Shakhtar beat Karpaty with a hat-trick from Traore.

Donetsk Shakhtar Donetsk beat Lviv Karpaty Lviv 3-0 in the 17th round of the UPL , which opened the second half of the season.

In the first half, the Miners were in complete control of the game, with 10 shots on goal (two on target) to their opponents’ none. However, the score remained unbroken until the break.

The turning point came after the break. In the 67th minute, substitute forward Lassina Traoré headed in Alisson’s cross. Just four minutes later, the striker scored his second – again after an assist from Alisson.

Traoré sealed the match in the 82nd minute, scoring into an empty net after intercepting and passing Izaka Silva. The Burkina Faso striker thus completed a hat-trick.

For Traore, this was only his second match of the current UPL season and his first goal after a long recovery from injury.

With the victory, Shakhtar earned 38 points and tied with league leader LNZ, which holds a lead over Donetsk thanks to a head-to-head victory. Karpaty remains in tenth place with 19 points. This was Lviv’s first official match under its new head coach, Spaniard Francisco Fernandez.