Thursday, October 16, 2008

Ukrainian Premier League upcoming week 11

After what seems like an eternity the Ukrainian Premier League is back in week eleven after the international break. The week away from league action saw the Yellow-Blues play Croatia, the sixth-ranked team in the world, to a scoreless draw, leaving them in tie for second place in Group Six of World Cup qualifying.

Friday
Zorya Luhansk @ Dynamo Kyiv
Yuri Semin will be face numerous tactical decisions for Dynamo as he'll be looking ahead towards a key Champions League match next Tuesday against Porto. Dynamo looks poised to run away with the table and virtually impossible to score against at home, whereby in four of five home matches this year, they have held the opposition scoreless.

Saturday
Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih @ Shakhtar Donetsk
Shakhtar's offensive woes ended with a three goal eruption against Chornomorets Odessa. Yevhen Seleznyov, Oleksiy Hai and Oleksandr Hladky must continue to apply attacking pressure if they are to make the long way up the table.

Kharkiv @ Lviv
In a battle of the table bottom-dwellers, former Dynamo Kyiv man Serhiy Kovalets takes over Lviv as they try desperately to avoid being relegated back to Ukrainian First League (Persha Liha). With the bottom two clubs relegated this is surely going to be an intense battle.

Chornomorets Odessa @ Illichivets
Arsenal Kyiv @ Metalist Kharkiv
After a tough draw last week, Metalist Kharkiv, will be looking to rebound and get back to their winning ways. Riding a six match unbeaten streak they will be looking to pick up ground on the table leaders should they slip-up and pounce upon Arsenal Kyiv's scoring woes.


Sunday is definitely the "feature day" for matches as each is of critical importance to the table.

Metalurh Donetsk visits Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
Dnipro has had a very challenging year-to-date. While they have played a tough lock-down defense in has come at a horrible expense in the attacking end. Tactically their top-shelf midfield which includes Maksym Kalynychenko, Serhiy Nazarenko and Ruslan Rotan must be more aggressive if they are to reverse the difficult start. Of course Nikolay Kostov's Metalurh Donetsk are playing the tactically brilliant Football, virtually impenetrable offensively and look to be well on their way to a European bid. To break through MetaDon, Dnipro will need to play more aggressively, which equally will lend them to being susceptible to the counter-attack.

Metalurh Zaporizhya @ Vorskla Poltava
In the other premier match of the weekend, the Kozaky visit Mykola Pavlov's Vorskla Poltava. Anchored by Hrygory Yarmash in the backline Vorskla Poltava will play a very disciplined match and prey upon Metalurh Zaporizhya problems scoring on the road.

Karpaty Lviv @ Tavriya Simferopol


Ukrainian Premier League
GP W D L GS GA P
Dynamo Kyiv 1071123525
Metalurh Donetsk 1081116425
Metalist Kharkiv 1053215818
Vorskla Poltava 1053212818
Metalurh Zaporizhya 1053210718
Zorya Luhansk 10442121016
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 104338715
Chornomorets Odessa 10415121313
Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih 10343101213
Shakhtar Donetsk 1024471110
Arsenal Kyiv 1024471110
Karpaty Lviv 101544108
Tavriya Simferopol 101459167
Illichivets 102086186
Kharkiv 100647166
Lviv 101273125