Ukrainian Cup Final: "Dynamo" vs "Shakhtar" - where to watch, favorite, team mood
Kyiv • UNN
Today, May 14, "Dynamo" and "Shakhtar" will play in the final of the Ukrainian Cup in Zhytomyr. Bookmakers give preference to "Shakhtar", and the winner will qualify for the Europa League.
Today, May 14, the final match of the Ukrainian Football Cup of the 2024/25 season between Kyiv's "Dynamo" and Donetsk's "Shakhtar" will take place. The game will be held at the Central City Stadium "Polissya" in Zhytomyr, starting at 18:30 Kyiv time, writes UNN.
"Shakhtar"
In this game, the nominal host will be the "miners". "Shakhtar" started its journey to the final directly from the 1/8 finals, where they first beat "Zorya" 1:0, in the quarter-finals "Oleksandria" 1:0, and in the semi-finals "Polissya" also with a minimal score of 1:0.
However, things in the championship are not going well for "Shakhtar". Donetsk residents risk being left without titles for the first time since the 2020/21 season. Currently, the "miners" are in 3rd place in the championship, 5 points behind "Oleksandria", which is in second place, two rounds before the end, and 10 points behind "Dynamo", which in theory and in practice will not allow "Shakhtar" to compete for the championship "gold".
Victory in the Cup will allow the "miners" to get into the Europa League, otherwise the team will start the Euro season in the Conference League.
In the last 5 matches in the UPL, "Shakhtar" defeated "Kryvbas" (2:1) and "Chornomorets" (3:0), lost to "Kolos" (2:4) and drew with "Dynamo" (2:2) and "Zorya" (0:0).
Probably, this match will also be decisive for the head coach of the "miners" Marino Pusic, especially against the background of rumors about the appointment of a new coach Arda Turan, who currently coaches the Turkish "Eyupspor", for which ex-footballer of "Shakhtar" Taras Stepanenko plays.
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"Dynamo"
As mentioned above, "Dynamo" confidently leads the Ukrainian Championship with 68 points and is close to оформлення its 17th championship, which will be a record in the history of the Championship.
"Dynamo", like "Shakhtar", started its journey to the final from 1/8, where in overtime it defeated "Vorskla" (2:1). In the quarter-finals, the "white-blues" defeated "Rukh" (1:0), and in the semi-finals they defeated Bukovyna (4:1).
Dynamo's victory in the Cup final may spoil Shakhtar's plans for the Europa League. Currently, only one team gets into the Champions League - the winner of the Ukrainian Premier League. The representative starts from the second stage and has to pass three opponents to the common group.
Only one team qualifies for the Europa League - in the first qualifying round. Usually, it is the winner of the Ukrainian Cup, but if it is the winner of the UPL (in this case "Dynamo"), then the silver medalist of the championship will be taken to the LE - probably, it will be "Oleksandriya", if Ruslan Rotan's wards do not make mistakes in the two final rounds.
In the last 5 matches, "Dynamo" defeated "Kryvbas" (2:0), "Obolon" (3:0) and "Ingulets" (4:0), drew with "Shakhtar" (2:2) and "Polissya" (0:0).
Before the match, numbers, facts
As already mentioned, the match will start at 18:30. The final of the Ukrainian Cup will be shown for free. The match can be watched in the open access on the UPL TB YouTube channel. The meeting will also be broadcast on T2 MEGOGO Sport.
"Dynamo" and "Shakhtar" have a rich history of meetings in the Ukrainian Cup. In total, they have met 16 times in this tournament. 10 of them took place in the finals.
Statistics in the Cup speak in favor of "Shakhtar" - 9 wins against 5 for "Dynamo". The last time "Shakhtar" and "Dynamo" met in the Cup final was in 2018, when the "miners" beat Kyiv - 2:0. Facundo Ferreira and Yaroslav Rakitsky scored the goals then.
The last time "Dynamo" and "Shakhtar" played against each other in the Cup was in 2019 in the 1/8 final, when Kyiv squeezed the "miners" in overtime - 2:1. Serhiy Sydorchuk and Denys Popov scored. Taras Stepanenko scored for "Shakhtar" in extra time then.
Bookmakers give a slight advantage to "Shakhtar", whose victory can be bet on with a coefficient of 2.28. On the victory of "Dynamo" - 3.25, and on a draw in regular time - 3.4.
The match will be judged by Mykola Balakin, who will be assisted by assistant referees Oleksandr Berkut and Dmytro Zaporozhenko. Fourth arbitrator – Dmytro Panchyshyn.
Mykola Balakin at the match "Dynamo" against "Kryvbas"
In the current season, Ukrainian referee Mykola Balakin officiated several important matches within the Ukrainian Premier League and the Ukrainian Cup, in particular, in the first round of the championship, he refereed the match between "Dynamo" and "Shakhtar", which ended with a score of 1:1.
Balakin also officiated the match of the 24th round of the UPL between "Kryvbas" and "Dynamo", which ended with the victory of Kyiv - 2:0. In that match, Balakin showed a red card to Dynamo defender Denys Popov.
In addition, in the quarter-finals of the Ukrainian Cup, Balakin refereed the match between "Shakhtar" and "Oleksandriya", which ended with the victory of the "miners" in overtime.
"Dynamo" has not lost in Ukraine for more than a year. The last defeat was on May 11, 2024, in the game against Shakhtar, in the 28th round of the UPL season 2023/24.
Dynamo coach Oleksandr Shovkovskyi has never defeated Shakhtar as head coach (2 draws and a defeat). Pusic has never lost to Dynamo (two wins and 2 draws).
Marino Pusic and Oleksandr Shovkovskyi
"Shakhtar" has won the Ukrainian Cup 5 times without winning the championship.
