Experts determined the best coach, player, and symbolic team of the 2nd round

The Ukrainian Premier League continues to honor the heroes of the 2026/27 season and has compiled a symbolic team of the 2nd round of the UPL Championship, as well as named the best player and coach of the 2nd round. Traditionally, this was done in collaboration with hosts, experts, UPL commentators, and representatives of leading sports media outlets in Ukraine. This time there were 40 of them.

In the survey conducted by UPL.TB, the following participated: Yuriy Virt, Vitaliy Volochay, Volodymyr Zverov, Bohdan Kostiuk, Oleksandr Kostiuk, Vitaliy Lysytskyi, Serhiy Lukyanenko, Pavlo Lukyanchuk, Oleksandr Melnychenko, Vadym Skichko, Vitaliy Shalota, Vadym Shevyakin, and Dmytro Shpyrko.

Journalists who voted included: Ilya Bereza (Football.ua), Dmytro Vatras, Volodymyr Maydan, Oleksandr Sazhko (collectively from "Tribuna"), Daniil Vereitin ("Champion Radio"), Mykhailo Hema (Channel 24), Oleksandr Zolotogorsky (FootballHub), Eduard Kinzersky ("Sport-arena"), Oleksiy Klykov ("Sportarena"), Andriy Kovalsky (ICTV), Andriy Kostenko ("RBC-Ukraine"), Pavlo Kushneruk ("Brutal Football"), Andriy Pavlechko (NV), Andriy Piskun ("Ukrainian Football"), Oleksandr Popov ("Dynamo from Shuryk"), Artem Rossinsky ("SportObzor"), Ihor Semyon (Ua-football), Serhiy Sytnyk ("Footboom"), Yevhen Sidash ("Dynamomania"), Mykhailo Smolovyi ("Ta To Take"), Valeriy Sokhan ("AvtoRadio"), Andriy Stolyarchuk ("Public Sports"), Andriy Todos ("Zorya Londonsk"), Anton Fedortsiv ("Glavkom"), Serhiy Tsyba (Sport.ua), Dmytro Chornobai (Sport-express.ua), Serhiy Shakhovets ("Champion"), Mykhailo Yukhymenko ("Football 24"), and Yevhen Yasenov ("Terrikon").

By the decision of the group of 40 experts, the best coach of the 2nd round was recognized as Francisco Fernandes ("Karpaty") - for the second time in a row! His team this time defeated the vice-champion of the previous season, LNZ, with three goals in the second half - 3:0. The second place in the ranking was taken by Ruslan Rotan ("Polissya," who won against "Kharkiv" at home in the central match of the round - 3:1). The top 3 was completed by Patrick van Leuven ("Kryvbas," who defeated "Zorya" away - 3:1).

The title of the best player of the 2nd round was awarded to the Panamanian midfielder of "Kryvbas," Giovanni Herbert - one of the heroes of the victorious match against "Zorya." Slightly behind him were the goalkeeper of "Obolon" Kyrylo Barantsov, who helped Kyivans withstand the pressure from "Bukovyna" in his debut match in the UPL (0:0), and the central defender of "Karpaty," the author of the first goal against LNZ, Vladyslav Babohlo. The top 5 also included two more representatives of "Karpaty" - goalkeeper Denys Marchenko and joker Felipe.

Overall, experts mentioned 26 players and 6 coaches when determining the heroes of the 2nd round, as well as 50 candidates for the symbolic team. Therefore, in addition to the 11 players in the hypothetical starting lineup, we traditionally added a hypothetical reserve of the team of the round: Denys Marchenko ("Karpaty"), Bohdan Mykhailichenko ("Polissya"), Ihor Kharatin ("Veres"), Borys Krushynskyi ("Polissya"), Yehor Nazaryna ("Shakhtar"), Oleksandr Andriievskyi ("Polissya"), Assan Sek ("Kryvbas"), Leandro Andrade ("Polissya"), Gleiker Mendoza ("Shakhtar"), Yan Kostenko ("Karpaty"), Matviy Ponomarenko ("Dynamo"), Nathanael Bler ("Veres").

The symbolic team was compiled without taking into account the postponed match of the 2nd round "Chornomorets" - "Kolos."