Famous Ukrainian coach Ihor Zhabchenko named the favorites of the season in the Ukrainian First League.
Igor Zhabchenko- Who is this season's dark horse? "Victoria" (Sumy). First, the team is led by a good specialist, Anatoliy Bezsmertnyi. Secondly, they have recruited well. They have to fight first to get into the championship group, and then to the UPL. "Bukovyna has renewed 70% of the squad, and we definitely consider them to be among the leaders. However, first they need to get into the top four. When I was working at Niva (Buzov), I told the president: we need to get into the top 5 in the fall and the gap in points should not be too big. Then we can see what issues are not resolved and strengthen ourselves.
They are doing the same now. In winter, there is a lot of time to fill in the gaps. There are, for example, Podillia and Mariupol. This championship will be very interesting. The level of football in the first league has already risen. We can see it in the games of the four teams that tried to make it to the UPL. Some very serious teams have already played there. If we take the entire league, I also believe that the third military season will be stronger than the previous ones. We see that guys from abroad are already coming. They see that we have football, it does not stop.
Many teams are now well prepared for the competition. These are Mariupol and Metallurg (Zaporizhzhia). Oleksandr Ryabokon has come to Dinaz, and I think that the guys he used to work with may be drawn to him. That's why Dinaz can also make a splash," the expert is sure.
