The Sunday programme of Matchday 5 of the Ukrainian Premier League turned out to be maximally uncompromising tactically and, at the same time, surprisingly peaceful in the final whistles. After Kyiv's Dynamo drew a goalless stalemate with Cherkasy's LNZ, the remaining pairs of the matchday also failed to determine a winner: neither in Rivne nor in Kamianets-Podilskyi did the teams find enough keys to each other's goals to take all three points. This is reported by Sport RBC.UA, citing the official website of the Premier League.
Veres — Zorya: goals, VAR and missed chances
In Rivne, local side Veres hosted Luhansk's Zorya, and the hosts took the lead already in the first half. In the 22nd minute, Vladyslav Sharai headed home from close range, finishing off a precise pass from Goncalves to open the scoring. The response from the Luhansk side, however, was not long in coming: just nine minutes later, Domagoj Jevic broke clear one-on-one with the goalkeeper and equalised. A VAR review confirmed that the Croatian winger was not in an offside position at the moment of the shot, and the goal was awarded.
In the second half, the initiative and the chances still belonged to both sides. Goncalves could have put Veres back in front, but his shot was neutralised by the Luhansk goalkeeper, Oleksandr Saputin. Later, Jevic scored again past the hosts' goal, but this time the referee disallowed the goal due to an offside position. The match ended in a goal-filled 1:1 draw, which both the participants and the observers described as a battle.
Goalless draw in Kamianets-Podilskyi
In the final match of the day, Kamianets-Podilskyi's Epitsentr and Chernivtsi's Bukovyna also failed to determine a stronger side. Both teams arrived at this fixture riding a wave of impressive results from the previous round: a week earlier, the Chernivtsi club had sensationally beaten Dynamo 3:0, while Epitsentr had crushed Kudrivka by the same scoreline. This time, despite an abundance of goal-scoring chances created by both sides, the final whistle recorded a 0:0 draw — neither team managed to convert their opportunities into goals.
The table and the league leaders
After five matches played, Epitsentr has collected 8 points and sits in 5th place in the table, while Bukovyna has 6 points to their name and is placed 8th. Zorya, with 7 points, is 7th, and Veres, with 5 points, is 9th. The league is led by Donetsk's Shakhtar and Lviv's Karpaty, who have 12 points each; meanwhile, in the central match of Matchday 5, Shakhtar secured a come-from-behind victory over Karpaty, which allowed the Donetsk side to catch the Lvivians at the top of the table.
