The twenty-third Ukrainian Football Cup competition started in July 2013 with the participation of 48 professional and two strongest amateur teams in the country. Amateurs in it were represented by “New Life” (Andreevka) and ODEK (Orzhev), who had dropped out of the fight already at the preliminary stage. The final of the 2014 tournament is scheduled to take place on May 7. The venue has not yet been determined.
The final without Shakhtar is not the final
The most titled Ukrainian clubs in the Cup are Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kiev, who won nine times in them. In total, Dynamo have 12 cup finals, while Shakhtar, which has celebrated success in the last three tournaments, has 13. Shakhtar and Dynamo have met each other in the finals six times. And the total score of their fights is still equal.
The main "highlight" of the Cup, as well as the Ukrainian championship, is the confrontation between the two main grandees of local football - Dynamo Kiev and Shakhtar Donetsk, who have reached the final 25 times and won nine victories each.
The miners reached the Ukrainian Cup final for the first time in 1995, having immediately won this honorable trophy. In the decisive meeting, which took place then in Kiev, Shakhtar beat Dnipro from Dnepropetrovsk in a penalty shootout - 1: 1 (7: 6). And in last year's final, the miners defeated Chornomorets Odesa in Kharkiv with a score of 3: 0, starting in the 2014 Cup as the main favorites.
By the way, the first winner of the Ukrainian Cup in 1992 was Chornomorets, who in extra time broke the resistance of Metalist Kharkiv - 1: 0.
In the 1/16 finals of the current rally, the team from Donetsk beat Illichivets in Mariupol with a score of 3: 0, and in the 1/8 finals inflicted a similar away defeat on the Nikolaev team, confidently reaching the quarterfinals. And now, for reaching the semifinals, the wards of the Romanian specialist Mircea Lucescu have to play on March 26 in Chernigov with the local Desna.
As for the main and, in fact, the only rivals of Shakhtar from Dynamo Kiev, who took the championship in the Cup for the last time in 2007 (Shakhtar turned out to be defeated - 2: 1 - then it was Shakhtar), then at the first stage of their current participation Dynamo not without difficulty won at home against Metallurg Donetsk - 3: 2. And in the game for reaching the quarterfinals they defeated another Shakhtar 4-0 away from Sverdlovsk (Luhansk Oblast).
"Neutral" stadium
On the same day, March 26, three more games are planned, in which all the participants of the semifinal stage will be determined: Slavutich (Cherkasy) - Niva (Ternopil), Metalist (Kharkiv) - Dynamo (Kiev) and FC Ternopil (Ternopil) - Chernomorets (Odessa). Unless, of course, these matches, in which the guests are favorites, are not canceled due to the current political situation in the country …
As stated in the Regulations of the Professional Football League of Ukraine, it is after the completion of all four games of the quarter-finals that the city will be determined, which will receive the right to host the final match of the draw on May 7. The main condition is that it will be the settlement whose team will not play in one of the two semifinals on April 15.
One of the seven Ukrainian cities - Donetsk, Kiev, Odessa, Ternopil, Cherkasy, Chernigov, or Kharkiv, which hosted the decisive match in 2013 - may become the "owner" of the next final of the Cup of the country.
Ukraine without football
Unfortunately, in the spring of 2014, the Ukrainian teams had no time for football. As, probably, the whole country. And no one knows whether the Cup final will take place on the appointed day. An indicative fact is, for example, the nightmare for the fans that Dynamo Kiev had to play their home match in the European Cup in Cyprus …
