FC Kharkiv - Zorya 0:1. Relegation battlers fail to entertain

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Poltava. Vorskla Stadium.
Attendance: 2 200 (according to PFL information)

Referee: Shvetsov, Odesa
Linesmen: Bitskalo, Mankovskiy (both Odesa)

FC Kharkiv 0:1 Zorya Khramtsov 70 Khudzhamov, Berezovchuk, Cheberyachko, Horodov (Ibrahim 62), Pankovets, Biliy (Ribeiro 78), Milko, Komarnitskiy, Fedetskiy (Sokolenko 83), Suchkov, Batista Tlumak, Dunjic, Khramtsov, Polovkov, Shevchuk, Havryushov, Vorobey (Tsimakuridze 90), Burduli (Bunjevcevic 80), Antonov, Nwoha (Tselykh 85), Babay Biliy 27, Cheberyachko 30, Pankovets 73, Batista 79, Milko 87 Havryushov 73, Vorobey 84, Dunjic 90

Vorskla Stadium in Poltava turned out to be unfortunate for Volodymyr Bessonov and his team that temporarily have to play their home games here. For the second time they failed to get points. It wasn’t easy to earn something playing against Dynamo, but in the match with fellow relegation battlers Zorya hosts could hope for the victory. However Zorya also were in need of points as the crisis in the team continued even after Kosevich’s retirement and the new boss Volobuev failed to improve the team play immediately.

Unfortunately the match lacked real heat and passion of a “six points game”. There weren’t many dangerous episodes as events rolled up slowly in the game.

Maksym Biliy twice shot on goal in the first half but Tlumak was able to save both times. Burduli was active in Zorya but his teammates deprived him of support. Both teams seldom approached each other’s goals.

In the second half everything was just as boring. Only Fedetskiy’s header that went wide on 56 minutes could be noted. The match fate was decided on 70 minutes when Khramtsov headed home off the bar the left flank cross. FC Kharkiv had 20 more minutes to equalize but failed to create anything dangerous.

Post match press conference

Volodymyr Bessonov, FC Kharkiv head coach:

- Zorya played defensively and did that well. We couldn’t create any chances. We need to learn how to break through the thick defense. Our players can do something when they have space but they were helpless against the thick defensive line. I congratulate Zorya. We are in difficult situation now but life goes on. Everything depends on us now. I want to thank Vorskla club management for the possibility to play on their stadium. The pitch was in perfect condition. However nothing can be compared to playing at home.

Anatoliy Volobyev, Zorya head coach:

- We are happy that we’ve beaten FC Kharkiv as they are very good team with the highly qualified coach. I watched several their previous games and they played very good football. I am also happy that we won at last and now can crawl out of the psychological hole. We were lucky to play this match on a neutral pitch.

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