Sunday, April 26, 2009

Ukrainian Premier League week 25

Week 25 of the Ukrainian Premier League concluded with Dynamo Kyiv racing towards the championship holding a twelve-point lead over second place Shakhtar Donetsk. With both clubs having an inside track on the Champions League, the race for spots three through five and a much-coveted spot in the Europa League is tighter than ever.

At the top of the table Dynamo Kyiv defeated Kharkiv 1-0 with Miloš Ninković scoring the matches lone goal ten minutes in. Mircea Lucescu's Shakhtar Donetsk overtook Chornomorets Odessa 1-0 with Willian's strike two minutes after the break. Metalist Kharkiv lost points in its race towards a Champions League spot, playing Metalurh Zaporizhya to a 1-1 draw. Milan Obradović gave Metalist the lead four minutes past the hour but with Kozaky leveling the match with five minutes remaining Olexiy Hodin finding the mark. Metalurh Donetsk defeated Illichivets 1-0 on Ciprian Ion Tănasă goal just before the break. Vorskla Poltava maintained its pace for the final Europa League spot with a 2-1 victory over Karpaty. After former Dinamo Zagreb man Denis Glavina gave Vorskla the lead from the spot nine minutes before the break,
Ihor Khudobyak brought the match level at the fifty-fourth minute. However a minute after the hour Vorskla grabbed the lead via a Vasyl Kobin own-goal. Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk kept its hopes alive for a Europa League berth with a come from behind 2-1 victory over Arsenal Kyiv. Arsenal took the lead five minutes in with Bohdan Shershun's before Oleksiy Byelik leveling before the break. Volodymyr Homenyuk added the winner on the hour to give Dnipro the victory. Elsewhere Tavriya Simferopol defeated Zorya Luhansk 2-1 while Lviv squeezed out a 1-0 victory over Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih.

Ukrainian Premier League P W D L GS GA Pts
Dynamo Kyiv 25 21 1 3 61 16 64
Shakhtar Donetsk 25 15 7 3 38 15 52
Metalist Kharkiv 25 14 7 4 38 22 49
Metalurh Donetsk 25 13 4 8 31 22 43
Vorskla Poltava 25 11 7 7 26 22 40
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 25 10 8 7 24 20 38
Metalurh Zaporizhya 25 10 8 7 25 25 38
Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih 25 8 8 9 21 29 32
Tavriya Simferopol 25 8 6 11 33 36 30
Karpaty 25 7 9 9 30 29 30
Zorya Luhansk 25 7 7 11 26 37 28
Arsenal Kyiv
25 6 7 12 20 30 25
Chornomorets Odessa 25 9 2 14 26 33 23
Lviv 25 4 7 14 15 31 19
Illichivets 25 4 5 16 22 47 17
Kharkiv 25 2 9 14 14 36 15