In the last meetings of Shakhtar and Mariupol, either the championship or the cup, the Miners (Shakhtar) invariably won with a large score. And now, last Friday, on April 27, this tradition was almost broken. The hosts gave the Donetsk team a real fight within the match of the 29th round of the National Football Championship among the Premier League teams in the seaside city.
Of course, the Mariupol players could not compete with the “orange-black” in the attacking actions, it was simply unrealistic. So they focused on the defense of their own goals. For the time being, this tactic produced a result, but it failed in the 65th minute of the match.
Kayode got a smart pass from Ismaili and with an excellent lead to the far corner opened the scoring. This ball proved to be victorious for Shakhtar – 1: 0.
Unfortunately, the hosts clearly crossed the line in the power struggle and played too rude. This resulted in two serious injuries for the guests. Zubkov broke his arm, and Butko suffered a knee injury.
In the remaining matches of the 29th round the following results were recorded: “Stal” – “Chernomorets” - 1: 2 (Klimchuk (22) - Tretyakov (23), Bobko (66); “Zvezda” – “Olimpic” - 2: 0 (Petrov (64), Chichikov (75); “Karpaty” – “Alexandria” - 1: 2 (Nesterov (4) - Banada (35), Sitalo (52); “Zarya” – “Veres” - 1: 0 59); “Vorskla” – “Dynamo” - 0: 1 (Mbokani (63).
After these matches, the tournament table was the following form: (first six) “Shakhtar” – 69 points, “Dynamo” – 66, “Vorskla” – 44, “Zarya” – 43, “Mariupol” – 36, “Veres” – 33; (the second six) “Alexandria” – 36 points, “Olimpic” – 33, “Karpaty” – 32, “Zvezda” – 30, “Chernomorets” – 25, “Stal” – 23.
Here is the schedule of the next, 30th round. “Dynamo” – “Mariupol” (at 19:00). On 5th May. “Veres” – “Vorskla” (at 14:00), “Chernomorets” – “Karpaty” (at 17:00), “Shakhtar” – “Zarya” (at 19:30). On 6th of May. “Olympic” – “Stal” (at 14:00), “Alexandria” – “Zvezda” (at 19:30).
