March 14, 15 & 16, 2025
The Belarus Women’s Premier League this year again consists of 11 teams but with two changes from last season. Financial problems had seen last season’s wooden spoonists Smorgon pull out of the league to be replaced by Naftan from Novopolotsk.
Record title holders Bobruichanka struggled to field a full squad a few times last season, and were mostly reliant on veterans from their glory years, have also withdrawn from the league. Their place has been taken by Belshina, another club from Bobruisk, who look to have a lot of different players to Bobruichanka but do have some of Bobruichanka’s younger players from last season.
The league is now sponsored by Maxline, a gambling company.
2024 Season Recap
There was a dramatic end to the 2024 season. FK Minsk went into the last game of the season needing to beat Dinamo-BGU Minsk to force a championship play-off. Dinamo had never lost a league match since their creation in 2020, but Miroslava Zubko’s scrambled close-range finish in the 18th minute gave FK Minsk an unexpected but deserved victory.
Dinamo had beaten FK Minsk 2-1 in their first league meeting, a match covered by these diaries, and their second game had been a 0-0 draw. Dinamo had given Minsk a small opening to stay in the title race with a 1-1 home draw with Zorka-BDU, but Minsk then slipped up by also drawing 1-1 at home with Zorka-BDU.
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The decider was also played at FK Minsk’s stadium, but this time second half goals from Anastasia Mager and Anna Pilipenko gave Dinamo a 5th consecutive title.
Zorka-BDU were the best of the rest, winning 23 of their 30 games to finish 12 points behind in third, and had the league’s highest scorer with Russian Ekaterina Frolova finding the net 41 times. Vitebsk had an excellent season to end up in 4th place, and ABFF Under 19 had looked possible third place finishers until a poor final run-in saw them fade into 5th place.
At the bottom, Smorgon won only 4 points all season, had a minus 255 goal difference and bowed out with a 0-28 defeat at Zorka. Pinsk based Dyussh Polesgu won three games to have 9 points, and a minus 228 goal difference. With 5 wins and a draw, Gomel were in comparison relatively competitive, with a minus goal difference of minus 153.
Dinamo Brest continued their upwardly mobile progress, and keeper Dario Vinograd was called up to the national squad by being part of a defence that conceded only 58 goals in 30 games despite losing 17 matches. Dnepr Mogilev won more than they lost, aided by 35 goals from Karolina Zhitko, and Bobruichanka usually beat the bottom three and lost to everyone else, but did draw twice with ABFF Under 19s and once with Dinamo Brest.
2025 Super Cup
The season began with the traditional curtain raiser of the Super Cup, between Champions and Cup winners Dinamo-BGU Minsk, and FK Minsk, runners-up in both competitions, with the game being played at Dinamo’s Juni stadium.
This time Pilipenko’s header 12 minutes from time gave Dinamo another narrow victory over their city rivals.
Like last season, both the Dinamo and Minsk squads looked weaker than last year as the exodus of the better Belarus players to move abroad continued.
From last year’s squad, Dinamo had lost full back Yulia Slesarchik and centre-back Arina Sitnikova, who are now playing in Georgia. Mager had signed for Russian side Zvezda Perm and Anastasia Kovaleva joined Dinamo Moskva, as did star midfielder Anna Sas. Attacking midfielder Anastasia Shuppo also left to join Hungarian side Gyor.
Like last season, Dinamo’s squad currently consists entirely of players from Belarus, and the five replacements for this season have all been signed from last year’s ABFF Under 19 side.
FK Minsk had lost 6 first team regulars in the close season. Russian keeper Alena Gryaznova moved to CSKA Moskva, Mozambique striker Ninika had joined Moroccan side AS FAR, and midfielder Nadezhda Voskobovich was now with Russian side Krylya Sovetov. Midfield dinamo Valeria Belaya had joined Hungarian side Pecsi, whilst three players had moved to sides in Belarus. Viktoria Plisyuk and Viktoria Tikhon were now at Zorka-BDU, whilst Karina Stankevich had joined the newly formed Naftan side.
Minsk had signed two quality replacements though, with ex-Dinamo forward Viktoria Valyuk joining from Krylya Sovetov, whilst experienced Russian midfielder Yana Khotyreva rejoined after a season away, also with Krylya Sovetov. Minsk had signed two of last season’s ABFF Under 19 side, whilst Russian keeper Kristina Aleshina arrived from Krasnodar.
Round 1
ABFF U19 2-1 Naftan ( att : 53 )
Zorka-BDU 1-2 Dinamo Brest ( att : 90 )
Dnepr Mogilev 2-1 Belshina ( att : 110 )
FC Gomel 0-9 Dinamo-BGU Minsk ( att : 35 )
FK Vitebsk 1-1 FK Minsk ( att : 75 )
Dyussh Polesgu : free
The first game of the season saw the ABFF Under 19 side edge to a 2-1 victory over newcomers Naftan.
The ABFF Under 19 side was formed to give young players the opportunity to play topflight football and to help the national Under 19 side’s performance in UEFA competitions. In the last two seasons the side had finished 3rd and 5th in the Women’s Premier League but like in past years the ABFF Under 19 side had lost most of their team for the new season. Only 5 of today’s starting XI played for ABFF U19 last season, with the rest stepping up from the Belarus Under 17 team.
In addition to the already mentioned Karina Stenkevich, Naftan had another notable signing with Viktoria Sidorchuk joining from Dinamo Brest, together with defender Alina Bobko. Defender Anna Zavadskaya was previously with Vitebsk and Zorka, whilst 17-year-old Yana Tikhanovich was a regular last season for Smorgon. Their starting XI also included three Russians and a Kazakh.
The match was played at Dinamo’s Juni stadium, and the newcomers got off to a dream start when 16-year-old Kristina Posled took advantage of poor positioning by ABFF U19 keeper Valeria Verzhbitskaya in the 9th minute to steer home a free-kick from 6 yards.
ABFF U19 looked to quickly hit back but Lizaveta Marchuk shot across goal and wide after racing onto a long ball, then Vasilisa Adamovich could only shoot straight at the keeper after persistent work from Daria Drozdova.
Naftan maintained their lead to half-time, and shortly after the restart, Violetta Guzovskaya shot on the turn close to the penalty shot after a corner had rebounded to her, but the Naftan keeper Alexandra Prikhodko made a fine sprawling save.
ABFF U19 equalised in the 64th minute but there was an element of controversy to it. Keeper Guzovskaya attempted to chest control a back pass from Zavadskaya, but Adamovich nipped in to poke the rebound past the keeper. Initially, it looked like the referee had given a foul in favour of the Naftan keeper, but after some delay, the goal was given.
ABFF U19 snatched the winner 7 minutes from time when Lyubov Korneeko slipped a pass with the outside of her right foot for substitute Yana Dashkovskaya to run onto and chip over the advancing keeper into the empty net.
Zorka-BDU hosted Dinamo Brest in the second game of the weekend. After a successful season last year, Zorka lost four key players as top scorer Frolova signed for North Macedonian side Ljubotnen, striker Yana Ray joined Russian side Zvezda Perm and experienced defender Tatiana Kenda moved to Belshina. Forward Natalia Asmykovich was now with today’s opposition. In their place, Viktoria Plisyuk and Viktoria Tikhon had arrived from FK Minsk.
Dinamo Brest may have lost Sodorchuk and Bobko but in addition to Asmykovich, Ksenia Yatsynovich had joined from ABFF U19 and Diana Osmolovskaya had signed from Russian side Ryazan.
Zorka took the lead in the 17th minute when the referee awarded a harsh penalty after Brest keeper Vinograd came off her line to claim a loose ball, but a Zorka player tumbled over her. Tikhon ruthlessly despatched the spot kick.
It didn’t take long for the visitors to restore parity, when in the 27th minute Asmykovich ran onto a ball down the left-hand channel, beat the Zorka right back and then thumped the ball into the roof of the net from a tight angle.
Zorka pressed to regain the lead but without creating any clear-cut chances, and Vinograd was not unduly troubled. Dinamo took an unexpected lead in the 72nd when Asmykovich laid off a throw-in to Yatsynovich, who fired home left footed past the motionless Zorka keeper from the edge of the area.
Rather than a Zorka fight back, Dinamo came close to extending their lead through Evzrezova, Myshlenik and Serova. Zorka finally threw the kitchen sink at Dinamo in added on time and hit the post from which Vinograd grabbed the loose ball. However, Dinamo held on to record the first shock result of the season.
There third game of the round was played at the indoor dome in Mogilev as Dnepr hosted Belshina. The TV camera angles in the dome are not great, and the pictures are much darker than for games played outside, sometimes making player identification difficult.
Dnepr had lost top scorer Zhitko to Ruban Kazan in Russia, but ex-Minsk midfielder Yana Benkevich had moved the other way between the two clubs. Dnepr had also added another ex-Minsk midfielder, with Elizaveta Pinchuk signing from Krylya Sovetov. Otherwise, their squad looked to be largely unchanged from last year
Belshina started with 5 Russians and 3 ex-Bobruichanka players in their XI. As mentioned earlier, central defender Kenda played for Zorka last season, whilst midfielder Valentina Nizhegorodova was a regular for Vitebsk, and 18-year-old keeper Sofia Metelskaya had played once for Dinamo-BGU.
Dnepr started brightly and should have opened the scoring in the 10th minute when the unmarked Daria Dashkova somehow headed a right-wing cross wide from 6 yards. Anna Bonderenko then turned to create space, but the left-footed finish from just inside the penalty area was weak and easily saved by the Belshina keeper.
Tatiana Nestyukovich and Valeria Barborenko spurned golden chances as Dnepr dominated then Belshina keeper Metelskaya saved bravely at the feet of Nestyukovich.
Belshina managed to get to the interval on level terms but fell behind in the first minute of the second period, Barborenko wriggled past two defenders to fire left footed into the roof of the net from the angle of the 6-yard box.
Metelskaya again saved bravely, this time at the feet of Dashkova, after which Yana Domin sliced horribly wide from close range with just the keeper to beat. Dnepr finally sealed the three points in the 89th minute when Evgenia Yakusik swivelled onto a pass from Domin to shoot into the bottom corner from 12 yards.
Belshina were not seen as an attacking force so they may be in for a difficult first season, but would take heart from a solid defensive display.
Sunday’s first match of the day saw Gomel host Dinamo-BGU outdoors on an artificial surface, with snow clearly visible around the side of the pitch having been swept from the field. A 0-9 defeat represent some kind of improvement for Gomel, having lost 0-18 the last time the two sides meet, and losing the three games last year conceding 46 goals in the process. Gomel are relying on more or less the same squad as last year, probably hoping that their young team will continue to improve the more they play and gain more experience.
Gomel did well to keep the score down to just 0-3 at the break, but Dinamo cruised to the 0-9 victory, and barely broke sweat in doing so. Pilipenko was the top scorer with 3 goals, with Anna Sinyavskaya and Olga Kapysha finding the net twice each. Dinamo’s other goals came from Alina Khoroshchak and Hanna Putsykovich.
The final game of the round nearly saw Vitebsk achieve a sensational upset win at home to FK Minsk, only to be denied by a 93rd minute equaliser in another game played indoors.
After their 4th place finish last year, Vitebsk look to the be steadily improving their squad. Despite Anna Zavadskaya leaving to join Naftan and Valentina Nizhegorodova signing for Belshina, Arina Ivanova and Karina Tovarevich arrived from Dnepr, and Yulia Duben and Anastasia Sidorchuk were snapped up from Bobruichanka.
After a drab first half with very little action, Vitebsk came close to opening the scoring three minutes into the second period, but Tovarevich’s 20 yard left footed effort crashed back from the crossbar. However, they did take the lead 10 minutes later when Minsk keeper Mariana Brileva attempted to catch Ekaterina Yanchilenko’s inswinging free kick above her head but only succeed in dropping the ball for Milana Belous to head home from close range.
Minsk were facing an embarrassing defeat and Ulyana Uzun saw a close range shot pushed away for a corner by the Vitebsk keeper Konak but with the clock in the red zone, Konak came to gather Kazakevich’s floated ball into the area, but Miroslava Zubko nipped in ahead of the Vitebsk keeper to prod the ball into the vacant goal to spare Minsk’s blushes.
With just one week played, Minsk are already needing to play catch-up with Dinamo, and Vitebsk had staked a claim to being contenders for third place.
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