First League. On April 8, the second stage begins: four clubs immediately do not hide their desire to break into the elite
In the spring portion of the season, competition in the first league will take place in two groups.
Participants of the "champion" group, "LNZ" and "Kremin", completed their preparation for new trials with a practice match in which the Chernihiv team emerged stronger. Photo FC Kremin
In the spring part of the season, competition in the first league will take place in two groups. In the "championship" group, where winners will secure two spots in the UPL, matches on April 8 will be between «Karpaty»— «Kremenchuk», «Epitsentr»— «Obolon», «Niva»— «LNZ», and the following day— «Polesye»— «Metallurg».
For participants in the "relegation group," the main task will be to preserve their status in the division. On April 8, a match between «Chernihiv-SVSM»— FSK «Mariupol», and on Sunday— «Poltava»— «Bukovyna», «Skorokhod»— «Dinaz», and «Hirnyk-Sport»— «Prykarpattia».
Despite the fact that «Obolon» and «Polesye» have distanced themselves from their closest pursuers by eight points, the battle for direct promotion to the Premier League and third-fourth places, which provide an opportunity to meet in play-off matches with relegation-threatened teams, is expected to be very intense. Since at least «Obolon», «Polesye», «LNZ», and «Karpaty» will make every effort to improve their class. And let fans not be misled by the fact that the same «Karpaty» currently hold only sixth place. During the winter break, they reinforced their ranks with well-known players such as Oleksandr Ilyuchenkov, Taras Sakiv, Serhiy Horbunov, Danylo Knysh, Ivan Bobko, and Oleksiy Khoblenko. And that their wards under Andriy Tlumak are already close to their fighting form is confirmed by their crushing victory in one of the last friendlies against elite «Veres»— 3:0.
A similar situation exists with «LNZ», which has been reinforced by several players with experience in the UPL. By the way, in their final friendly match, wards of Oleksandr Kovpak took the upper hand over another representative of the "championship" eight, «Kremenchuk»— (1:0), which at the end of March signed two half-backs— Andriy Kireiev from «Nikopol» and Dmytro Kasimov from «Mykolaiv».
As for the favorites, «Obolon» and «Polesye», they have not shown much activity in player recruitment. After all, their managers have well-balanced squads with a fairly long bench of substitutes. As they say, once you've found a good one, there's no need to look for a better one...
If we talk about the second eight, then only «Chernihiv-SVSM»— has somewhat distanced itself from its pursuers. But here too, the most interesting is ahead.
The latest winter recruit of «Bukovyna» is a local footballer Oleksandr Stepanovich, who previously played for the youth team of «Oleksandria», and in FSK «Mariupol»— Maxym Teplyakov from «Vovchansk» and Yegor Petrov from Kyiv's «Locomotiva». Even the outsider, «Hirnyk-Sport», has not only invited a new coach, Serhiy Dyryavka, but also an entire group of qualified footballers and is eager to quickly improve its unfavorable tournament position.
Tournament tables and match calendar of the first league
We remind you that in the second stage, 1—4th places from both groups of the first stage will form a group competing for promotion to the UPL with consideration of points earned against each other in the first stage. And 5—8th places— will form a group competing for the right to play in the first league, taking into account results from matches between them in the first stage.
The two best teams of the "championship" group will secure direct promotion to the UPL. The third and fourth teams will play play-off matches against 14th and 13th place teams in the UPL, respectively.
The last team from the first league will be relegated to the second league, while the penultimate team will play a play-off match with the second-placed team of the second league.
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