How many saves will Ermakov make today? / PHOTO: FC ALEXANDRIA 04 December 2024, 08:00

Oleksandria will host Dynamo in the 1st round of the elite division of the Ukrainian Championship.

Oleksandria — Dynamo

Wednesday, 4 December, 15:30. “Nika” Stadium, Oleksandria. Live broadcast on UPL TV

When Dynamo asked to postpone the match of the first round due to busyness in the qualification of the Champions League, it hardly predicted that it would have to be played against the competitor for the first place.

Oleksandria is generally the best team in the league by many indicators. She plays more consistently, she has a more clearly defined playing style, she has a healthier internal competition. By the way, in the context of the game with Dynamo, it makes you wonder which of the teams has a really long bench.

Last round, 19-year-old Danylo Vashchenko started the championship match from the first minutes for the first time this season, only because of Kalyuzhny’s disqualification, and scored the winning goal. Before that, Oleksandr Belyaev began to get chances during the course of the season – and already in the second game in the “start” he scored the only goal in the game against Vorskla. Kozak usually sits on the bench, but he played against Polissia, even according to Rotan, precisely because of the factor of a former player (he recently played for Polissia) – and showed himself very usefully.

Although Alexandria has a not stellar lineup, it ranks seventh-eighth in the league in terms of names, but even full nicknames benefit the team. You say once? Well, Georgy Yermakov has been playing consistently well for half the season… And this is a big contrast with Dynamo, in which players with a name and status are not all placed on the bench, but at the same time, everyone perfectly understands that, for example, Guerrero instead of Vanat is a weakening of the position of the forward.

By the way, about Rotan’s words. Ruslan Petrovych, I thank him for that, was frank in the flash interview – and he didn’t even hide that the game against Chornomorets was not difficult for his team. Having already received two (!) removals in the first half, the Odessa club turned the game against itself into a warm-up. The opposite of this is a tough, tough game with Colossus, which Dynamo did not win and, of course, fought in the fog until the end.

On the other hand, Shovkovsky should at least come up with something to play with a team that is clearly weaker than the class? All 11 players who will start in Oleksandria are players who were not needed by Dynamo in the summer, otherwise they would be playing for Dynamo now. After all, it is not Shakhtar and not even Polissya with Rukh to seriously bargain for players – in the last ten years, Oleksandria has not sold anyone for more than 600,000 euros (V. Bondarenko to Shakhtar), and absolutely no one from this lineup of Dynamo (as well as Shakhtar) could easily entice. It should be a shame to be afraid of such an opponent.

And it’s also interesting that after today’s game, these teams will meet again this weekend. Almost the playoffs, like in the American leagues! And here it should be remembered that for some players, not only a red, but also a yellow card will lead to disqualification for the second match. In Oleksandria it is Smyrny, Dynamo – Popov. Yes, a warning looks much more likely for the Dynamo defender…

INTERESTING FACTS:

Dynamo’s 980th match in the Championship of Ukraine.

Alexandria can draw for the 110th time in the history of the Championship.

Dynamo can draw for the 100th time away in the UPL.

Oleksandria’s unbeaten club record streak in the UPL lasts 19 games: 13 wins and 6 draws.

Dynamo’s unbeaten streak in the UPL lasts 16 games: 13 wins and 3 draws.

Dynamo’s streak in the Championship lasts 7 games — 8 goals.

Vitaly Buyalskyi can score the 65th goal in the UPL, Oleksandr Karavaev 35th, Nazar Voloshyn 15th, Mykola Mykhaylenko 10th (all Dynamo).

Artem Kozak (Alexandria) can play the 50th match in the UPL.

CURRENT FORM

HISTORY OF OPPOSITIONS

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