First League. "Polesia" became the tournament winner and along with "Obolon" is advancing to the UPL, "LNZ" and "Metallurh" await playoff matches
Only after the final round in the championship group did the winner and the teams that will participate in the play-off matches with the relegation-threatened teams in the UPL become known.
The football players of "Poltisia" became the winners of the first league in the 2022/2023 season. Photo FC Poltisia
The winner and the teams that will participate in promotion/relegation matches against the bottom-placed sides of the Ukrainian Premier League (UPL) only became known after the final round of the championship group.
In Zhivoborzh, "Polesia" played to a draw today with "LNZ". However, thanks to accurate shots from Vasyl Grytsuk and Artem Kozak, Yuri Kalitvinets' charges secured their position as winners even before halftime. In the second half, the hosts continued to dictate terms. The only thing that Cherkasy managed to do was reduce the deficit to a minimum after Ivan Tischenko's goal when playing with fewer players. 2:1. "Polesia" is comfortably in first place.
It would have taken a miracle for "Metalurh" not to make it into the top four. For that, Zaporizhzhya had to lose heavily in Ternopil and "Karpaty" had to dismantle "Obolon". No upsets occurred. Metalurg's leading scorer Oleksiy Sydorov opened the scoring midway through the first half. However, "Niva" made great efforts to save themselves, and on the 88th minute young Daniel Volosky set the final score at 1:1.
As for "Karpaty", although they went ahead against "Obolon" before halftime (veteran Denis Kozhanov scored with a powerful shot), in the second half Kyiv's Taras Moroz equalized immediately. 1:1.
Thus, in the promotion/relegation matches, "LNZ" will face the team that finishes 14th in the UPL, while "Metalurh" — against the one finishing 13th.
As for the relegation group, thanks to their victory in Chernihiv, "Prykarpattia" now leads the standings. "Gorohok-Sport" will be relegated, while FSK "Mariupol" will compete against the second-placed team from the second league in promotion/relegation matches.
