Mariupol vs Shakhtar: match preview

April 10, Kyiv, NSC Olimpiyskiy, 14:00

Match build-up

This meeting was supposed to take place in Mariupol, but it was moved to the capital of Ukraine due to the unavailability of the pitch. Thus, Shakhtar will play the away match without leaving Kyiv. This is a common thing for Mariupol: this season, the team had nearly all of their matches either on the opponents’ fields or on a neutral one.

Shakhtar’s winning streaks have not been longer than three wins this season. The Orange-and-Blacks drew six times and suffered two defeats, being seven points adrift of Dynamo. In the next round, they will meet head to head with the Kyiv side, having the opportunity to reduce the gap and challenge the latter in the title race, but the nearest encounter is with Mariupol, with the win being no less important.

Last Sunday, Luis Castro’s men defeated Vorskla 2-0, after which the coaching staff had the opportunity to schedule a full training cycle before the next matches. It is important that the game elements that caused issues this season have been practised by nearly the full team squad. Only David Khocholava was training individually. Yevhen Konoplyanka has been recovering from an injury. Here we also want to mention Marlos earning four yellow cards - he will not face Mariupol either.

Opponents

Mariupol have not seen any wins across eight rounds since December: the streak was interrupted on April 3 against Inhulets, with Artem Bondarenko scoring a hat-trick, and Petro Stasyuk netting the winner (4-3).

The youngest UPL team sits in the eighth spot in the league table. Most often Ostap Markevych uses the formations of 4-1-4-1 or 4-4-1-1, but in the upcoming round the head coach of Mariupol will have to make changes in every third, except for the goalkeeper. This is due to the fact that, firstly, the backbone consists of the players on loan from Shakhtar, and secondly, the team's playing time leader Dmytro Myshnyov has been suspended.

Head-to-head record

After 45 matches, Shakhtar have 41 victories and four draws. The Miners scored 119 goals, Mariupol netted 28.

Previous meeting