Renowned journalist Artem Frankov shared his forecast for the central match of the 22nd round of the Ukrainian championship, in which today in Kiev will play "Dynamo" and "Shakhtar".
"Classic? Yes! But with a sad tinge. Nine rounds before the end of the championship, Dynamo is 12 points behind Shakhtar and can only hinder the progress of the native rival to another championship and a tasty place in the Champions League.
"Dnipro 1 is 7 points behind Shakhtar and in two days plays against Rukh - seemingly against the outsider, but in fact against the team, which just took points from unpredictable Dynamo in the worst sense.
On the eve of the game of the first teams Ihor Kostiuk's junior Dynamo beat their peers from Shakhtar (3:2) and passed a kind of baton to Mircea Lucescu's charges. Will they have something in common? Will they really want to clinch the third place ("Zorya" has already beaten "Kolos" 1:0), do they believe in their chances to dramatically improve the tournament position in the remaining rounds of the Ukrainian Premier League? Oh...
Shakhtar, who have long been a Kiev club, have their own reasons: after Dynamo the Pitmen have quite a straight road to the championship, which is overshadowed only by the upcoming matches with Zorya and Dnipro-1 at the end of the tournament.
The next battle of the grandees of Ukrainian soccer will surely give us a new reason to talk about strategic vectors of development and specific selection decisions. This I very mildly, without idioms.
My bet: the victory of Dynamo. "Blessed is he who believes - it is warm to him in the world. And who is the Light today?!", - said Frankov.