“Exciting Matches and Surprises in the 21st Round of UPL Championship”

The 21st round of the UPL championship had its pearl and its highlights. There were also surprises. As in any top championship. So do not listen to those who say that the championship of Ukraine is not interesting. What an interesting one!

Which match did you like the most in the 21st round? Why your choice is this – write in the comments. And don’t forget to like and subscribe to terrikon.com on YouTube.

Friday gave us three matches where there were very few goals. Minay managed to win the fifth victory of the season. Interestingly, only Inhulets in the third round was beaten by the Transcarpathians with a score of 2:1. All other victories of Minai are exclusively 1:0. This happened in the reporting round with Kryvbas. Only who could have known that the only goal in this match would be scored by Vishnevsky in the fourth minute. And then …, then it was completely uninteresting.

With the same score – 1:0 – Kolos defeated Ingulets on the road. After a successful start in the spring, the team of Sergey Kovalets stopped – three defeats in four matches. Kovalevites won for the second time in a row. They had such a mini-series at the very beginning of the championship, when Kolos outplayed Kryvbas and Rukh. There were few moments in the game and we can say that the guests took advantage of their only chance when Milko scored after a corner kick.

And Rukh stopped Dynamo’s two-match winning streak. By Friday tradition, the teams created moments with great difficulty. As a result, Vanat and Dovgoy exchanged goals, and at this, it was as if they mentally shook hands with each other. Mircea Lucescu, despite health problems, led the actions of the people of Kiev from the bench. And after the match, he talked a lot – which surprises no one – about refereeing and about the restructuring of Dynamo. With hints that now not all players can be useful to the club.

Gray Friday was replaced by a bright Saturday. No, the weather was the same – cloudy, but what matches we watched! It all started with a repeat of the Ukrainian championship performance record. Metalist and Veres did their best, scoring 10 goals for two, and divided them equally – five per brother. There were seven such productive matches in the history of our football, but they always ended with the defeat of one of the teams: three times with a score of 9:1 and four times with a score of 7:3. But so brotherly, this happened for the first time.

In a good way, the participants of this fight were envied by their colleagues from Metalist 1925 and Alexandria. They could not score at least one goal for two. Although the chances were both the guests and the hosts. Kharkiv team, for example, hit the crossbar twice. As a result, under the leadership of Ruslan Rotan, “Alexandria” has drawn for the sixth time, and “Metalist 1925” cannot win since November last year.

The central game of the 21st round was the meeting at the Dynamo stadium, where Zorya hosted Dnepr-1. The Luhansk team drew conclusions from the defeat from Kryvbas and tried not to give scoring chances to the best sniper of the championship Dovbik. However, Artem had his moments at the beginning of the match, in the best of them he even hit the post.

At the beginning of the second half, Zorya carried out two attacks, which ensured her final success. The main hero was Rusin, who at first hit the gate himself, and four minutes later helped Guerrero score. By the way, the Panamanian took part in only four matches of Zorya and was noted for effective actions in all of them. In meetings with Vorskla and Lvov, he assisted, and scored in games with Dynamo and Dnepr-1.

Dnipro squeezed Luhansk in an attempt to avoid defeat, but scored only in the last seconds of stoppage time, when Dovbyk scored after Pikhalenok’s cross. For Artem, this is the 18th goal in the championship and he is one step closer to the record of Henrikh Mkhitaryan (25 goals). But he did not even celebrate, realizing that Dnepr-1 lost a very important match in the fight for the championship – 1:2.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, Shakhtar faced Lvov for the second time in a week. On Wednesday, the miners snatched the win in stoppage time. Everything was easier in the second match. And a quick goal from Bondarenko helped in this, giving Shakhtar the opportunity to play their own football. And after the break, Bondarenko scored a brace. After Mikhailichenko’s pass, he seemed to aim a laser sight and head the ball close to the post. The miners again scored two Lvov, but this time saved their goal and nerves.

And the 21st round ended with a minimal victory for Vorskla over Chernomorets. Stepanyuk should open the scoring in the middle of the first half, but the hosts were saved by the crossbar at the native stadium. And the goal was scored at the end of the match. Seferi brought victory to Vorskli and interrupted the six-match unbeaten streak of the Odessa team.

So, Shakhtar increases the lead over Dnipro-1 to seven points. And although Dnipro still have a game in hand, they already need to look back more, where Zorya is only two points away from them, and Dynamo is five more points away. That’s all the contenders for this season’s medals.

Lvov hardly hoped to improve his hopeless position in two duels with Shakhtar and lost six points to Rukh and Metalist, who improved their chances at least by half a step. And there are five more teams at arm’s length. And only Vorskla slightly broke away from this dense group.

2022-23, Ukrainian Championship, 21st round. Results of all matches

“Minai” – “Kryvbass” 1:0 (1:0)
Naked : Vishnevsky O., 4 (1:0)
Warnings : Boulez 58; Tverdokhleb E. 62; Nemchaninov 93 – Beskorovayny 45; Monday 63; Kapic 74; Lunev 88

“Ingulets” – “Kolos” 0:1 (0:1)
Naked : Milko, 41 (0:1)
Warnings : Marusych 91 – Kravchenko N. 62; Giant 86; Smyrny 93

“Rukh” – “Dynamo” 1:1 (1:1)
Naked : Vanat, 16 (0:1); Long A., 40 (1:1)
Warnings : Long A. 45; Klymchuk 63; Prytula 81 – Popov D. 13; Dyachuk M. 20; Andriyevsky 65

“Metalist” – “Veres” 5:5 (4:3)
Naked : Kartushov, 6 (1:0); Gunpowder, 10 (2:0); Blyznychenko A., 18 (penalties) (2:1); Sharay V., 23 (2:2); Pryadun, 25 (3:2); Hondak, 36 (3:3); Boychuk B., 38 (4:3); Sharay V., 54 (4:4); Blyznychenko A., 59 (penalties) (4:5); Naumets, 82 (5:5)
Warnings : Myzyuk 17; Romanyuk 40; Tchaikovsky 49 – Kohut B. 61; Dakhnovsky 87; Gagaun 88

“Metalist 1925” – “Alexandria” 0:0
Warnings : Kravchenko D. 31; Bezugly 87; Zhichikov 92 – Bondarenko V. 44

Zorya – Dnipro-1 2:1 (0:0)
Naked : Rusin N., 54 (1:0); Guerrero E., 58 (2:0); Dovbik, 93 (2:1)
Warnings : Guerrero E. 50 –

Shakhtar 2-0 Lviv (1-0)
Naked : Bondarenko A-m, 7 (1:0); Bondarenko A-m, 75 (2:0)
Warnings : Sikan 65; Totovitskyi 84 – Kuzyk D. 17; This is 44; Grisio 45; Alibekov 84

“Chernomorets” – “Vorskla” 0:1 (0:0)
Naked : Seferi, 86 (0:1)
Warnings : Vasiliev Al-r 30; Voitihovsky 91 – Batsula 45; Chesnakov 51; Pavlyuk E. 59; Oleinik 64

2022-23, Ukrainian Championship: Tournament table