“At 'Arena Lviv', Shakhtar always plays better against Dynamo,” — journalist

Ukrainian and British journalist Andrew Todos shared his impressions of the Dynamo-Shakhtar match in the Ukrainian Cup.

Andrew Todos

— “Dynamo” may not have been the better team in this cup match. Shakhtar really played strongly in the first half — they just couldn’t score. Probably for me, the player of the match is really Ruslan Nescheret, who made several very good saves and rescued the team many times.

Also, Yarmolenko showed that he can play as a forward and for the second match in a row demonstrates normal, quality play. Guerrero also impressed me when he came on as a substitute for Andriy. That worked out well for Shovkovskyi. And Shola, I think, is gaining momentum after the summer transfer. He is starting to join the attacks, to integrate into the game, and so on. I think he can become a key player there in the coming months, maybe already after the winter break — when he fully adapts and starts to show something substantial.

As for “Shakhtar”, the players were a bit upset. They are currently in a tough series: only one win, three losses, and one draw in the last five matches. And now it can really be said that they are in a crisis. I think there will be a lot of pressure on the team to win on November 2 at 'Arena Lviv'. They need a revenge to break this series. I think they will be highly motivated to do that. We’ll see — at 'Arena Lviv', 'Shakhtar' always plays better against 'Dynamo' in the 'classico.' So, we’ll see whether this trend continues or not, Todos said.