'Zorya Are Growing In Confidence'

- Zorya Luhansk host Leicester City in Thursday evening's UEFA Europa League fixture at Slavutych Arena (5:55pm kick-off GMT)
- Zorya are still in with a shout of finishing second in the group, while City have secured their spot in the last 32
- The Ukrainian side are looking to avenge the 3-0 defeat at Leicester City Stadium last month, when James Maddison, Harvey Barnes and Kelechi Iheanacho were on the scoresheet 
- The team are motivated to put in a better performance against the Foxes this time around, says journalist Iryna Koziupa

Matchday five sees Zorya welcome the Foxes to Slavutych Arena, with the Ukrainian outfit in good form, winning their last two games in all competitions by a 3-0 scoreline and remaining unbeaten in three, without conceding a goal. 

Following an impressive away victory over AEK Athens last time out, picking up their first group stage points, Koziupa says Viktor Skrypnyk's side will want to take that performance into this encounter with Group G leaders Leicester, who have already qualified for the knockout stages.

"For sure Zorya have much more confidence than when they started the UEFA Europa League," Koziupa began. "It was some crisis in the team and Zorya lost three games by big scores against Leicester, AEK at home and Braga.

"But in the last game, when everybody didn't expect such a good result in the away game, Zorya showed their strong character, that in a very difficult situation, they can show their best skills.

"Even Ukrainian fans and the press didn't expect such a good result. Viktor Skrypnyk made some surprises and made supporters happy, like last week when Dynamo [Kviv] and Shakhtar [Donetsk] lost their games and Zorya was the only Ukrainian team in Europe to bring us three points and three goals.

"The last season was very good, playing good football. They fought with Dynamo for second place in the championship and they had a chance to qualify for the Champions League, but in the last game they lost to Dynamo and took third place.

"Of course, such an unsuccessful start to this season was disappointing so it there was a lot of criticism for the team, for the coach, for the players."

The encounter will also be away from their usual home venue for Zorya, who play their home matches in Zaporizhzhia, 400km from Luhansk, due to the ongoing conflict in the area. However, this is unlikely to affect the players' mentality.

Koziupa explains: "Zorya is not in the best position because they have not played in their home city and their native state. But it's been [like that] for a long time, so the team, the players, they are used to living in such conditions.

"A lot of players have never played in Luhansk, so for them it's their new reality and it's normal. For other teams, it sounds strange that the team can't live in the native city with their fans.

"It's not easy to understand that the team live and play in another city. But it's not just Zorya, we have Shakhtar who also can't play at their own home."

While City are expected to rotate the squad on Thursday, the Ukrainians will be hoping to mount a challenge to take second spot in the group.

Zorya are currently four points behind second place SC Braga - who they meet in the final group fixture - so a positive result against the Foxes could potentially mount the pressure on the Portuguese side ahead of matchday six.

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Zorya Luhansk

Zorya have been in good form of late in both league and European competitions.

"All the players are very motivated," Koziupa continued. "They are fed up of losing games in Europe and they want to show that they can play football and that they know how to play against good teams like Leicester.

"As I understand, many fans expect that Leicester will play maybe not their strongest squad and it will not be the best players, so it's a little bit of a chance for Zorya.

"There's still a chance to fight for second place in the group to go into the next round, so I'm sure it should a very interesting game and not the same result as in Leicester in the first game.

"Now they have a chance to show that the team can still be as good as last season and they can show very good results against great teams such as Leicester."