First League. Damocles Sword over Sumy and confident advance of Dnipro-1

23.03.2019 22:27

Ingultsa's players won in Nikolaev thanks to the successful replacements. Photo by mfc.mk.ua

The spring part of the first league championship of Ukraine began with a confrontation between "Nikolaev" and "Ingulets".

It seemed that the opponents would have to sign a peace agreement, but the players who came on as substitutes were different. In the 89th minute, Dmytro Sula overtook Bohdan Kushnirenko and made a pass to the far post, where the defenders of the hosts lost Nika Sichinava, who struck a well-aimed shot on the unprotected goal. 0: 1.

"I tried to set the wards up for combination football," said Serhiy Shyshchenko, the head coach of the townspeople, after the final whistle, "but the guests acted closely and did not allow us to implement the plan." There was a lot of struggle, breaking the rules. In such cases, the fate of the match is often decided by one goal scored. Unfortunately, we made mistakes at the end of the match, which the opponents took advantage of. However, we do not make a tragedy out of it, I am convinced that we will draw the right conclusions… »

As for the matches of Saturday's program, the events in Kovalivka, where Kolos hosted Prykarpattia, were interesting. Oleksandr Bondarenko opened the scoring in the 16th minute. Igor Khudobyak could soon equalize, but did not take a penalty. In the 30th minute, Yaroslav Konkolnyak from Ivano-Frankivsk forced the Kolos goalkeeper to capitulate with a spectacular shot. After that, Ruslan Kostyshyn's wards became more active, and soon Bondarenko made a double without missing the 11-meter mark. And in the 37th minute the guests remained in the minority after the removal of their captain Peter Kovalchuk. After the break, referee Oleksandr Shandor from Lviv punished Prykarpattia residents (Roman Kuzmin and Mykola Kvasnyi) twice more with red cards. And the intrigue in the match was killed by Eugene Morozko, who in the 84th minute set the final score - 3: 1.

But the match did not take place in Volochysk. Due to organizational problems, Sumy did not come, and the local Agribusiness will most likely be credited with a technical victory. As for the "citizens", if they will not be able to host Volyn in the next round, they will be threatened with withdrawal from the tournament distance.

Rukh footballers played their first official match under the leadership of a famous specialist, Leonid Kuchuk. Before the break, they had a game advantage in the confrontation with the "Balkans", but the first goal was created by the guests: after a close shot by Sergei Lyubchak, the Galician ally became a stable. After the break, the events unfolded on opposing courses. The hosts turned the scales in their favor in the 64th minute after Roman Nikityuk's header. 1: 0.

The guests were honored by the Avangard players, who snatched the victory in Lutsk after Igor Kiriyenko's penalty, although they ended the match in the minority.

And yet the central match took place in Kharkiv, where "Metalist 1925" hosted the favorite - "Dnipro-1". In case of victory, Slobozhans reduced the distance to the leader, while the victory of the guests practically opened the way for them to the elite division. 22 fans enthusiastically supported Kharkiv, who took the lead in the 10th minute after a shot by Oleksandr Zhdanov. But this did not derail Dmytro Mykhaylenko's wards. In the 28th minute, they leveled the score - Stanislav Kulish converted a penalty. Dmytro Grankin, a Metalist 1925 player, was soon removed from the field. And in the 52nd minute the newcomer of the guests Orest Kuzyk took advantage of the numerical advantage of his team. 1: 2.

19 round

22.03.2019

Mykolaiv - Inhulets - 0: 1

23.03.2019

Kolos - Prykarpattia - 3: 1

Volyn - Avangard - 0: 1

Rukh - Balkans - 1: 0

"Metalist 1925" - "Dnipro-1" - 1: 2

"Zirka" - "Obolon-Brovar" - did not take place

"Agribusiness" - "Sumy" - did not take place

Standings

According to the decision of the FFU SCC dated August 23, 2018, FC Cobra (Kharkiv) was excluded from the PFL competition. Six tournament points were withdrawn from FC Volyn (Lutsk) for non-compliance with the decision of the FIFA SC of September 18, 2017.