June 26, 27 & 28 2021
Midweek saw the start of the last 32 round of the 2021/22 Belarus Cup, where all the Premier League sides travel away to play lower league opposition.
Arsenal beat Smorgon 2-1, although this probably wasn’t considered a shock to many people as Arsenal finished above Smorgon in the Persheya liga last season. Much more of a real shock was Dnepr Mogilev beating 6th placed FK Minsk 2-1, and Lokomotiv Gomel eliminated 2020/21 Cup finalists Isloch on penalties after a 3-3 draw after extra time.
Basement boys Sputnik needed penalties to get passed third level Partizan Soligorsk after a 2-2 draw, and in perhaps the tie of the round, Neman were reduced to 9 men against high-flying Krumkachy, went a goal behind, equalised in the 95th minute to force extra-time, and then won the penalty shoot-out. Krumkachy’s coach has since vacated his job.
BATE, Gomel, Energetik, Slavia, Rukh, Slutsk Vitebsk & Dinamo Minsk all progressed to the next round, and the three outstanding ties involving Shakhtyor, Torpedo and Dinamo Brest to be played in early July.
As a result of the Cup matches being played, this week-end’s matches are being played over Saturday, Sunday and Monday, with no matches on Friday evening.
FK Smorgon vs FK Gomel ( Saturday at 14.45 UK time )
Gomel should keep up their unexpected bid for a top 4 finish with a win at struggling Smorgon, who crashed out of the Cup against lower league opposition. 0-2
Result : 1-2. Smorgon again let slip a 1-0 half-time lead at home. Gomel were strangely out of sorts, and their free-flowing attacking football was rarely evident. After surviving a couple of scary moments, Smorgon took the lead in the 22nd minute, Bondarenko’s slding volley from just outside the area went through a crowd of players, and probably took a deflection, to wrong foot the Gomel keeper. Gomel should have equalised just before half-time, but Yudenkov somehow put the ball over the bar from three yards although team-mate Solovei may have impeded him.
Solovei also prevented another equaliser a minute after half time, standing on the goal-line in front of the Smorgon keeper as Vasyliev prodded home, and rightly being ruled offside. The ball might also have hit him on its way into the net.
Vasyliev did get the equaliser a few minutes later, sending an unstoppable free-kick over the wall, and it was no surprise when Gomel took the lead in the 60th minute thanks to a smart finish by Vaskov after good play by Pobudey, showing the kind of football Gomel are capable of.
Smorgon came close to an equaliser from two headers from free-kicks but generally lacked a cutting edge to breach the Gomel defence, and Gomel also missed two good chances to add to their lead.
FK Slavia Mozyr vs Energetik BGU Minsk ( Saturday at 16.45 UK time )
Energetik’s run of three wins came to an end at FK Minsk last week whilst Slavia will be buoyed by coming back from 0-2 in the last 5 minutes at Neman. This might be a hard watch………….1-1
Result : 2-3. The first half generally lived down to expectations, with Energetik being slightly the better side, and they missed the one good chance. Svirepa headed wide from 6 yards. Just before half-time, the referee adjudged a hand-ball against Energetik and Narh sent the keeper the wrong way from the spot to give Slavia an undeserved lead at the break.
The introduction of mystery Guinean Mamadou Diallo from the bench turned the game in Energetik’s favour, as he scored twice to give the visitors a 2-1 lead by the 60th minute. The game opened up and improved as a spectacle as chances came at both ends. However, it was Energetik who scored next. Ukrainian substitute Roman Papariga marked his first appearance for the club by taking advantage of more hesitant defending to shoot home from just inside the area.
Slavia did pull a goal back in the 90th minute, Sliusar drilled home from close to the penalty spot after Energetik had failed to deal with a cross but it was too little too late, and Energetik held on for a deserved victory.
Shakhtyor Soligorsk vs Dinamo Brest ( Saturday at 18.45 UK time )
Dinamo might be able to grind out a 0-0 draw to become the first side to avoid defeat against Shakhtyor, but the Champions usually find a way to score at least once. 1-0
Result : 1-1. Dinamo became the first side to prevent Shakhtyor from winning in the league, and it was a deserved point. Nevertheless, after Darboe fired a low cross across the face of the goal to provide Ahmedi with a far post finish in the 17th minute, it looked like Shakhtyor would ratch-up their 14th win in a row.
However, Dinamo’s defence stood firm, the floodgates didn’t open and for a long time it looked the score would finish 1-0 as Stepanov twice denied Darboe and Ivanovic hit a post. Then, in the 70th minute Bilenkyi wormed his way into the Shakhtyor area and his low shot crept inside the near post to level the scores with his 7th goal of the season
Shakhtyor dominated the closing stages, although Stepanov again saved from Darboe, the Dinamo defence held out fairly comfortably.
FK Isloch Minsk vs FK Minsk ( Sunday at 14.00 UK time )
Isloch have taken only 2 points from 6 games since beating Shakhtyor to reach the 2020/21 Cup Final. Minsk have taken 11 points from their last 5 league matches. However, both sides were dumped out of the 2021/22 Cup by lower league sides. 1-1
Result : 1-1. A fair result between two evenly matched sides, with Isloch pressing for the winner in the closing stages.
Minsk took the lead mid-way through the first half, Shramchenko’s left-footed pull-back from the by-line presented Bogomolskiy a simple chance. Isloch squared the match 10 minutes later as Patotskiy’s weak shot with four defenders around him dribbled into the corner of the net.
Rukh Brest vs FK Slutsk ( Sunday at 16.00 UK time )
Rukh are unbeaten at home in 7 matches, Slutsk have taken just 2 points away from home in 7 matches. Slutsk to look reasonable again and then lose. 2-1
Result : 1-0. Arguably typical performances from both sides. Slutsk were bright in the first half, and hit the post twice. Rukh looked good for a short spell in the second half, culminating with Laptev’s flicked header from a corner to give them the lead in the 63rd minute.
Slutsk responded with Alfred shooting across the face of the goal with no-one to put the ball into the empty goal, and they hit the post again through Glebko, Sadovskiy missed a sitter near the end for Rukh but a 0-2 scoreline would have been extremely harsh on Slutsk.
BATE Borisov vs Torpedo BelAZ Zhodino ( Sunday at 18.00 UK time )
BATE have won all 8 home matches this season and are keeping the pressure on Shakhtyor with 5 consecutive wins and should overcome mid-table Torpedo. 2-0
Result : 3-0. Although Torpedo started well, once Nekhaychik gave BATE the lead in the 26th minute from a breakaway, the result never looked in doubt as BATE continued their laudable efforts to stay in touching distance of Shakhtyore in the title race.
Signevich was left free to head home a second for BATE in the 54th minute, and as Torpedo pushed forward for a consolation goal, Skavysh coolly finished in added on time after being put clear in oceans of space.
FK Sputnik vs FK Vitebsk ( Monday at 16.00 UK time )
Vitebsk returned to type last week-end with their 6th 0-0 of the season. However, they should be able to break the deadlock against the league’s bottom side. 0-1
Result : 4-3. Wow, what a shocker ! Sputnik, playing for only the second time this season in Rechitsa, had looked totally out of their depth as Vitebsk, without appearing to try too hard went into the break leading 2-0 and it could have been several more. Ksenofontov had been left free for a simple far post tap-in and Rassadkin had athletically powered home a header. When Julio Cesar added a third after some more poor defending three minutes into the second half, a cricket score looked on the cards such was the apparently difference in class.
Kozel beat a lazy offside trap to score what looked to be just a consolation for Sputnik with 27 minutes left on the clock. However, Sputnik were transformed, Fedyanin hit the post and then Kozel added his second with a fine header from a corner. With Vitebsk’s mean defence in panic mode, the unthinkable happened with Kontsedailov sweeping home the equaliser from the edge of the area, although keeper Soroko probably should have done better to stop it. Having scored 6 goals all season, Sputnik had scored three in 10 minutes ! Against a team that had only conceded 8 in 13 games prior to this…….
Vitebsk were shell-shocked, and not knowing whether to stick or twist, a long ball from the Sputnik keeper gave Sputnik a three on one, Volovik had the presence of mind to lay the ball back to Vorobiev rather than go for glory himself, and the substitute calmly placed the ball wide of the scrambling defenders for his first goal of the season to cap an incredible come-back !
Neman Grodno vs Dinamo Minsk ( Monday at 18.00 UK time )
After finding more and more ways to drop points, against all odds, 9 man Neman came back to equalise in injury time in the Cup at Krumkachy and then held out to win the penalty shoot-out. Dinamo will be a different matter though, and should take advantage of the gifts on offer in Grodno. 0-1
Result : 1-2. Neman are running out of excuses for losing matches. Here, they quickly fell 0-2 behind to leave them a mountain to climb. Putilo scored twice in the opening 17 minutes, being left totally unmarked to volley home from 12 yards, and then sliding in to steer a cross past the Neman keeper from 6 yards. Shortly after Mbengue went agonisingly close to adding a third, and Lozhkin hit the bar.
Neman didn’t look like getting back into the game but Gribovskiy scored with a brave header with 10 minutes remaining to set-up a potentially tense finish but despite one goalmouth scramble Dinamo were not unduly troubled in holding on to take the three points.
Summary :