March 12, 2015

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Soccer

• Shakhtar Donetsk lost 0-7 to Bayern Munich on March 10 at Allianz Arena in Munich during the UEFA Champions League knockout stage before the quarterfinals. The match was off to a rocky start when Olexandr Kucher received the fastest red card in a UEFA Champions League match, at 2-minutes, 39 seconds (a new record) during the first half. Shakhtar was down 0-2 at the half and, playing with a 10-man squad, the pitmen were at the mercy of one of Europe’s top clubs until the final whistle. Shakhtar tied 0-0 with Bayern on February 17 in the first-leg match that was played at Arena Lviv. The quarterfinals are set to begin on April 14-15, with second-leg matches on April 21-22. The final is set for June 6 in Berlin at Olympiastadion.

• Andriy Pavelko, 39, was selected as the new president of the Football Federation of Ukraine (FFU) on March 6 after receiving 122 out of 137 votes by delegates during the XVII Extraordinary Congress of the FFU in Kyiv. Pavelk, who will serve a four-year term as president of the FFU, brings experience as a well-known Ukrainian politician and lawmaker, having served as the chairman of the Football Federation of Dnipropetrovsk since 2001. Other candidates for the post of president of the FFU included Ihor Kolomoisky (eight votes) and Yaroslav Hryso (seven votes).

• During the UEFA Europa League play, Dynamo Kyiv lost 1-2 to French club Guingamp on February 19 at Roudourour arena in Guingamp, France, in the first-leg match, and Dynamo won 3-1 against Guingamp on February 26 in the second-leg match at Olympic Stadium in Kyiv. In the Round of 16, Dynamo plays Everton on March 12 at Goodison Park in Liverpool, England. Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk won 2-0 against Greek club Olympiacos on February 19, and tied 2-2 on February 26 in the second-leg match. Dnipro plays against Dutch club Ajax on March 12 at Olympic Stadium in Kyiv. Second-leg matches are scheduled for March 19.

• Ukraine’s U-19 men’s team is in Group 5 of the UEFA U-19 Elite Round, with Bosnia and Herzegovina (May 14), Montenegro (May 19) and Poland (May 16). Locations of matches are to be determined. Greece hosts the final tournament on July 6-19.

• In the UEFA Youth League, Shakhtar Donetsk won first place in Group H with 14 points, ahead of Portuguese club Porto (nine points), Spain’s Athletic Club (nine points) and Belarus’ FC BATE Borisov (one point).  After a 1-1 draw with Greek club Olympiacos (Group A runner-up) on February 23 in Kyiv, Shakhtar won the match 5-4 in penalty kicks to advance to the quarterfinals. Shakhtar plays against Portuguese club Benefica in the quarterfinal on March 17 at Caixia Futebol Campus in Seixal, Portugal. Other teams in the quarterfinals include Italy’s Roma, England’s Manchester City, Belgian club Anderlecht and Porto. England’s Chelsea defeated Atletico Madrid 2-0 on March 10 to secure its spot in the semifinal.

• Ukraine’s U-17 men’s team is set to play against Italy on March 21 at Stadion Wetzlar in Wetzlar, Germany, as part of its UEFA U-17 Group 8 Elite Round matches with Germany (March 23) and Slovakia (March 26).  Bulgaria hosts the tournament final that is set for May 6-22.

• Ukraine’s women’s U-19 team is set to play against Belgium on April 4 at Waldseestadion, in Forst, Germany, as part of its UEFA Group 5 Elite Round. Other teams in Group 5 include group host Germany (April 6) and Scotland (April 9). The final is set for Israel on July 15-27.

Futsal

• Ukraine, in Group 4 of the UEFA Futsal Euro Cup is set to play against Belgium, group host Azerbaijan and Denmark. Ukraine’s opener will be against Denmark on March 18; Ukraine will play against Belgium on March 19 and against Azerbaijan on March 21. Ukraine got a bye to the main round, along with 21 other teams that had the highest coefficients based on the Futsal Euro 2014 and 2012 ,and Futsal World Cup 2012 (Ukraine ranked fifth, behind Portugal and ahead of Croatia). The tournament had 24 other teams that competed in the preliminary round, in addition to the 21 in the main round, with a record-setting 45 countries competing.

Athletics

• Nataliya Pyhyda won gold in the women’s 400-meter race on March 5-8 at the 33rd European Athletics Indoor Championhsips at O2 Arena in Prague. Natalia Lupu won third place in the women’s 800-meter race. Alina Fyodorova won first place in the women’s shotput with a distance of 15.09 meters.

• Andriy Protsenko won silver in the men’s high jump (2.26 meters) at the Malmo Games at Malmo Arena on February 25 in Malmo, Sweden. Nataliya Pohrebnyak won silver in the women’s 60-meter race.

• Hanna Platitsyna won third place in the women’s 60-meter hurdles at the IAAF Permit Indoor Meeting at XL-Galan in Stockholm on February 19. Oksana Okuneva won third place in women’s high jump (1.89 meters).

• Iryna Kovalenko won third place in the women’s high jump (1.84 meters) at the IAAF Permit Indoor Meeting at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix on February 7 in Roxbury, Mass.

• Vasyl Ivanytskyy won silver in the men’s long jump (7.42 meters) at the International Combined Events Meeting Indoor Championships on February 6-7 in Tallinn, Estonia.

• Andriy Protsenko won silver in the men’s high jump (2.33 meters) at the Banskobystricka Iatka Indoor tournament on February 4 in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia.

• Olesya Povkh won gold in the women’s 60-meter race at the Russian Winter IAAF Permit Indoor Meeting in Moscow on February 1. Hanna Platitsyna won silver in the women’s 60-meter hurdles.

Shooting

• Olena Kostevyck won gold in the women’s 10-meter air pistol event at the European Shooting Championship on March 2-8 in Arnhem, the Netherlands. Ihor Kizyma won silver in the 10-meter running target for mixed men’s juniors and bronze in 10-meter running target men’s juniors. Kizyma, Volodymyr Strutskyi and Dmytro Melnyk won gold in the 10-meter running target men’s junior team event and silver in the 10-meter running target mixed men’s junior team event. Polina Konarieva, Olena Yakusheva and Viktoriya Savosta won bronze in the 10-meter women’s air pistol team event. Ukraine finished in fifth place in the medal standings with six medals – gold, silver and bronze medals in both individual and team events.

Gymastics

• Oleh Vernyayev, 21, of Donetsk on March 7 won first place in the AT&T American Cup in Arlington, Texas, with a score of 90.597 points. In parallel bars at the event, he scored 15.900 points for first place. In the other events he scored: 14.766 (fifth place), floor routine; 14.366 (fourth place), pommel horse; 15.266 (second place), rings; 15.233 (fourth place), vault; and 15.066 (third place), high bar. Vernyayev is the 2014 World Champion and 2014 European Champion in parallel bars. Having won the three World Cup tournaments in 2014, Vernyayev won in November in Stuttgart, Germany; in December in Glasgow, Scotland; and in March in Arlington, Texas.

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