April 16-25, 2021
The Belarus Women’s Premier League took a one week break whilst the national team successfully competed in a three team competition in Uzbekistan, recording comfortable wins over India ( 2-1 ) and the hosts Uzbekistan ( 3-1 ), both sides ranked higher than Belarus in the FIFA world rankings.
Belarus had to wait until the 68th minute to convert their dominance against India into a goal, Shuppo, now with Zenit St Petersburg, scoring from the penalty spot. Pilipenko doubled the lead 8 minutes later but India grabbed a consolation goal in added on time.
Uzbekistan, at the time ranked 15 places higher than Belarus, took an early lead after a flowing move and a good left-footed strike from the impressive Kudratova. Belarus responded well but took until first half added time to equalise, when Shlapakova ran on to a low cross to stroke into the roof of the net from just close to the penalty spot. Russian based Polina Shatilenya got a touch to Pobegailo’s corner to give Belarus the lead with 15 minutes to play, and Alkhovik clinched the victory just before full-time after being released by Pobegailo’s incisive pass. Following these results, Belarus moved up to places to 54th in the World rankings.
The first match in 2021 Cup was also played during the break, when Region of Gomel hosted FK Vitebsk in the first leg of the Preliminary Round, an opportunity for one of the new sides to record a morale boasting win. In the end the tie was settled in favour of Vitebsk by a stunning long range strike from Natalia Vasilyeva, not too dissimilar to the goal she scored against Zorka.
April 16, 2021
ABFF U19 0-7 Dnepr Mogilev ( att : 50 )
April 17, 2021
Dinamo Brest 0-9 Zorka BDU
Region of Gomel 1-13 FK Minsk ( att : 50 )
April 18, 2021
Dinamo BGU Minsk 2-0 Neman Grodno
Bobruichanka 3-2 FK Vitebsk ( att : 50 )
April 23, 2021
Neman Grodno 5-1 ABFF U19 ( att : 30 )
FK Minsk 18-0 Dinamo Brest ( att : 50 )
April 24, 2021
FK Vitebsk 5-0 Region of Gomel ( att : 80 )
April 25, 2021
Dnepr Mogilev 2-1 Bobruichanka ( att : 100 )
Zorka BDU 0-7 Dinamo BGU Minsk
After three landslide victory at the beginning of Week 4, notable only for Region of Gomel scoring their first ever goal, at 0-8 down against FK Minsk, the weekend closed with two competitive encounters.
Neman’s hopes of repeating their 0-0 at Dinamo Minsk from last season took an almost immediate setback after falling behind with just 90 seconds played. Shlapakova’s cross from the left sailed over the Neman keeper and into the net. Dinamo were forced to wait until the 66th minute for the decisive second goal. Again, a cross for the left out-foxed the Neman defence, but this time Linnik’s effort bounced through a crowd of players into the net. Eight yellow cards were shown in the match, an unusually high amount for this league, and this resulted in a player from each side receiving second yellow card. Kazakevich and Zuwaratu both headed for an early shower.
Bobruichanka were strengthened by the signing of veteran Nigerian defender Gift Otuwe, who was a regular at Neman last season, and it was she who opened the scoring against Vitebsk, stabbing home a rebound from a corner in the 15th minute. Vitebsk looked like pulling of a shock result when ex Neman player Ekaterina Verkholatseva scored twice early in the second half to give the visitors an unexpected lead. However, Bobruichanka’s blushes were spared when they won a penalty for handball, and Gift stepped up to slot home the equaliser, and Litvinyuk then flicked home the winner with 9 minutes left on the clock.
Week 5 started with FK Minsk setting the biggest win of the season to-date, with an 18-0 win over hapless Dinamo Brest, but Neman seemed to be suffering from a bit of hangover after losing at Dinamo Minsk, and even fell behind at home to ABFF U19 after 37 minutes. Yakush’s penalty was also ABFF U19’s first goal of the season. The shock woke Neman up and they equalised within a minute. They would not have expected to have been level at half-time, but they eased to victory with 4 second half goals.
After their narrow defeat at Bobruichanka. Vitebsk continued their improvement with a routine 5-0 win at home to Gomel. Zorka would have expected to have done much better than losing 0-7 to Dinamo Minsk. It was only 0-1 for 55 minutes but they fell away badly to concede 6 goals in the last 35 minutes to lose 0-7.
Bobruichanka were again involved in the tightest match of the round. In an even match with Dnepr Mogilev, they fell behind in the 68th minute to Gudchenko’s low shot from just inside the area, but in the last minute veteran Olga Aniskovtseva robbed Dnepr keeper Svidunovich of possession and rolled the ball into the empty net to make it 1-1.
However, with nearly two minutes of added on time played, the referee judged that a cross had hit Gift’s arm and awarded a penalty. Nizhegorodova smashed the penalty towards the roof of the net and although Bobruichanka’s keeper got two hands to it, the ball somehow bounced into the net for the winner for Dnepr.
Minsk's 17 year old midfielder Anastasia Pobegailo leads the scoring chart with 14 goals from 5 matches. Neman's winger Juliet Nana and Minsk stiker Melana Suretsova follow with 12 goals, whilst Zorka's Diana Tropnikova is next with 10.
This week’s sees the first meeting between Dinamo BGU Minsk and FK Minsk, which should give the first major indication of the likely winners of the 2021 title. Kick-off is scheduled for Thursday 29th, April at 15.15 UK time !
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