The goal difference is 54-38 in favour of the Donetsk team.

Last season, both encounters ended in favour of the Orange-and-Blacks: a 3-1 away win and a 2-1 home victory in Schaslyve. In the first round of the current season, the teams met in Poltava, where Shakhtar exceeded again: Andrii Boriachuk and Mykyta Adamenko scored before the break. In the closing stages of the meeting, the opponents exchanged goals through Boriachuk and Sharylo to make it 3-1 in favour of the Pitmen.

Trivia

Shakhtar won last 5 home games vs Vorskla, having notched 21 goals across them.

The Poltava side have not secured a single win in the U21 league since October 15, 2016. Their winless streak totals 6 matches, with only 2 goals claimed throughout this timespan.