Shakhtar – Epicenter. Forecast and announcement for the match of the championship of Ukraine

On Sunday, December 14, a match of the sixteenth round of the Ukrainian Premier League will be held in Lviv at the Arena Lviv stadium, in which “Shakhtar” from Donetsk and “Epicentr” from Kamenets-Podilskyi will play. The starting whistle of referee Volodymyr Novokhatnyi from Kyiv will sound at 18:00 Kyiv time.

Miner
Donetsk “Shakhtar” had an advantage not only over the Kyiv team, but also over other pursuers in the tournament table as a result of the successful Classic against “Dynamo” in the championship (3:1). Until the moment when Arda Turan’s team did not draw twice in a row against “Kryvbas” (2:2) and “Kolos” (0:0). After the game in Kovalivka, the “Miners” caught up with Cherkasy LNZ in terms of points, and since we all still well remember how the game between these teams ended in the first round (the defeat of “Shakhtar” by Vitaly Ponomariov’s team with a score of 1:4), the “Lilacs” overtook the Donetsk team in terms of additional indicators in the tournament table.

And to make sure that there are no unnecessary conversations before the final game of 2025 in the UPL regarding the first place, LNZ won their match in “Zora” the day before (2:0), so no “Shakhtar” is scary for him until the end of winter. The “miners” will also replenish the financial budget of the team from Cherkasy by purchasing striker Prosper Obach, who had an outstanding first half of the season. But this second step certainly hit the Turan team’s pride.

In the middle of the week, “Shakhtar” already played a match in the European Cup against the Maltese “Hamrun Spartans” (2:0) in the usual way with a team, most of the performers of which we are unlikely to see in the upcoming game from the first minutes. Perhaps we won’t see goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk, who is easier to rest until the end of the year than to risk aggravation of a muscle injury. However, other options for rotation are also possible – it is obvious that not all players of the “miners” are satisfied with their playing practice in the first part of the season, so someone may leave the team in the winter.

In this case, it would be logical if Turan gave them the opportunity to “go beautifully”. Although there is still a match against the Croatian “Rijeka” next week, where it is expected that the Donetsk team will make another rotation. The Turkish coach promised everyone 20-25 matches per season, and now everything is approaching these numbers.

Epicenter
Shakhtar’s opponent in the last game of the championship in the 2025 calendar year will be Turan’s historically first opponent on Ukrainian soil as a head coach. Kamianets-Podilskyi “Epicenter”, let’s not forget, is in the status of an absolute debutant of the elite championship, and when your first match at such a level takes place against “Miners”, then there is no sentimentality here. However, this was the first and, most likely, the last time when Serhiy Nagornyak’s team openly departed from its attacking style and played in three layers of defense.

And then in Ternopil, “Epicentr” almost survived, but still conceded a goal in the 80th minute. Who knew that this would be only the beginning of a series of defeats at the stadium named after Roman Shukhevych for the Nagornyak team, which eventually ended with the fact that the UPL newcomers temporarily moved to the “Left Bereh” stadium for a home match against “Metalist 1925”, and only under such conditions were they able to score the first scoring point (0:0).

“Epicenter” has 14 points in the tournament table. This is not enough now even to feel safe in our championship. But SC “Poltava” will not be able to catch up with the Nagornyak team based on the results of this round, but the club from Kamianets-Podilskyi may well jump out of the danger zone. True, for this it is necessary for the same “Poltava” to win against “Rukh” and “Epicenter” itself meanwhile to win against “Shakhtar”. Without Vladyslav Supryaga at the forefront of the attack, with a shortage of personnel, as well as taking into account the previous results, it is difficult to believe in this scenario. However, Nagornyak’s team is playing on the road – let’s check how this “magic” works.

Meeting history
The football paths of Shakhtar and Epicenter have crossed once before – in the first round of the first round of the current season, when the goal of Kawan Elias brought the “miners” a 1:0 victory.

Themis
The main referee of the upcoming game will be 41-year-old Volodymyr Novokhatny from Kyiv, who has 58 matches in the “elite” division on his account. The side referees will be Oleksandr Berkut and Maryna Striletska, and the reserve referee will be Artem Mykhailiuk. The VAR system headed by Dmytro Yevtukhov and Viktor Kopievsky will be present at the match. Novokhatny has experience of holding matches with the participation of Shakhtar – 4 wins and 2 losses, while with “Epicenter” he crossed 1 time – a defeat against “Metalist 1925” in the 4th round (0:1).

Bookmakers GGBET rate the teams’ chances with very decent odds: 1.20 for Shakhtar and 16.00 for Epicenter. And which forecast to choose is up to you. Play with the best odds, get instant payouts and support your favorite team with us.

Estimated compositions
“Miner”: Fezyun – Pedrinho Azevedo, Bondar, Matvienko, Vinicius – Marlon Gomez, Kryskiv, Ocheretko – Neverton, Elias, Eginaldu.

“Epicenter”: Bilyk – Kiryukhantsev, Moroz, Kosh, Klimets – Seberio, Zaporozhets, Jeovane – Sidun, Demchenko, Sifuentes.