May 19, 21 & 22, 2021
With the 2020/21 Belarus Cup Final being played on Sunday, the fixtures involving BATE and Isloch have been moved to Wednesday evening for a rare instance of mid-week league football in Belarus. Friday afternoon sees another important encounter at the top, with Dinamo Minsk looking to keep the title race interesting by taking some points off Shakhtyor in Soligorsk.
BATE and Isloch meet in Gomel, with BATE looking to retain the Cup, whilst Isloch are looking for their first ever top flight trophy. Victory for Isloch would also see them play in Europe for the first time, although a win for BATE would enable Dinamo Brest to take the final place in the Europa Conference thanks to their fourth place finish in the league last season.
FK Isloch Minsk vs FK Vitebsk ( Wednesday at 16.30 UK time )
Isloch’s matches have featured 32 goals this season, by far the highest in the league, and Vitebsk have seen 11 goals in their last two matches, so hopefully there will be a glut of goals. Isloch have lost to sides in the top 5, beaten sides in the bottom 6 and draw with on mid-table side. 2-2.
Result : 0-1. Isloch warmed up for Sunday’s Cup Final with an awful display in a poor match. If any of the players were playing for places in the starting XI for the final they probably played themselves out of team. Admittedly Isloch were without Komarovskiy, but this was a lethargic, error-strewn display from which they deserved, and got, nothing. Vitebsk didn’t need to be any better than ordinary to take the three points, and Wanderson’s finish early in the second half after being tee-ed up by Ksenofontev gave them that.
Perhaps it might have been different had Anufriev not finished weakly when given a great opportunity in the second minute but once Vitebsk took the lead, they never looked like equalizing, and Vitebsk looked more likely to add a second.
BATE Borisov vs FK Sputnik Rechitsa ( Wednesday at 18.45 UK time )
Home banker, Sputnik are in free-fall and BATE should be far too good. 5-0
Result : 2-1. BATE made 6 changes from their starting line-up from last week-end to rest players from the Cup Final, and as a result made heavy weather in overcoming rock bottom Sputnik, who were a little unfortunate to grab an unexpected point.
Indeed, the visitors took a shock early lead, with Smith, Kozel and Kontsedailov all involved in a good move to set-up Yasinski to shoot home from 15 yards in the 7th minute. BATE then laid siege to the Sputnik goal and although Rudenok’s handling looked suspect, the keeper managed to keep BATE at bay until Smith carelessly brought down Nekhaychik for a penalty, which Umarov converted.
BATE took the lead in the 37th minute from Filipovic’s header from Umarov’s corner. However, the floodgates did not open as anticipated, and although Rudenok made a superb reflex save from another Filipovic header, BATE rarely looked like increasing their lead.
Sputnik had a very good penalty appeal for handball turned down and caused the BATE defence a number of problems on the counter-attack. Unfortunately for them, their energy levels dropped in the closing stages and BATE held on for a narrow win.
Shakhtyor Soligorsk vs Dinamo Minsk ( Friday at 16.15 UK time )
The tie of the round, with in-form Dinamo Minsk the latest side to try and prevent Shakhtyor from keeping their 100% record. The league needs Dinamo to be successful to keep the title race interesting ! 1-1
Result : 1-0. Shakhtyor tightened their grip on the defence of their title with an important win in a high quality and close fought encounter. In a game of few chances, Mbengue crucially missed a great chance for Dinamo 6 minutes before half-time when uncharacteristically slack defending by Shakhtyor gave the ball away, but Mbengue’s shot sailed well over.
The decisive moment came 10 minutes from time, a loose ball fell kindly to Darboe, who with hardly any back-lift lashed the ball into the top corner from the edge of the area. Dinamo responded by strangely taking off Mbengue and bringing on a centre back, but every attempt to play direct, long ball football was easily dealt with by the Shakhtyor defence.
Atlhough Dinamo played brightly in the first half, Shakhtyor increasingly had the edge as the game progressed and probably deserved to score.
FK Slavia Mozyr vs FK Gomel ( Friday at 18.10 UK time )
Slavia are unbeaten in two matches, but Gomel are also playing well and have comfortably beaten the lowly sides they have played. 1-2
Result : 2-4. Another thrilling match involving Gomel. Three goals were scored in the opening 15 minutes, and it could have been more. First Narh gave Slavia the lead in the 6th minute with a diving header following a short corner routine, but Gomel responded with two goals in a three minute spell. Sajcic finished after a strong run and lay off by Solovei, then Gomza was left unmarked to turn and fire into the roof of the net on the half-volley from 8 yards. Slavia got back on level terms on the half-hour when Gomel keeper Kovalyov could only push a low cross to the edge of the area where Tetteh drove the ball in the net.
Yudenkov’s 25 yard shot gave Gomel the lead on the hour mark, although Slavia may feel keeper Baronovski may had done better having got both hands to the shot, and Nedashkovskiy had carelessly given the ball away to give Gomel the chance to attack.
Gomel pressed for a fourth goal, and Baronovski partially redeemed himself with two fine tips over the bar. Slavia’s best chance came from an in-swinging cross that everyone missed, including Tlupov strangly ducking, and the ball went narrowly wide.
Gomel finally got their fourth goal two minutes from the end. Baronovski could only parry Solovei’s shot, and the ball fell to Nekrasov to steer into the empty goal
FK Smorgon vs Torpedo BelAZ Zhodino ( Saturday at 12.30 UK time )
Smorgon are playing better than their results suggest, but Torpedo are unbeaten in 4 matches. 1-2
Result : 1-3. A big opportunity to get a second win of the season missed by Smorgon. In only their third home match of the season Smorgon took the lead after winning a soft penalty, converted by Yatskevich, and then had several chances to extend their lead but failed to take them. On the stroke of half-time Khatkevich was put clear with a one on one with the Torpedo keeper, but put the chance agonisingly wide.
Torpedo were a different side in the second half, and Smorgon were made to regret those misses. In the 55th minute Khachaturyan swept home a low cross from close to the penalty spot for the equaliser, and 12 minutes later Nikolaevich was left free at the near post to steer home a cross from the right wing. Torpedo wrapped up the points with a third goal in 15 minutes when Klenye’s powerful shot was too strong for Scherbachenya to keep out.
FK Minsk vs Dinamo Brest ( Saturday at 14.30 UK time )
Unbeaten Dinamo have the best away record in the league, having taken 11 points from 5 matches, and have 5 draws from 9 matches in total. Minks have drawn 3 of their 4 home matches. 1-1
Result : 1-0. Minsk survived a late spell of pressure from Dinamo to hold on for a vital win to take them away from the lower reaches of the league and into mid-table. Dinamo fell to their first defeat of the season.
As usual with a game involving Dinamo there were few chances, with the best in the first half falling to Zinovich, but his drilled effort was met with a fine save by Brest keeper Stepanov. Lopez found the back of the net with a header from just outside the 6 yard box, but he was well offside. At the other end Minsk keeper Prishivalko made a decent save to keeper out Ivan’s header.
Minsk started the second half well, and took the lead in the 55th minute. Shramchenko’s clever chip into the Dinamo area found Lopez in space and he had time to control and fire left footed past Stepanov. Shortly afterwards Zinovich volleyed just wide.
However, the introduction of Lynko helped reverse the tide, and Dinamo dominated the last 20 minutes as they pressed for the equaliser. Indeed, they should have equalised 13 minutes from time but after Sedko’s first shot was blocked by Prishivalko, the ball fell back to him and with the goal at his mercy, in an effort to carefully place his effort, he side-footed against the base of the post when it looked easier to score. He will have nightmares about that miss. To make matters worse for Dinamo, Bilenkyi should have scored with a header a couple of minutes later but he completely missed Lynko’s inviting cross, which Prishivalko punched into him and off for a goal-kick.
As Dinamo threw caution to the wind in added on time, Minsk missed two golden chances to add a second goal, but that would have put an unfair reflection to the score-line.
Rukh Brest vs Neman Grodno ( Saturday at 16.30 UK time )
Rukh were unfortunate to lose at BATE and Neman looked the better side for 45 minutes against Shakhtyor. However, Rukh are the third highest scorers in the league, and Neman the third lowest. 2-0
Result : 2-0. Neman could justifiably feel aggrieved with this result in the pouring rain, with Rukh’s man of the match being referee Denis Scherbakov !
Neman were much the better side in the first half, but again their failings in front of goal let them down. Kouadio did get the ball into the Rukh net, but the ball had already gone out of play before Shukurov turned the ball back across the goal. The game turned in the 38th minute when Shukurov was shown a very harsh second yellow card.
Neman continue to take the game to Rukh despite the man disadvantage, but Rukh gradually got into the game as the visitors tired. However, it took a very dodgy penalty to give Rukh the lead. Pasevich was adjusted to have fouled Pechenin but he had clearly played the ball first and the subsequent contact was hardly dangerous or out of control. Savitskiy’s twice taken penalty gave the hosts a 79th minute lead.
Neman contrived to miss two more chances, before Rukh’s Diallo blazed a simple chance over the bar, and then compounded the dreadful miss with some awful play-acting pretending to be injured when obviously not touched.
With the Neman keeper coming up for a 94th minute corner, the ball was cleared by the Rukh defence, and Diallo played in Petrenko to run the ball into the unguarded net to give Rukh a highly flattering victory.
Energetik BGU Minsk vs FK Slutsk ( Saturday at 18.30 UK time )
Two sides who have played well at times this season but not picked up the points they perhaps deserved to sit in the bottom 5. Potentially a relegation 6 pointer. 1-1
Result : 1-0. Energetik scraped an important victory in a poor game played under the dismal floodlights in BATE’s old stadium in Borisov. Slutsk generally played the better football, but Energetik defended resolutely, and occasionally produced some quality moves on the counter-attack.
The winning goal came in the 75th minute when good hold-up play by Miroshinkov enabled a low cross to be delivered by Vasiljev to the near post where Zulfikarov managed to flick home with his back to the goal. Zulfikarov came close to doubling the lead with 6 minutes to go, but after another sweeping move he was unable to get over the high bounce off the ball and put the chance over the bar.
Slutsk’s closest chance game just after the half-time break when Sasin’s cross-shot just need a touch to deflect into the net, but slid just wide. In injury time, Potapenko’s header produced a fine diving save from Bakonin to preserve the points for Energetik
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