One of the Ukrainian winners of the Golden Ball, former Dynamo Kyiv and USSR national team forward Ihor Belanov told Sport.UA about his expectations from the Ukrainian classic.
- Shakhtar have been playing very confidently and have not lost a single point in the second round. The rejuvenation of the squad, which began five or six years ago, has begun to bear fruit. Dynamo's performance has also improved compared to the unstable first round. We can see this in the results since November, when the Kyiv team has stumbled only twice, drawing with Veres and LNZ this spring. Therefore, in today's match, Dynamo will have the opportunity to partially make up for the lost points in order to get as close to their rival as possible. Shakhtar, of course, will not want to put the championship on the back burner, but to clinch it early. This will not only relieve the Pitmen psychologically, but will also add a lot to their mood before the cup final with Vorskla.
- What kind of game do you expect to see in today's clash between our superclubs?
- It's hard to say, because the price of three points in this match is too high. Speaking of Dynamo, they need to go forward, looking for favourable chances at the other team's goal. However, Shakhtar are able to make sharp and quick counter-attacks, so they can punish their opponents for any mistake, even a minor one. As for the standard positions, both teams have masters of this component, as we have seen many times. However, I don't think there will be many penalties in this game - I'm sure the players are well aware of the consequences of fouls near their own goal.
- How do you explain the fact that two Dynamo players - Vladyslav Vanat and Vitaliy Buyalsky - are leading the scoring list , while only one Shakhtar representative, Danylo Sikan, is on it?
- The fact is that everyone at Shakhtar, who after a break again relied on Brazilians, can score. So it turns out that goals are distributed proportionally among many players, most of whom are midfielders.
Andrii Pysarenko