Moraes’s day

The Miners gathered in full force just two days before the match, but Mykola Matviienko, Tete and David Khocholava could not take part in the game for various reasons. Among the personnel decisions of Luis Castro we want to mention the start of the young defenders Valerii Bondar and Marquinhos Cipriano, and the main event was the return to the pitch of Taras Stepanenko who was out for nearly six weeks due to a recurrent injury.

Late opener

The teams started the meeting very actively, with Shakhtar players trying really hard offensively - they were expected to open the scoring already in the 10th minute: Solomon hit the post, Moraes tried to score through a bicycle kick, attempts by Marlos and the same Solomon were blocked by the defenders, with the ‘shelling’ ending in a Maycon effort going high! The Orange-and-Blacks extended their initiative, but the next dangerous moment happened just midway through the half when Maycon curled his signature free-kick towards the corner - just wide. The Poltava side responded with a chance by Yakubu after Luizao's cross - Anatolii Trubin came to the visitors’ rescue. Right then, the Miners produced another threatening free-kick - it was Alan Patrick who checked the strength of the goal-post with his powerful effort just to see the deflected ball cross the line. And when it seemed that the teams would leave for the break without netting any goals, the birthday boy took the floor: in the 42nd minute, Patrick brought the forward through on target with a subtle pass, Junior Moraes tricked his marksman and planted it inside the far post, making it 0-1. Solomon could have doubled the advantage, but Riznyk coped with his attempt.

Junior's 100th goal

At the beginning of the second half, the hosts tried to level the game, but they failed to create any danger in front of the Donetsk side's goal, meanwhile the Miners carried out a crushing counterattack in the 62nd minute: Alan Patrick again found Junior Moraes in the penalty box, with the latter sending the deflected ball off the post and into the back of the net to secure his 100th goal in the Ukrainian Championships! Just a couple of minutes later, Manor Solomon was obliged to seal the win, but his strike was parried away by the goalkeeper again. To the credit of the Poltava outfit, they did not give up and tried to win back at least one goal. The closest to doing so were Stepanyuk and Chesnokov, but the orange-and-black goalkeeper Trubin managed to stop both the eight-metre range attempt of the former and the effort of the latter.

2-0 - Shakhtar beat Vorskla through a brace by Moraes who marked his 34th birthday that day.

Luis Castro's men will play the next match against Mariupol on April 10. It kicks off at 14:00.

Vorskla Poltava 0-2 (0-1) Shakhtar Donetsk

Poltava, A. Butovskyi Vorskla Stadium, behind closed doors

Goals: 0-1 Moraes (42’), 0-2 Moraes (62’)

Shakhtar: Trubin, Dodo, Kryvtsov, Bondar, Cipriano, Stepanenko (c), Maycon, Patrick (Marcos - 90’), Marlos (Fernando - 73’), Solomon (Mudryk - 90’), Moraes (Dentinho - 82’)