Fewer mistakes, three points

The men in purple again showed why Zorya find them so difficult to play. The Cherkasy club had won four and drawn two of the previous six Premier League meetings. The nominal visitors played like favourites from the opening whistle on Sunday. They pressed high, and in the fourth minute Hennadii Pasich picked up a ricochet off Jordan and curled a dangerous effort towards the far post from the left corner of the box. Oleksandr Saputin sprang across to keep it out. The Zorya goalkeeper was at fault moments later, however. His attempt to play his way out of trouble with Kyrylo Dryshliuk backfired when Ndiaga intercepted the midfielder’s return pass, raced through one-on-one and drew a foul from Saputin. The referee immediately pointed to the spot and booked the goalkeeper. Ndiaga took the penalty himself. 0–1.

An unscheduled break came almost immediately. The threat of an air attack stopped play for half an hour. Both sides seemed to leave their attacking energy in the tunnel while waiting for the all-clear. Once play resumed, the contest stayed between the penalty areas until half-time.

LNZ struck quickly again at the start of the second half, once more capitalising on a mistake. Denys Kuzyk intercepted a careless pass from Jordan in the middle, carried the ball forward and slipped Ndiaga through to face Saputin. The Senegalese forward rolled it almost mockingly past the onrushing goalkeeper. 0–2.

The men in purple were in full flow on the counter and ten minutes later Pasich scored what would have been a lovely goal. He took Ryabov’s cross from the right, sent Perduta to the turf with a feint and blasted past Saputin under the bar. He had strayed just offside.

Viktor Skrypnyk tried to turn the game with substitutions and got part of what he wanted. In the 64th minute the Luhansk side pulled one back with a Croatian goal. From the right, Jelavić spotted Bašić making a run from deep and timed the pass perfectly for his compatriot to enter the box. Jakov hit it first time from a tight angle, over the sliding Muravskyi and towards the near post. Ledvii seemed caught completely by surprise. It was a glaring mistake by the Cherkasy goalkeeper, beaten at his own post. 1–2.

The contest was alive again, and the last third of the half was both tense and absorbing. Drambaiev met a corner from the right with a header back across Saputin. It looked certain to go in, but Jordan bailed out his goalkeeper by clearing off the line.

Five minutes later it was Zorya’s turn to pass up a golden chance. Bašić sent a long free-kick in from midfield and Ledvii ventured all the way to the edge of his area to cut it out. The LNZ goalkeeper’s clearance did not go far and fell straight to Kravets. His first-time ball dropped near the penalty spot, where Horbach volleyed at the empty goal and cleared the bar by centimetres.

Late in stoppage time, Cherkasy defended their area and broke quickly towards Zorya’s vacant goal. They set Talles up for the finish, but he could not get the better of Perduta, who had taken over in goal.

Vitalii Ponomarov, LNZ head coach: “We knew intensity was the only way we could beat Zorya. Unfortunately, some of our players can only play at a certain level of intensity. Hennadii Pasich and Ndiaga stood out for me today. They gave the team a great deal.”

Viktor Skrypnyk, Zorya head coach: “It was a head-to-head with a team next to us in the table. We couldn’t cope with the pressure LNZ put on us. We lost out on the more vertical play, the duels and the second balls. We always talk about how to start a game and how to be useful and alert from the first minute. Instead we’ve done it the way we did last season and this. It’s frustrating to lose through individual mistakes. But credit to the lads. They ran, they wanted to get back into it and Horbach had that chance…”