Vitaly Ponomaryov, photo FC LNZ October 26, 2025, 09:40

The day before Cherkasy LNZ beat Kharkiv Metalist 1925 in the home match of the tenth round of the Ukrainian Premier League.

Metalist 1925 — LNZ 0:1 Video of goals and review of the UPL match

After the end of the game, the head coach of “Lilacs” Vitaly Ponomaryov commented on the performance of his own team.

“It’s a good feeling, because it’s always nice to win. We expected a difficult game. Metalist 1925 is a team that will claim the European Cup zone this season, I’m convinced of that, because there are quality players and the club is developing. The game was as we expected.

Each opponent is different, you need to prepare differently for each opponent. There is a tactic, there is a strategy, we cannot play the same with all teams. So we played more as a number two today, that was our game plan, knowing that we have quick strikers, that they can use the space. And it worked.

It was necessary not only to catch the opponent in a mistake, it was necessary to play for zero from the back – this is also important, because you can score a goal, you can score two, you can miss three. There is a balance and we have to play both attack and defense as correctly as possible. Today, the boys fulfilled the coaching staff’s instructions and achieved a positive result.

We are building a team. I can’t say that our team today is the way we would like it to be. We want to build a competitive team that will compete with any opponent — and then it will be possible to set some tasks.

If we are going to achieve a positive result now, why not bet now? Of course, you can set some tasks, but first of all you need to build a competitive team.

A difficult match is behind us. They were preparing for a serious opponent. The team is developing very well. The football players did everything we planned and won.

Didyk is injured, he could not play the second half. If he gets injured, it will be a significant loss for us. But this is one of the components of football.

Prosper is an important footballer for the team, but I wouldn’t call him key. He will have different matches. I have already said, he must be stable, then we can say that he is one of the key ones. He is as important as Yashari, Didyk and any other player,” said the Ukrainian expert.

In the next round, Cherkasy LNZ will host Lviv Rukh in the cup competition, after which they will play at home against another team from this city – Carpathians, already in the championship.