The 28th round of the Ukrainian league will feature the central match of the entire championship, with Shakhtar and Dynamo meeting. The outcome of this confrontation can largely answer the question of the fight for gold medals. Former Ukraine striker Ivan Getsko told Ukrainian fans what to expect from this match.
Ivan Getsko-Ivan Mykhailovych, will thehead-to-head match between Shakhtar and Dynamo determine the distribution of the fight for the gold medals?
- Of course it will. It is already clear to everyone that Shakhtar and Dynamo will play for the championship, so the opponents will put everything on the line for this game. It is much more interesting to watch the championship when the rivalry is fought to the last moment, rather than when we know the winner of the gold medal five rounds before the finish.
-If Kyiv wins, they will only come withinone point of the Shakhtar, and everything will still depend on Shakhtar...
- Then the fight for the gold medals will become even more intense, and this will only benefit the championship. Other teams will realise that they can take points away from Shakhtar. The Donetsk team will be in a worse position, as even the slightest mistake in the remaining two rounds could be fatal.
- Shakhtar will play Dnipro-1 and Polissya in the last two rounds. Couldthe Shakhtarminers stumblein any of these matches ?
- Why not? Don't Dnipro-1 and Polissia want to beat such a strong opponent? Of course they do. Both Dnipro and Zhytomyr are fighting to get into the European Cups, and this will only add to their motivation. Our league has become more interesting in terms of the level of competition, there are many unpredictable results. There are still a lot of questions about who will be in which place.
There were matches when Shakhtar and Dynamo lost points in games in which they shouldn't have. We now have four or five teams that are almost on equal footing with the giants. Yes, many lack stability, but I repeat that it is much harder to predict the results now.
And don't forget that on 15 May, Shakhtar will play in the Ukrainian Cup final against Vorskla. So it is not known in what psychological state the Pitmen will approach the last two rounds.
-Do you agree that Dynamo have recently improved?
- Yes, I do. We can see that the White and Blues are slowly reaching their level. Not the one we saw in the team's best years, of course, but Kyiv are getting there. The important thing is that as of today, Oleksandr Shovkovskyi's men can compete with Shakhtar.
- Who is your favourite in this match?
- Many experts have long ago decided that Shakhtar will become the champion. There is some truth in this, but I would like to see the intrigue to the end. I understand that at the moment, the Shakhtar players are slightly superior to Dynamo in terms of the class of their players. Although their head-to-head match will show whether I was right (smiles).
Each team wants to win, because it is not only a fight for gold medals, but also for prestige - to win in such a confrontation, regardless of the opponents' positions. This is the Ukrainian Classic!
-What is your forecast for the central match of the 28th round?
- If Dynamo manage to give their best and fortune is on their side, they can beat the leader. I believe in a miracle from Kyiv and in the continuation of the fight for the championship gold medals. I'm betting on a minimal 1-0 victory for Oleksandr Shovkovskyi's side.
Yaroslav Piatnytskyi
