Kryvbas - Kharkiv. Forecast and preview of the Ukrainian Championship match

On Saturday, September 12, the 6th round match of the Ukrainian Premier League will take place, in which Kryvyi Rih's "Kryvbas" will play against Kharkiv. The game will be held in Kryvyi Rih at the "Hirnyk" stadium, starting at 13:00.

Kryvbas.

After Yuriy Vernydub's departure from "Kryvbas," the team predictably turned into a mid-table team. Under the guidance of Patrick van Leeuwen, the residents of Kryvyi Rih did not show outstanding results, but were remembered for their bright attacking play. The Dutch specialist relies on simple vertical football, physical strength, and speed, and this style turned out to be quite organic for "Kryvbas."

After Vernydub, who tried to instill combination football in the team, the change of style looked logical, as the composition of "Kryvbas" changed almost beyond recognition. At the same time, this season the team has undergone even more significant changes. The main creators of last year's successes, Parako and Mendoza, have left Kryvyi Rih: the former now plays for "Kharkiv" and will face his former team in this match, while the latter moved to Shakhtar Donetsk and has already made an impact in the Champions League.

Patrick van Leeuwen has received another batch of newcomers and is gradually trying to turn them into future stars or at least useful players who will bring financial dividends to the club later on. However, building a new team takes time and naturally comes with a loss of points. After five matches of the championship, "Kryvbas" has only five points in their account.

The start of the season for the residents of Kryvyi Rih was ambiguous, and the team's matches were quite different in scenario. Last week, "Kryvbas" had the opportunity to take a break from the championship by playing in the 1/32 finals of the Ukrainian Cup. There, Patrick van Leeuwen's team defeated "Olimpia" from Savinec with a score of 2:0.

As for the squad situation, there is no information about injured players in the "Kryvbas" team. Right-back Yan Yurchets left the team and moved to Poland. In addition, assistant coach David Ori left Patrick van Leeuwen's staff - the club announced his departure on social media.

A separate interest is drawn to the personal confrontation between Patrick van Leeuwen and his former team. The Dutch specialist once worked with the club, then called "Metalist 1925," which is now named "Kharkiv." He tried to lead the team to the Premier League from the First League, but that period was not cloudless, and eventually the coach left the club.

Kharkiv.

Equally interesting is the connection with "Kryvbas" in the case of "Kharkiv" coach Mladen Bartulovich. Like van Leeuwen, the Croatian spent a significant part of his playing career at the Kryvyi Rih club. Therefore, for both coaches, the upcoming match will have a special personal context.

"Kharkiv" approaches the meeting in a much better mood. After strengthening in the summer, the team has gained nine points in five matches and is among the leaders of the championship. The only clear failure so far is the match against "Polissya," in which Kharkiv suffered a defeat without causing any particular problems to the opponent.

At the same time, recent results indicate that the team is gaining momentum. "Kharkiv" crushed "Obolon" 5:0 and defeated "Zorya" 3:0. However, in the match against "Obolon," the opponent played practically the entire game with a man down, which allowed Kharkiv to score five goals before halftime and then calmly control the course of the match.

Another strong point of "Kharkiv" is the large number of players capable of scoring. Among them, Parako should be mentioned, who does not have an extremely high scoring rate but regularly finds opportunities to score. Opponents should pay special attention to Itodo: the forward is often criticized for his finishing, but his teammates create enough chances for him, which keeps his goal-scoring statistics high.

Currently, Itodo is one of the top scorers in the Ukrainian championship, which is why his competitor Mba was loaned to Odessa. He has scored four goals and shares the first place in the list of the tournament's top scorers with Igor Krasnopir from "Polissya." Interestingly, another representative of "Kharkiv" - Baton Zabergdja - has three goals and shares second place in the scoring race.

History of meetings.

In the six matches played in the UPL, Kryvbas has a total advantage: +4=1-1, goal difference 10:3.

Possible line-ups.

Kryvbas: Kemkin - Borjes, Vilivald, Jones, Mashadu - Erbert, Nabi - Rivas, Kamensky, Shevchenko - Sek.

Kharkiv: Yermakov - Krupsky, Shabanov, Salyuk, Martinyuk - Gadzhiev, Kalyuzhny, Yatsyk, Zabergdja - Parako, Itodo.

Match prediction.

Thus, "Kryvbas" and "Kharkiv" approach the face-to-face meeting with different moods and tournament positions. For Patrick van Leeuwen, this will be a meeting with his former club, while Mladen Bartulovich will return to the place where he spent a significant part of his playing career. Considering the current form of "Kharkiv" and the squad renewal of "Kryvbas," the upcoming match promises to be interesting not only from a tournament perspective but also from a personal point of view. Obviously, the favorite now looks like the Kharkiv team, which has retained its squad, significantly strengthened it, and simply has more money, so we expect a confident victory from them.