The participants of the Ukrainian U-19 Championship for the 2023/2024 season have gone on winter break, having played almost all scheduled matches, which is quite commendable given today's unstable circumstances.

Only two matches involving Shakhtar did not take place. The team had additional commitments due to UEFA Youth League group stage games. The match between Chornomorets and Shakhtar (12th round) was rescheduled in advance. And the game between Shakhtar and Metalist 1925 (16th round) did not start due to certain issues faced by Kharkiv-based teams. Its resolution will be decided by relevant football administrative bodies.

Shakhter, under Oleksiy Belik's leadership, has already concluded their UEFA Youth League campaign for the 2023/2024 season — they accumulated six points alongside Porto (1-4, 0-2), Barcelona (0-2, 0-3) and Antwerp (2-1, 3-1) and secured third place in the group.

Rukh under Sergei Zadorozhny's guidance also exited from the European competition. Lviv-based team drew Sarajevo (1-1, 3-1), but could not match Midtjylland (0-4, 1-0).

Currently, Rukh, the current champions, is the main challenger to the top three in the Ukrainian U-19 Championship. Shakhtar are third in terms of points scored, but first in terms of goals conceded (with two matches still to play).

Lviv's team started very well alongside Dynamo Kyiv with 13 points out of a possible 15 during the summer period, but then only managed to be among the best for one month — October.

In September, Shakhtar was an undisputed leader (12 points from 12), in October it was Dnipro-1 (9 out of 12), and in November with two December rounds, Dynamo Kyiv led the pack (13 out of 15). These three teams are rightfully at the top of the league table.

At various stages of the first half of the Ukrainian U-19 Championship, other participants also showed good results: in August — already mentioned Rukh and Oleksandria (12 out of 15), in October — besides Rukh, Kolos and Polissya (7 out of 9 each), in November with two December rounds — Oleksandria and Zoria (12 out of 15).

They are — Rukh, Oleksandria, Polissya, Kolos and Zoria — positioned in the second echelon of the upper part of the table.

It's worth mentioning separately the team from Zhivoborodok. After Serhiy Shyshchenko moved to head coach of Vyshygelskyi (replacing Yuriy Maximov, who took over Dnipro-1's main team), they are now led by Hennadiy Litovchenko. Since Polissya is a newcomer to the UPL, their youth team is new to the Ukrainian U-19 Championship as well. And for a debutant, they look very convincing.

League Table

Top Scorers: Matviy PONOMARENKO (Dynamo Kyiv) — 16, Mykhailo RASKO (Polissya) — 11, VENDELL (Dnipro-1), Vladyslav OSTROVSKYI (Metalist 1925, Vorskla) — 9, Dmytro GODYA (Veres), Yegor KOMISHAN (Oleksandria), Dmitro KREMCZANIN (Dynamo Kyiv), Viktor TSUKANOV (Shakhtar) — 7, Oleksiy BEZRUCHUK (Kolos), Artem GUSOL (Kolos), Artem PETRYK (Oleksandria) — 6, Volodymyr VILIVALD (Kryvyi Rih), Anton GLUSHCHENKO (Shakhtar), Denis ZHDANOV (Dnipro-1), Artem SERDYUK (Vorskla), Artem SLESAR (Zoria), Vadim SOLOGUB (Metalist 1925), Viktor TRIGUB (Kolos) — 5.