March, 21, 2021
Neman Grodno 5-0 FK Vitebsk ( att : 100 )
Dinamo BSU Minsk 6-0 Bobruichanka
Zorka BGU 0-4 FK Minsk ( att : 50 )
Dnepr Mogilev P-P Region of Gomel
ABFF U19 P-P Dinamo Brest
The 2021 season kicked off with last season’s third place team Neman Grodno hosting Vitebsk, newcomers to the league this season. Neman went into the match not having played any pre-season friendlies but had announced Ekaterina Dudko as their player-manager. The 29 year old scored 18 goals for Neman last season and in doing so earned a call up to the Belarus National Squad.
Making their debuts for Neman were goalkeeper Ekaterina Kovalchuk, who has 6 caps for Belarus and Under 19 International defender Viktoria Belmach. Both signed from FK Minsk, and Kovalchuk replaced Russian Ekaterina Ulasevich, who has joined Dinamo BSU Minsk. The rest of the Neman starting line-up had all appeared for the club in 2020, with familiar names including 19 year old Cameroonian Moussa Zuweratu and 20 year old Juliet Nana from Burkina Faso, alongside the experienced Tatiana Kenda and Tatiana Loginova, and local youngsters Darin Tatarin and Karolina Zhitko. 19 year old Russian Polina Dolmatova figured from the substitute’s bench last season but was handed a first start for this match.
Absent from the match-day squad were striker Elizaveta Sergeychik, who scored 13 times last season and has joined the Belarus contingent at Russian side Zvezda Perm. Also missing were Ivorian Aminate Haidana and Nigerian Gift Otuwe, presumably no longer at Neman
Vitebsk had one recognisable name in their line-up, former international Elena Buzinova, who stood out last season in a struggling Bobruichanka sided and who was born in Vitebsk. Natalia Vasiljeva was also a regular at Bobruichanka in 2020, whilst Karolina Romanchuk and Ekaterina Verkholatseva have joined from Neman. Aleksandria Yakushevich returned to the Premier League after two years out, having Slavyanka and Minsk amongst her former clubs. The rest of the Vitebsk squad were all 20 years old or under and making the step up to this level for the first time.
The match was played in the indoor dome where Neman had played a couple of matches at the end of last season. Almost inevitably it was Dudko who opened the scoring after 7 minutes, being left unmarked close to the six yard box and she had time to turn and calmly finish past the Vitebsk keeper. Zuweratu added a second on close to half hour with a long range effort that sailed over the keeper and high into the net.
Vitebsk probably would not have been too unhappy to be only 0-2 at the break as they had held their own against their more experienced rivals and put some reasonable passing moves together from the back. However, all the nice play ended at the half-way line and the Neman defence were never troubled.
Zuweratu added her second shortly after the break, being set-up by Nana, who then added Neman’s final goals in the last 7 minutes to give a slightly unfair look to the score-line. Indeed, the fifth goal came in the 90th minute after a poor fumble by the Daria Kozlova, to spoil an otherwise reasonable performance by the 17 year old Vitebsk keeper.
Buzinova had a couple of chances to score Vitebsk’s first ever Premier League goal. Firstly when it was 0-2, but after cleverly robbing a defender and going clear on goal, her attempted chip was easily saved by Kovalchuk. Later at 0-3 a first time volley forced Kovalchuk into a diving save.
Dinamo BSU Minsk made 4 changes from their starting XI for the Super Cup. Having scored two goals after coming off the bench Darya Stezkho was rewarded with a starting place, Moldovan keeper Natalia Munteanu replaced Ulasevich and Kristina Tikhvodava and Vita Nikalaenko replaced Yulia Duben and Anastasia Shlapakova.
Bobruichanka included 3 newcomers to their team, all 19 years old, with all the other players having played last season. However, as mentioned above they had lost two regular players to Vitebsk, and there was no sign of Nigerian striker Macleans Chinonyerem who scored 8 times in 10 appearances for the stuggling side, nor chunky Cameroonian defender Sorelle Metiefang. 38 year old forward Olga Aniskovseva, who scored 6 times last season is still listed as a player but did not feature in their match day squad.
The match was played at Dinamo’s Juni stadium, and after the building work visibly in progress last season, the two stands behind the goals now appear to be finished. It took 34 minutes for Dinamo to opening the scoring but in that period they missed 7 or 8 decent chances due to woeful finishing. Stezkho should have had a hat-trick, Alkhovik and Pilipenko each missed two good chances and Ramalepe could also have scored. Defender Dabda show her team-mates how it should be done, rising to head home Linnik’s super cross.
South African forward Malaudzi replaced Stezkho at half-time and made an immediate impact, sprinting past the defensive line and setting up a simple close range finish for Alkhovik. Five minutes later the roles were reversed, Alkhovik crossed to leave a simple header for Malauzi to make it 3-0.
Dinamo continued to be wasteful in front of goal, and almost gifted a goal to the visitors in the 67th minute, when Munteanu, perhaps frozen due to inactivity, passed straight to Gomozova, but the Bobruichanka substitute shot straight at the Dinamo keeper who blocked the shot.
With 10 minutes left to play Ramalepe crossed for Duben to score Dinamo’s fourth and Dinamo then scored twice in added on time to give a score line that more reflected their dominance, although on another day they could easily have won by 10 or 12. Linnik’s left footed curling shot from outside the area was the best goal of the game, and Valyuk finished well after running past a couple of tired defenders.
Bobruichanka can take heart from the fact the last time the two sides met they lost 0-9 !
The mystery of what side FK Minsk would field in their first league game was solved by the ABFF U19 players again taking to the field in FK Minsk shirts. There was only one change to the starting line-up from the Super Cup, 16 year old Aleksandra Tsvirko replaced Pinchuk.
Zorka finished 4th in 2020 and have kept most of last year’s side. 19 year old goalkeeper Kamilla Butkevich has moved to Polish side Rzeszow though, and been replaced by Ekaterina Kamlyuk, returning to the Premier League after a 4 year break having previously played for Slavyanka. Forward Yulia Duben has moved to Dinamo, and Viktoria Gerus and Valeria Bogdan were missing for this match. However, Zorka still had the core of last season’s side turning out, including their three top scorers from 2020, forwards Diana Tropnikova and Diana Bakum as well as former International midfielder Liana Mirashnichenko.
Minsk started quickly and took a 2 goal lead after just 14 minutes. First, Ana Sas swept home from just outside the area then Melana Surovtseva put Anastasia Pogegailo clear to side-foot past the advancing keeper. Minsk could have been out of sight after 25 minutes, but Surovtseva saw a shot blocked by Kamlyuk and later shot inches wide. Zorka’s first effort on the Minsk goal came in the 25th minute but Mirashnichenko’s curling free-kick was acrobatically pushed away by Malaeva. Zorka’s respite was brief though as another flowing Minsk move ended with Pogegailo releasing Asmykovich to shoot into the top corner from the edge of the area.
After being blown away by Minsk in the first half, Zorka made a better fist of the contest in the second half but Mirashnichenko’s shot was charged down, Bakum’s shot sailed just wide of the post with Malaeva beaten and Tropnikova saw her effort pushed for a corner by Malaeva low down by the near post. However, in added on time Asmykovich ran past a couple of defenders to bear down on goal and add a fourth goal from Minsk from 8 yards.
The other two matches in round 1 were postponed. A rescheduled date of May 3rd has been given for the ABFF U19 vs Dinamo Brest, but there is no date published yet for Dnepr Mogilev vs Gomel
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