First League. "Polesia" and "Obolon" are already accepting congratulations, while "Karpaty" have made things difficult for themselves

After today's expected victories, the football players of "Polesia" and "Obolon" have secured their tickets to the elite division prematurely.

First League. "Polesia" and "Obolon" are already accepting congratulations, while "Karpaty" have made things difficult for themselves

Metallurg players climbed above Karpaty and maintain chances for promotion in the league. Photo by FC Karpaty

After today's expected victories, footballers from «Polesia» and «Obolon» have secured their tickets to the elite division in advance.

However, the battle for third-fourth places in the «championship» group, which gives the right to play transitional matches with UPL relegation teams, is still heating up. It seemed that after a recent away victory over «Obolon», footballers from «Karpaty» had already secured their place in the top quartet. But it didn't turn out as expected. First, Lvivians managed to play an evening match against outsider «Kremen» in Kremenchuk, and yesterday they lost at home to direct competitor «Metallurh».

Before halftime, the hosts troubled goalkeeper Nazar Bayda of Zaporizhzhia more often, but he was reliable. The guests decided to play defensively and hoped to take advantage of their home set pieces first. And they did! On the 60th minute, Bohdan Vecklyak won a header duel, forcing «Karpaty»'s goalkeeper Oleksandr Ilyuchenko to capitulate. 0:1. Lvivians had two chances to avoid defeat, but Oleksiy Khoblenko missed them. The team of Volodymyr Mykytyn has caught up with «Karpaty» and is pushing them out of fourth place thanks to a better goal difference.

And in third position are footballers from «LNZ», who confidently beat the struggling «Epicon» team, which has been performing poorly this spring season.

Table and calendar of the first league