Marked for Yaroslav Protsenko
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad21 Sep 2026
Peter Itodo takes the match ball home
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Illia Krupskyi at 21 — 7.67
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Illia Krupskyi did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match19 Sep 2026
Still nobody has beaten Metalist
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market21 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Yaroslav Protsenko to Epicentr has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Metalist with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Match19 Sep 2026
Three points for Metalist, 5‑4 the final word against Rukh in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.92, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metalist this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Peter Itodo at his very best
Marked 10.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Metalist.
Match19 Sep 2026
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Metalist and Rukh in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Sep 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Metalist did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Baton Zabërgja commits to Metalist for another 4 years.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Kaliuzhnyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Vladlen Yurchenko was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match12 Sep 2026
Kolos made Metalist work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market14 Sep 2026
The name of Yaroslav Protsenko has come up in conversations Metalist were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Baton Zabërgja, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
Metalist say no — this time
The offer from Hatayspor for Kristian Mba was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market7 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Metalist, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match5 Sep 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Metalist did not have in the autumn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metalist this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ivan Kaliuzhnyi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Oleksii Sydorov commits to Metalist for another 3 years.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Ari Moura
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match5 Sep 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Dynamo Kyiv came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market7 Sep 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Denys Antiukh signs something — a contract at Metalist or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.