"Zorya" - "Kharkiv". Preview of the Ukrainian Championship match

On Sunday, August 30, "Zorya" and "Kharkiv" will meet in the match of the 4th round of the Ukrainian Premier League. The match will take place at the Kyiv stadium "Dynamo" named after Valeriy Lobanovskyi and will start at 18:00. Due to the Russian drone strike near the arena, there was a possibility of changing the venue or time of the match, but ultimately it was decided to proceed according to the original plan.

Zorya

After the start of the season, "Zorya" has already played four matches - three in the championship and one in the cup. In these games, three victories were achieved - first, the strong Kovalivka's "Kolos" was defeated in the opening UPL game, then in the second round there was a loss to "Kryvbas".

After that, in the third round, the Luhansk team made a sensation by defeating "Polissya", which has championship ambitions (and has already confirmed them by defeating the current champion, Donetsk's "Shakhtar", 2-0 in the fourth round). And although Georgiy Bushchan's goalkeeping mistake played a big role, still.

Then there was a cup game against "Skala 1911". The second league team had no chance, losing 0-6, even though mostly reserves played for "Zorya", who have little playing time in the championship.

Injured left-back Vasyl Kravets will return for the next match. Also worth noting is the goalkeeper position, currently held by newcomer Vladyslav Rybak, while Oleksandr Saputin, who has long been the team's first choice, is rumored to be moving to Spanish "Valencia". If this transfer happens (it would be interesting), "Zorya" will have to either urgently look for a goalkeeper or rely on graduates of their own academy, as Mykita Turbayevsky left the club after the last season.

Kharkiv

In "Kharkiv", there are no problems with the number 1 position. Although there were no particular questions about Danilo Varakuta last season, the club decided to sign a star performer for this position - the best goalkeeper of the last UPL season Georgiy Yermakov, who previously played for Israeli "Maccabi".

Overall, the team's lineup is quite decent. There is a rich choice of coaching staff for each position, many promising foreign players (Baptistella, Arevalo, Profini, etc.), and Ukrainians will play an important role, such as Yatsyk or Gadzhiyev, who timely recovered from injury and already brought a difficult victory over "Veres" in the first round with his goal. There is also Artem Smolyakov, who failed to establish himself in the MLS, signed as a left-back but unexpectedly plays as a left winger, winning the competition against all nominal representatives of this position.

Then there was a deserved defeat against "Polissya" (1-3) and another defeat - 0-1 against "Shakhtar". However, this defeat was undeserved, the miners played openly poorly, are in unsatisfactory form, and did not deserve to win, as confirmed by the aforementioned 4th round match against "Polissya". Kharkiv players could even win, but who is the doctor for Itodo, who for some reason went offside to finish the ball that was already flying into the empty net, or for Kohut, who also missed the empty goal?

But in the Ukrainian Cup, Bartulovich's team showed courage, achieving the biggest victory in the history of this tournament. They crushed "Kalynivka" 9-0, with everyone scoring, including the center forward Parako for the second Ukrainian team. However, the club is currently dissatisfied with the quality of their forwards, so there are rumors of a possible transfer of Roman Yaremchuk from "Olympiacos".

Head-to-head history

A total of seven matches have been played. "Zorya" has a total advantage - five wins with one draw and one loss with a goal difference of 19:6.

Possible lineups

"Zorya": Rybak - Perduta, Jordan, Yanich, Zhuninyyo - Kushnirenko, Popara - Yelavich, Nesterenko, Slesar - Budkivskyi

"Kharkiv": Yermakov - Kalyuzhnyi, Shabanov, Pavlyuk, Martinyuk - Gadzhiyev, Kalyuzhnyi, Yatsyk, Smolyakov - Parako, Itodo