October 13, 14 & 15, 2023
Round 30
FK Vitebsk 1-2 Zorka BGU ( att : 45 )
FC Gomel 0-1 Dyussh Polesgu ( att : 23 )
ABFF U19 1-5 FK Minsk 4-0 ( att : 50 )
Bobruichanka 0-1 FK Smorgon ( att : 20 )
Dinamo-BGU Minsk 4-0 Dinamo Brest ( att : 50 )
Round 30 in the Belarus Women’s Premier League meant most sides in the 11 team division had four matches left to play, but the destiny of the title had effectively already been decided. Whilst Dinamo-BGU Minsk had not mathematically been confirmed as champions, given they had recorded three narrow wins over their only challengers, FK Minsk, it was inconceivable they would drop sufficient points in the run in to throw away the title.
When these diaries last reviewed the league after round 13, Dinamo had edged to a 1-0 victory over FK Minsk in their first meeting. In their subsequent encounters, Dinamo had also emerged triumphant, with 2-1 and 2-0 wins to confirm their dominance, in front of attendances of 247 and 123 respectively.
Marina Kiskonen’s penalty, after a handball, to give FK Minsk the lead in the second meeting was still the only goal Dinamo had conceded in the league, but a penalty by Anastastia Shuppo and a left-footed finish on the turn from Anna Pilipenko turned the game around in Dinamo’s favour.
In last week’s third match between the two sides, two first half goals for Dinamo, from the veteran Pilipenko and 17 year-old Anastasija Majer confirmed their Indian sign over FK Minsk. As a result, the interest in the remaining games in the season would be in the battle for third place, and who would finish bottom.
The weekend started with a meeting between 7th placed Vitebsk against 3rd placed Zorka. Vitebsk had featured in these diaries earlier in the season, when they beat Dinamo Brest 4-0 and looked to have a lot of talent going forward, with Anastasia Evzrezova on 12 goals and Natalia Vasilyeva and Elena Buzinova on 11 a piece. They had also looked tight at the back, and had recently only lost 0-2 at Dinamo Minsk, and had played two 0-0 draws with ABFF Under 19.
Zorka had a slow start to the season but were now in a good position to take third place behind the two Minsk giants, and were on a run of just one loss in their last 12 games, to Dinamo Minsk. Midfielder Olga Kapysha had scored 22 goals and striker Yana Artishevskaya was on 19 goals.
Zorka midfielder Victoria Gerus, who had doubled up as a goal-keeper during an injury crisis earlier in the season, opened the scoring in the 13th minute turning the ball into the net at the second attempt. Lilija Zhigolka then missed from 4 yards with a free header.
Vitebsk made the most of this escape in the 27th minute when former international Anna Denisenko, recently signed from Dnepr Mogilev, lashed home a loose ball from the edge of the area into the top corner to equalise.
Zorka regained the lead early into the second half when Yana Ray’s inviting cross gave Diana Shmarovskaya a simple side foot volley from inside the 6-yard area, then Kapysha then went close with a left footed volley from Shereshovets’ cross.
Vitebsk responded with Vasilyeva sending a 20 yarder crashing against the crossbar, then Zorka keeper Chistik made a brave save to keep out Buzinova’s free-kick.
In the closing minutes, Shereshovets could have made the win for Zorka more emphatic but after being put clear down the right-hand channel she could only shoot into the side netting.
Having previously played two draws with each other and losing every other game, the final meeting of the season between Gomel and Dyussh Polesgu was expected to determine the destination of the wooden spoon. Going into the game the two sides had conceded a combined 435 goals, with only 11 goals scored, 5 for Dyussh Polesgu, of which Anastasia Ogievich had scored three, and 6 for Gomel, all of which had been by different scorers.
The visitors from Pinsk took an early lead when Chukholskaya’s speculative effort from the edge of the penalty area sailed into the top corner of the Gomel net. In a game of few clear chances, Dyussh Polesgu were comfortably holding on to a first ever win in the Premier League until they were subjected to a bombardment in the closing minutes. Neberova’s shot from just outside the area looked to be heading for the top corner but was clawed away by keeper Molitvik, and then Pavlova’s looping effort was well claimed by the Dyussh Polesgu keeper.
ABFF Under 19s have been enjoying their best ever season since their creation in 2020 and started the day in 4th position, and still with realistic ambitions of a third place finish, with three winnable matches following today’s tough encounter with FK Minsk. They went into today’s match with just one loss in their last 14 games, a 0-5 loss at Dinamo Minsk but had drawn their last two outings, with Zorka and Smorgon.
Alexandra Samoylova had scored 15 times, whilst Anna Sinyavskaya and Alina Koroshchak were on 14 goals each.
For FK Minsk, Melana Surovtseva had scored an incredible 53 goals from 23 matches but was still destined to only finish as a runner-up, whilst Russian midfielders Yana Khotyreva and Marina Kiskonen were on 16 and 14 goals respectively. Minsk had conceded only 9 goals in the league, 5 to Dinamo-BGU, 2 to Smorgon and one each to Zorka and ABFF U19.
Any hopes that the Under 19s might be able to make it a close game were dashed as they conceded three poor goals in the opening 25 minutes. Minsk skipper Novikova’s shot from 30 yards should have been saved but went over keeper Vyazhel, and the same player then tapped home from close range after Vyazhel spilled a low free-kick from Khotyreva. Pinchuk’s cross from a short corner then sailed over the keeper and a defender on the line and into the net.
The Under 19s played some nice football in the rest of the rest half and Koroshchak shot wide, then high, before being denied by a diving save by Gryaznova.
FK Minsk extended their lead 8 minutes into the second half as Vyazhel was unable to claim a cross-cum-shot from Khotyreva leaving Diana Bakum the simple task to prod home at the far post.
With just under 20 minutes remaining ABFF U-19 scored the consolation goal their play had probably deserved, when Daria Protasyuk pounced on a dreadful back pass from Nabirye and coolly chipped over the advancing keeper. However, Minsk were stung into a reaction and Kiskonen restored their 4 goal advantage by nipping in ahead of the keeper to get to a ball to the 6 yard line from Khotyreva.
Minsk were awarded a penalty in added on time when Vatsuro brought down Kiskonen but Bogdan’s spot-kick was well saved by Vyazhel diving to her right.
Bobruichanka have had a dreadful season and went into their home match against FK Smorgon on a run of 11 losses in their last 12 matches, with the one exception being a win over hapless Gomel. 41 year-old striker Olga Aniskovtseva had found the net 13 times but played centre-back today. Smorgon have had a respectably solid season, sitting in 6th place, and in their last two outing had only lost 0-2 at Dinamo-BGU Minsk and drawn 1-1 at home to ABFF U-19s. Ex Dinamo and FK Minsk international Yuliya Duben ( 8 caps ) had taken most of their headlines with 22 goals.
Smorgon dominated the first half, with Liana Mirashnichenka hitting the post before Yana Migalysa converted a Mirashnichenka cross from the angle of the 6 yard box. Godinskaya squandered a great chance to double Smorgan’s lead but blasted wide from 8 yards.
The best chance for Bobruichanka came mid-way through the second half when Aniskovtseva made a surging run from the back but with the goal gaping, Tysbulskaya was unable to make connect to the low ball across the 6 yard box after it had beaten the keeper. Apart from this Smorgon were untroubled.
Dinamo Brest have enjoyed a much improved season, with 7 wins, draws with Zorka and ABFF U-19, and much closer losing margins, especially against Dinamo Minsk and FK Minsk as the double digit thrashings appear to be a thing of the past. Viktoria Sidorchuk had scored 12 times, Russian Alexandra Plokhova had looked a decent addition in midfield, Mukha and Katrosha have looked a decent pairing at centre-back and keeper Daria Vinograd has been a vast improvement between the sticks compared to the previous season’s incumbents.
They faced a stiff test at Dinamo Minsk in a battle of the Dinamos, and the champions elect raced into a 4-0 lead after 35 minutes with clinical finishes from Shuppo, Valyuk and Pilipenko, before Kapustina curled a delightful left-footed effort from the 18 yard line into the top corner.
Dinamo Minsk took the foot of the gas in the second half and Brest keeper Vinograd comfortably dealt with the few efforts that came her way. At the finish, Dinamo Minsk now needed 4 points from their remaining 4 matches, which includes bankers against Dyussh Polesgu and Gomel.
Belarus Cup
For the fourth year running Dinamo Minsk and FK Minsk met in the final of the Belarus Women’s Cup final, with the quarter-final and semi-final draws miraculously keeping them apart every year !
Dinamo had won all of the three previous finals, although in 2020 and 2022 it was only after penalty shoot-outs.
FK Minsk reached the final with 4-0 wins over both Smorgon and Zorka whilst Dinamo won 15-0 against Gomel and 3-0 against Dnepr Mogilev.
The final was played in Brest, rather than in the past three years in one of the stadiums in Minsk, and after an even start to the game, Anastasia Linnik’s 12 yard volley from a left-wing cross from Pilipenko gave Dinamo a 35th minute lead, although Minsk’s Russian keeper Gryaznova really ought to have saved it at her near post. However, the lead only lasted 4 minutes as Yana Khotyreva’s fabulous free-kick was headed home at the back post into the opposite corner by Ugandan international midfielder Joan Nabirye.
Dinamo regained the lead shortly into the second half after the Minsk defence failed to deal with a corner, and the ball was scrambled over the line with Kubichnaya getting the credit, although Sitnikova made sure in case the ball had been judged to have not already crossed the line.
As the game went end to end, Russian striker Natalya Mashina missed a good chance for Minsk and likewise Shlapakova for Dinamo. With just under 20 minutes remaining Dinamo defender Zarina Kapustina brought down Melana Surovtseva in the area and the referee awarded a penalty and showed the red card to the Dinamo player. Mashina converted the spot kick to the level the match.
With the extra player Minsk looked likely to finally achieve a victory over Dinamo, but Mashina and Pinchuk put good chances wide.
With the scores level after 90 minutes, extra-time was played, and two minutes into the extra period, Arina Sitnikova rose the highest to Kovaleva’s free-kick to head home from 6 yards and restore Dinamo’s lead.
In response, Mashina could only direct a header at keeper Ulasevich, Khotryeva’s free-kick went just over the bar and Novikova headed narrowly wide from 8 yards. In response, Shlapakova did well to get to the by-line but Kovaleva stretching, couldn’t make a decent contact and Gryaznova was able to gather.
Despite further pressure, Minsk were unable to make a breakthrough as Dinamo held on to claim their fourth successive Cup. Minsk could only file this in the category of another close game against Dinamo that got away from them.
UEFA Women’s Champion League
Dinamo-BGU and FK Minsk entered the 2023/24 UEFA Women’s Champions League qualifying round by virtue of their first and second places in the 2022 Belarus Women’s Premier League.
In the Champions path, Dinamo were first drawn to play Moldovan champions Agarista-SS Arenii-Noi in Moldova and cruised to a 9-0 victory. Their reward was a tie against Dutch champions Ajax, also played in Moldova, and an outstanding performance by substitute keeper Kovalchuk and brave defending kept the score down to 3-0 defeat, with Romee Leuchter on the scoresheet twice for Ajax and Sherida Spitse scoring a penalty for which the cameras didn’t pick-up the offence. Ironically Spitse means forward in Dutch but she plays in midfield !
Late in the game Dudko and Pilipenko both missed chances for a consolation goal for Dinamo, and Sitnikova was shown the red card for preventing an Ajax breakaway. The result was hardly surprising though as Ajax had been unluckily been eliminated in the 2022/23 competition by Arsenal.
FK Minsk had a tough draw in the league path, yet again drawing Norwegian opposition after narrow defeats to LSK Kvinner in 2020, Rosenborg in 2021 ( but they beat Celtic in the third place match ) and 2022 ( after beating Czech side Slovacko ), and always having to play in Norway.
They had to travel again to Norway, this time to play Valerenga, and despite an equalising penalty from Kiskonen they ultimately succumbed to a 1-3 defeat. In the third placed play-off they lost 1-2 to Danish side Brondby despite Mashina giving them a first half lead.
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