BELARUSIAN FOOTBALL WEEKEND FOOTBALL ROUND-UP

PREMIER LEAGUE 

Friday 5th June 

Smolevichy-STI 4 Gorodeya 1 (118) 

What a day for the players and supporters of Smolevichy as they got their first league win of the season at the eleventh attempt. Evgeni Barsukov, Aleksey Vakulich and Anatoli Makarov along with an own goal saw them wrap up a good 4-1 victory over Gorodeya. The own-goal was a deflected header from Makarov's volley/overhead kick just inside the penalty box. 

It was Smolevichy's first victory in the Premier League since September 2018 when they won 0-1 at DNEPR Mogilev. 

Could it be a turning point for Aleksandr Brazevich's side? They travel to Neman Grodno next Saturday.  


Saturday 6th June 

Slutsk 1 Torpedo BelAZ 1 (318) 
Isloch 1 Rukh Brest 1 (254) 
Slavia Mozyr 1 Neman Grodno 3 (1,150)  
Dynamo Brest 6 FC Minsk 1 (2,058) 

On Saturday Neman Grodno had a good away win at Slavia Mozya with Serbian Zoran Marusic scoring a hat-trick. Rukh Brest and Isloch ended all square - Abdoulaye Diallo scored the visitors before Dmitri Komaroviskiy made it 1-1 with a well taken goal from the edge of the box for Isloch. Rukh goalkeeper Roman Stepanov (on only his third start of the season) made a fantastic save right at the end of the game to keep his side with a point when he got down well (described by some a 'Gordon Bankseque' by some) to keep Aleksandr Makas's header out. 

Last season's Champions Dynamo Brest won their second game in a row with a resounding 6-1 victory over FC Minsk. Oleg Evdokimov had scored for FC Minsk to make it 0-1 early on but that was the best it got for them with substitute Pavel Savitskiy scoring twice. 

Sunday 7th June

Vitebsk 2 BATE 2 (2,720)  
Belshina 0 Dynamo Minsk 4 (1,115)  
Shakhtyor Soligorsk 1 Energetyk-BGU 0 (982)

BATE Borisov were 0-2 up at Vitebsk and looking at winning their seventh league game in row. The home side scored in the 79th minute via Sergey Volkov and then in the 89th minute a fantastic run by Diego Carioca on the left hand side into the box who was able to cross to substitute Aleksandr Ksenofontov whose close range shot on the turn hit the back of the net to the delight of the home crowd. It was the 21 year old's first goal in the Premier League - he made four appearances for Dynamo Minsk last season and played for Underdogs in the first league in 2018.  

Belshina's poor start to the season continues with a 0-4 home defeat to Dynamo Minsk who last scored 4+ goals in a game back on Sunday 16th June 2019 when winning 6-1 at home to Energetyk-BGU. 

Shakhtyor's impressive form continued with an important 1-0 win at home to Energetyk - They are now only two points off of table topper's BATE Borisov and have only let in 3 goals in their 12 games played. Please check out the excellent Energetyk blog on energetikbgu.blogspot.com for a more detailed match report on this game. 

It's all set up for the game of the season so far next Sunday evening at 6pm when Shakhtyor host BATE. This is a game not to be missed.  

BELARUSIAN CUP SECOND ROUND
BOLD denotes non-league sides 
BLUE denotes first league sides 
BLACK denotes second league sides 

Novaya Pripyat 0 Volna Pinsk 3 (850) 
Energosbyt-BSATU 2 Ostrovets 6 (80) 
Spartak Shklov 0 Naftan Novopolotsk 4 (150) 
Stanles Pinsk 0 Arsenal Dzerzhinsk 1 (230) 
Stroitel Kapyl 1 Orsha 3 (90)   
Gorki 0 Oshmyany 3 (100) 
Polotsk 1 Khimik Svetlogorsk 3 (150)
SMI Autotrans 2 Slonim 5 (30) 
Kronon 0 Granit Mikashevichi 6 (250) 
Osipovichy 1 Sputnik Rechitsa 3 (200)
Meliorator Zhitkovichi 1 Lida 2 (AET) (255) 
BGU Minsk 0 Gomel 5 (100) 
Baranovichi 1 Smorgon 0 (638)
Bumprom 0 Dnepr Mogilev 6 (100) 
Pershiy Regien 0 Lokomotiv Gomel 15 (50) 

MATCH ACTION FROM STANLES PINSK v ARSENAL DZERZHINSK GAME 

(Courtesy of Arsenal Dzerzhinsk on Instagram)

In Belarusian Cup it was Baranovichi (relegated from the First League last season) who made the headlines with a 1-0 win over Smorgon who are currently top of the First League - 29 year old Dmitri Khlebosolov was the hero for the home side scoring from the penalty spot on 22 minutes - He has played in the Premier League for Naftan, Torpedo Belaz, Gomel, Belshina, Granit, Vitebsk and Neman Grodno. His father Andrey Kblebosolov is the Manager of the club. 

It was Smorgon's first defeat of the season - As the chart shows (red denotes goals they scored and blue denotes all goals scored in their matches) every game so far has been under 2.5 goals and they have had six clean sheets in eight games. They play Granit next weekend who are without a win in their league campaign so far but will be in good spirits following their 0-6 victory at Kronon where former Smolevichy player Andrey Levkovets scored twice. 

Only two other Second League sides remain and they both beat fellow Second League sides in their ties. DNEPR Mogilev won 0-6 at Bumprom with Krasimir Kapov scoring twice and Ostrovets won 2-6 at Engergosbyt with Gleb Zakharen (who was on the book's at Premier League Torpedo Minsk last season) scoring two goals and 39 year old veteran Sergey Krot also getting two goals.

ARSENAL GAVE DEBUTS TO EVGENE GULETSKY (FORMERLY OF ENERGETYK) & PAVEL SELEZNEV (FORMERLY OF FC MINSK) IN THEIR CUP GAME. BOTH PLAYERS ARE 19 YEARS OLD AND LOOK TO HAVE GOOD FUTURES AHEAD OF THEM. 

All three of the non-league sides left were knocked out by Volna, Naftan and Orsha.  

Lokomotiv Gomel were the big winners of the day running in 15 goals against Pershiy - Andrey Solovey scoring a hat-trick. Pershiy had only let in four goals in their five Second League games prior to that game. 

Thirty-Seven year old Dmitri Osipenko was the scorer for Arsenal in their 0-1 win at Stenles Pinsk. 

SECOND LEAGUE BARANOVICHI MADE HEADLINES BY BEATING FIRST LEAGUE SMORGON IN THE CUP SECOND ROUND 


NEXT WEEKEND'S FIXTURES 

PREMIER LEAGUE 

Friday 12th June 
FC Minsk v Isloch
Gorodeya v Slutsk

Saturday 13th June
Neman Grodno v Smolevichy-STI
Torpedo BelAZ v Dynamo Brest
Dynamo Minsk v Slavia Mozyr

Sunday 14th June 
Energetyk-BGU v Belshina
Rukh Brest v Vitebsk
BATE v Shakhtyor

FIRST LEAGUE 

Saturday 13th June
Krumkachy Minsk v Volna
Granit v Smorgon
Arsenal v Sputnik
Gomel v Lida

Sunday 14th June 
Khimik Svetlogorsk v Slonim
Naftan v Oshmyany
Lokomotiv Gomel v Orsha


SECOND LEAGUE 
Dates and Kick Off times to be announced

GROUP A 
Pershiy Regien v Ostrovets 
Baranovichi v Molodechno
BGU Minsk v Ivatsevichi
Chayka Zelva v Dinamo Malorita
Stanles Pinsk v Meliorator Zhitkovichi

GROUP B 
Dnepr Rogachev v Shakhtyor Petrikov
Polotsk v Osipovichy
Bumprom v Dnepr Mogilev
Zhlobin v Energosbyt-BSATU
Gorki v SMI Autotrans

THE DRAW FOR THE BELARUSIAN CUP THIRD ROUND HAS BEEN MADE THIS MORNING - FULL DETAILS TO FOLLOW LATER TODAY HOPEFULLY.