On Thursday, December 1, the rescheduled match of the seventh round of the Ukrainian Premier League will take place, in which Zorya Lugansk will meet with Kolos Kovalev. Both teams are at the top of the standings, but Lugansk team is eight points ahead of Yaroslav Vyshnyak’s team. The confrontation between Zorya and Kolos was supposed to take place in October, but then it was postponed due to the danger of a massive missile attack on Ukraine.
Dawn
The “black and white” in the current championship are fighting for the highest places and backing up their ambitions with a fairly confident game. But at the same time, the Luhansk team demonstrate instability, which leads to the loss of points. In November, such situations occurred twice. First, Zorya lost to Ingulets (this victory was the first for Petrovsk in the championship), and in the last round they tied with Minai, conceding a goal in stoppage time (1:1). Between these misfires fit a fighting draw with Shakhtar and the defeat of Oleksandria. The match with Transcarpathians was held in difficult weather conditions on a snowy field. In addition, the Luhansk residents called for refereeing after the fight. “We didn’t score in the first half, but converted one of our chances in the second half. And then in the last minutes we get a goal from a clean offside position. The arbitrators overlooked this moment,” Zorya head coach Patrick van Leeuwen complained.
We would like to note the high performance demonstrated by Zorya in the current championship. In terms of goals scored, the “black-and-whites” are second only to “Dnepr-1”, which is the leader in the standings. The best scorer of the Lugansk team at the moment is Igor Kiryukhantsev, who scored 4 goals. But if everything is going pretty well with the attack of the Luhansk team, then the coaching staff of van Leeuwen needs to deal with the game in defense closely during the winter break. Only the outsider of the championship “Lviv” missed more Luhansk players.
Evgeniy Shakhov continues to be in the Zorya infirmary, but his absence from the field can hardly be considered an irreparable loss for the Luhansk team. Moreover, Brazhko, who plays in the support zone, shows a confident game, and a few days ago it was he who scored at the Minai goal.
Ear
In the last round, “Kolos” met with the outsider of the championship “Lviv” and won a minimal victory. Thus, the Kovalevites ended their four-game losing streak (a draw and three defeats). The only scoring hit, which Pavel Orikhovsky delivered from the penalty spot, was the 100th for the Kovalev club in the Premier League. By the way, Orikhovsky performed the fourth 11-meter shot in the current championship and has never missed a shot.
And finally, in Lviv, Kolos held its 20th meeting under the leadership of Yaroslav Vishnyak. So, after the duel with the “lions”, the Kovalevites had many reasons for positive emotions. The only negative was the yellow card of Yevgeny Smirny, who, due to disqualification, will miss the meeting with Zorya. And at the forefront of the attack of the Kovalev club, we will surely see Denis Bezborodko. Recall that the striker started in the championship as part of Zorya and even scored a double in the match of the 1st round against Vorskla. But then “Kolos” returned his player from the lease.
Meeting statistics
In the Premier League, the rivals played seven face-to-face duels, and Kolos beat Luhansk just once. The Black and Whites won five victories, and one more meeting ended in a draw. The previous confrontation between Zorya and Kolos took place in October last year, and then the Black and White defeated the Kovalevites with a minimum score. Iran’s Allahyar Sayyadmanesh, who now plays in the English Championship for Hull City, delivered the only effective blow.
Forecast for confrontation
Kovalevites after the victory in Lvov are in high spirits. But the Luhansk team will be annoyed after a misfire in the duel with Minai. But it is noteworthy that in the current season, the team of Patrick van Leeuwen, after unsuccessful games, demonstrates an acceptable result. Therefore, we predict a confident victory for the Luhansk team.
Approximate compositions:
“Ear”: Volynets, Emets, Chobotenko, Novak, Zozulya, Milko, Bohdanov, Orikhovskyi, Bolbat, Ilyin, Bezborodko.
“Dawn”: Matsapura, Butko, Batagov, Imerekov, Danchenko, Churko, Brazhko, Antyukh, Bulets, Kiryukhantsev, Mishnev.
December 1, Thursday
