Ukraine soccer league set for a title-deciding game in a remarkable, war-hit season

GENEVA (AP) — Two soccer teams exiled from cities in war-battered eastern Ukraine play each other Sunday in the safer western part of the country with the league title at stake.

The showdown between competition leader Shakhtar Donetsk and second-place Dnipro-1 at Arena Lviv can be decisive in a soccer season that is finishing on schedule in remarkable circumstances. The stadium was one of four in Ukraine, including Shakhtar's home in Donetsk, secure enough in 2012 from Russian aggression to co-host that year's European Championship with Poland.

Shakhtar leads by five points and needs just a draw this weekend to secure the title ahead of the last scheduled round on June 4.

“I think it will maybe be one of our best matches ever,” Ukrainian league chief executive Ievgen Dykyi told The Associated Press this week in a call from Kyiv. “Because the situation now is really hard and all the players understand about this.”