The rivals were unable to field their full strength, particularly Lviv lacked midfielder Vladyslav Baboglo, who was called up to Moldova's national team. His absence in the center of defense was felt.

However, on the right flank of the half-back line made his debut Frenchman Jared Hasa, who played for Israeli "Maccabi" from Petah Tikva last fall. Despite his activity, it wasn't him who became the hero of the match.

The main events unfolded in the second half. At its beginning, Lviv's Pavlo Polegenko opened the score with an effective shot. However, on the 58th minute the home team's goalkeeper Bogdan Veklya was sent off, and at the 20-minute mark Poltava's Mykola Buzhin equalized the score — 1:1. But this didn't knock the green-and-whites out of their rhythm. Even playing a man down, they sought an opportunity to score and were rewarded for it. In stoppage time, the guests were penalized with a penalty kick after touching the ball with their hand in their own penalty area. Undeterred Polegenko executed the penalty cleanly — 2:1.

And in the relegation group, an unexpected result of 1-4 was recorded in the match between the leader "Metalurh" and the outsider "Khust". However, the rout of the Zaporizhzhia team was expected by experts, as during the winter break "Metalurh" left behind 17 players, while Zakarpattians, on the contrary, strengthened their ranks.

Match results and league standings