Preview

April 7, Lviv, Arena Lviv, 14:00
Live broadcast on the TV channel 24
 
Before the match
 
During the week, the Donetsk team were preparing for the next title race encounter at the Bannikov UTK. Taras Stepanenko and Bohdan Butko trained individually. There are no suspended players, so Paulo Fonseca has no personnel restrictions in his decisions this time.
 
Shakhtar are topping the league table being 6 points ahead of Dynamo. In the next round (April 14) they will meet with the archrivals in Kharkiv (buy tickets). Simultaneously with the match in Lviv, the Kyiv team will be entertaining Zorya.
 
Opponents
 
Veres scored 33 points, being ahead of Mariupol in terms of the goal difference. In general, the Rivne team concede few league goals (19), being second only to Shakhtar in this regard (18).
 
In Lviv, the Red-and-Blacks have been steadily gaining points: only the Miners managed to claim one win, with Zorya celebrating two wins at the Arena Lviv this season. In February, the men of Yurii Svirkov, who had replaced the head coach Yurii Virt in the course of the season, defeated Dynamo 3-1 (through the goals by Kulish, Siminin and Stepanyuk).
 
We want to note that the team was significantly renewed this recent winter: several experienced players left as free agents, with Sarnavskyi, Kameniuka, Kalenchuk, Lukyanchuk, Pryimak, Kozhanov, Myagkov and Kulish joining the team instead. They also signed up the young Brazilians Julio Cesar and Pepi.
 
At the start of the second stage, the Rivne team were weaker than Dynamo and Zorya (0-1 on both occasions); sharing points with Vorskla in the round 25 (0-0).
 
Head-to-head record 

In the championship, the teams had 8 encounters: Shakhtar won 6 times, Veres claimed 1 win, along with 1 draw. The goal difference is 15-5 in favour of the Orange-and-Blacks.
 
On the field of Veres, Shakhtar claimed three wins and suffered one defeat (the goal difference is 7-4).

Previous UPL meeting
 
Following the Cup success (4-0), the Orange-and-Blacks claimed the maximum result vs Veres in the Premier League (2-0). In the first half, Bernard, Rakits’kyy, Ferreyra and Fred had good chances, but the goal was scored early in the second half - Marlos converted a spot kick. Shakhtar did not give up the initiative, extending the lead in the 75th minute: Bandura parried away Ferreyra’s attempt, with the Argentine still finishing it off.