Football. ua continues to analyze the performances of elite teams in the first part of the championship.

Zirka 9th place - 18 points Expectation If in the previous championship kropivnitsky club only adjusted to the requirements of the Premier League, then in the summer it was expected that, at least in the fight for the first six wards Roman Monareva wedged. It seems to be a mentor and works with the team not the first day, and the composition by Ukrainian standards is quite decent, but there is no stability of results and in the first approximation. A resigned defeat can be replaced by another similar, after which the heroic Victoria will follow a priori stronger opponent. Such are the cropland paradoxes.

Reality At the moment, Zirka is much closer to the group of outsiders, what is among the applicants for the cherished six. Monarev is not too lazy to shuffle the line-up, but this is not always effective. The victories over the strong Zarey and Vorskla were followed by painful slaps from Veres and Chernomorets, and the recognized leaders managed to pass through the unstable defenses of the kropevnichans. Only towards the end of the autumn, the leading attacking performers, Alexei Chichikov and Gleb Rassadkin, took the optimal form, while young Sergey Petrov and Maxim Pryadin, to a greater degree, were in the shadow. But pleased with his skill goalkeeper Eugene Past, in several fights, literally on his shoulders brought in a piggy bank Zirka precious glasses. Most likely, in the spring the Monaev team will have a difficult fight, first of all, for survival, because the gap from the group of outsiders is not so great ... Alexandria 8th place - 19 points Expectation From the team of Vladimir Sharan originally expected a lot. Passed the seasonal success of the team from a modest peripheral town from the Kirovograd region gave rise to new hopes and aspirations of the Alexandrian fans that their new favorites will be held at least as good as the previous one. Illusions began to crumble in the summer, when the most frustrating departure from the qualification of the League of Europe from the Belarusian BATE layered numerous failures in the championship. There were even talks about a possible change of mentor, but which Alexandria - without Sharan? !!.

The reality of the case in the championship team was worse than you can imagine. Draws alternated with defeats, and Alexandria won her second (!) Victory only in the 16th (!) Round, but what! In Kharkov Shakhtar himself was put on his shoulder blades (1: 2), and the whole football Ukraine learned the universal Artem Polarus. Despite this historic success, the situation in the standings for the guys Sharan has changed insignificantly. Up to the penultimate place is within reach - some four points, and this despite the fact that the Carpathians have not yet finished their long-suffering match against Olimpic. There is no doubt that there is no potential threat of departure in the case of such a strong economic and club mechanism, but, on the other hand, the prospect of getting into the top six seems to have already floated away from Alexandria to the river of oblivion.

Mariupol 7th place - 23 points Waiting For the last season in the first division Alexander Sevidov made a really strong team, which is a symbiosis of talented youth and experienced fighters. With such luggage - and in the Premier League is not a sin! So it was thought a year ago, but how did the disposition change after this very year!. The summer rise was replaced by a painful autumn recession in the game and the results, and now the newcomer of the elite will have to compete seriously for getting into the top six.

Reality In early autumn, left the Azov harbor Sevidov, although at first Mariupol saw a full-fledged contender for European cups, and the team played their predictions of these predictions. With the arrival of the coaching bridge of Alexander Babich, the results curiously went down. In addition, it turned out that the Mariupol Club was almost the main newsmaker of the first part of the season, and all because of the famous unplayed match against Dynamo. More precisely, the events surrounding the non-appearance of Kiev residents. Current prospects of Priazovites are seen as contradictory. Undoubtedly, for getting into the top six strongest Babich still struggles, but for a worthy performance among the best, amplification is needed now. Despite the strong composition of the names, it is still difficult to name Mariupol as a formed mechanism, and after the holiday Babich will have painstaking and hard work.