U21. Chornomorets 0-4 Shakhtar

U21 Championship. The 29th round.

May 12, 2017. Odesa. SOK Lustdorf. Att: 100. 15^oC.

Chornomorets Odesa U21 0-4 (0-2) Shakhtar Donetsk U21 

Goals: 0-1 Hluschuk (9), 0-2 Pikhalyonok (36), 0-3 Arabidze (63), 0-4 Arabidze (73, pen.)

Missed penalty: Ihnatenko (51, goalkeeper)

Chornomorets: Smorodin, Shchetinin, Kalitov, Babohlo (Popov, 54), Svirchuk, Seleznov, Khamelyuk (c), Varenyk (Mikhailichenko, 46), Pereverza, Murashov (Hladchenko, 46), Carnoza (Chernyshov, 59)

Unused subs: Lobodrov, Ihnatiev, Sokolov

Senior coach: Henadii Nizhehorodov

Shakhtar: Kudryk, Hrachev, Bondar, Kacharaba, Korniienko (Masalov, 75), Hluschuk, Ihnatenko (Sahutkin, 84), Pikhalyonok (c) (Hlahola, 80), Yalovenko, Arabidze (Kiryukhantsev, 86), Topalov

Unused subs: Hrytsenko, Korobenko

Head coach: Valeriy Kryventsov

Booked: Pikhalyonok (79), Masalov (90)

Sent off: Pereverza (73)

Referee: Yevhen Aranovskyi (Kyiv)

Before the match

This season, the opponents have already met three times, with all three games ending in the Pitmen’s wins: 2-1 in Odesa, 3-0 and 4-0 in Schaslyve. Valeriy Kryventsov made several rearrangements in the starting line-up of the Orange-and-Blacks: so, in the opening minutes appeared Volodymyr Hrachev and Roman Yalovenko, with the midfield trio Pikhalyonok-Hluschuk-Ihnatenko reuniting.

First half

In the recent matches, Shakhtar failed to excel in the first half, but today they’ve opened the scoring as early as in the 9th minute. Kacharaba and Korniienko launched an attack down the left wing and put Topalov through, with Dmytro finding Yurii Hluschuk in the box, who rounded a defender and struck home right into the bottom corner – 1-0. The Donetsk side continued operating quickly and aggressively, meeting the opponents high upfield and not allowing the hosts to develop their attacks. In turn, due to their speed the Pitmen easily passed the Sailors’ defensive third and created threats. Yalovenko beat the opponents, played one-two with Arabidze and found himself one on one, but the goalkeeper reacted. The forward’s two corner headers were inaccurate. Hluschuk rolled the ball to his teammates: Pikhalyonok’s cross was parried away by Smorodin, with Arabidze striking inches off the top corner. However, the third assist ended in a goal: in the 36th minute, Oleksandr Pikhalyonok fired the ball just under the crossbar from the edge of the box – 2-0.

Second half

No sooner had resumed the match than the visitors earned a spot kick: the Odesa defender played a handball in the own penalty area. However, the goalkeeper guessed the direction of Danylo Ihnatenko’s shot right and rescued Chornomorets. But it didn’t embarrass the Pitmen at all, and they delivered a perfect counterattack in the 63rd minute: Topalov received the ball from Ihnatenko, entered the penalty area and fed the oncoming Arabidze, who made the score 3-0. Valeriy Kryventsov’s men launched a series of blistering attacks, which lacked only the killer pass. However, it was after the counterattack that the Donetsk team earned another penalty: Pereverza stopped Topalov at the price of a red card. The verdict was undertaken by Giorgi Arabidze and left the keeper with no chances by hitting the top left corner. This goal is the Georgian midfielder’s 12th success this season, with him continuing to challenge the top scorer title. Even being short-handed, the Odesa side continued to charge forward in the hope of a consolation goal, but Oleh Kudryk and the Orange-and-Black defenders easily coped with all the threats coming mainly from set pieces. As a result, the score has not changed. 4-0 – Shakhtar's fourth victory over Chornomorets this season.

In the next round on May 20, the Pitmen are facing a derby vs Olimpik.

Oleksandr Pikhalionok, Shakhtar U21 captain:

- Chornomorets are a good side, capable of delivering troubles to any opponents. Even today, if we look at the score, it seems that we claimed a victory hands down, but this is not entirely true. Of course, an opening goal in the 9th minute helped us, forcing the visiting team to move from defence. And the second goal still did not guarantee a win. After the break, we came onto the pitch with a commitment not to concede and to claim a third goal to protect ourselves against surprises. We had many clear-cut chances, and it was necessary to convert them more accurately, then we would score much more than four. However, most importantly, we brought the match to a win.

Yurii Hluschuk, Shakhtar U21 midfielder:

- Despite the fact that we have beaten Chornomorets in all four fixtures, we cannot call the opponents easy to win. It's usually tough ot play in Odesa, but today everything turned out well: we prepared for the match and managed to score an early goal... When you score an early goal, it's always easier, because the opponents switch to more open game, and we have a lot of free spaces for attacking moves. After the second goal, the Odesa side surged forward in numbers wishing to make a comeback in front of their fans. But we caught them on counterattacks and scored two more goals. However, we had to score more goals.