It's Week Two of the Premier League and Week One of the First League in Belarus this weekend.
The National Team's fortunes, who are currently banned from playing in their home country, didn't fare well on the International break.
It all started well against Switzerland (playing behind closed doors in Serbia) when Vladimir Khavaschinski hit the bar from close range in the first minute but then went rapidly downhill as The Swiss ran in five goals without reply. The defeat wasn't an unexpected one against the FIFA ranked 12th team - Belarus are currently 97th!
In Tuesday's game against Romania played in front of 27,800 people in Bucharest new Dynamo Minsk signing Valdislav Morozov scored a late goal to end the game in a 2-1 defeat. The former Rukh Brest and Isloch striker, 22, came off the bench in the 78th minute to score in the 86th.
The results see's Georgy Kondeatyev's side bottom of Group I of the UEFA 2024 Qualfying Group where they next face Israel and Kosovo in June. These are "home game" where the venue has yet to be arranged.
The u21 side drew 0-0 with Andorra u21s followed by a 1-1 draw with Greece U21 in the 2025 UEFA European u21 Championship qualification Group G where they also face forthcoming games against Portugal, Croatia and Faroe Islands. FC Minsk defender Maksim Kasarab scored the goal against Greece.
The u17 side went very close to qualification for the UEFA Euro u17 championship which will be held in Hungary later this year.
They had a very impressive result with a 2-1 win over Serbia u17 with goals from Sixteen year old Ruslan Myalkovskiy (of Arsenal Dzerzhinsk) who made 10 Premier League apperances last season and Pavel Apetenok of Dynamo Minsk.
They then played Israel and were 0-2 up but the game ended 2-2. Two more Dynamo Minsk players scored the goals in Trofim Melnichenko and Nikita Lyukevich.
A 2-1 defeat to Bosnia-Herzegovina saw them finish third in the Group A of the Elite Round qualification table which was eventually topped by Serbia.
New Gomel striker Junior Effage who recently signed from Moldovan club Dinamo-Auto Tiraspol came off the bench on the 60th minute for Gabon u23s in their first game against Cameroon u23s which was a 1-0 victory. They played Cameroon once more and the game went to penalty kicks which Gabon won to secure a place in the final of the African Nations u23 Cup.
Will Effage make his first start for Gomel this weekend in their game at Naftan Novopolotsk? The eighteen year old scored 3 goals in 14 games in the Moldovan Super Liga during his time with Dinamo-Auto Tiraspol.
Naftan Novopolotsk were rather unlucky to lose at Shakhtyor in their first game so it'll be interesting to see how they get on at home to Gomel who lost to BATE Borisov on the opening weekend of the season. Naftan will be in a confident mood having won 11-0 in a friendly game against Second League side Polotsk over last weekend.
Torpedo Belaz will be favourites to beat Smorgon at home - both sides had 1-0 wins in the opening weekend with Torpedo winning at Dynamo Brest and Smorgon at home to Belshina.
Isloch and Dynamo Brest who both lost their opening games face off in the last game on Saturday.
In Sunday's game Neman start their campaign with a home game against current champion's Shakhtyor. They have been in great form over the pre-season and have also qualified from the Belarusian Cup SF. They are still managed by Igor Kovalevich who has been in charge since 2016.
The former Belarus u21 coach hasn't been busy in the transfer market since the end of the 2022 season only signing three players. However the trio are all very experienced in the Premier League. They have signed midfielder Mikhail Kozlov from Dynamo Minsk, striker Roman Paparyga from Energetik-BGU and defender Yuri Pantea from Gomel.
Young striker Maksim Kravtsov, 20, has returned to Neman and could feature. He scored 8 goals in 23 First League games for Smorgon last season. Neman fans may be hoping the their Gambian striker Pa Jobe who only made one start last season could score some goals this season. He netted 19 goals in 23 games in the 2021 Bangladeshi Premier League season for Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club.
Perhaps the game of the weekend in the Premier League is the last game on Sunday when BATE Borisov (3rd last season) host Energetik-BGU (2nd last season). The Students don't appear to have a stronger squad this season so may not do as well as they so incredibly did in 2022. BATE with the firepower of Denis Laptev will be favourites to win this one but never back against the amazing Energetik side?
The First League starts this weekend with three new clubs moving up from the Second League in Bumprom Gomel, Niva Dolbizno and Zhodino Yuzhnoe. DNEPR Mogilev, Vitebsk and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk were all relegated from the Prermier League.
Maxline Rogachev who beat Arsenal Dzerzhinsk in the relegation/promotion play-off were unable to gain a licence to play in the Premier League - the club who were originally founded as Avtomobilist Rogachev in 1983 were dissolved in 2006 but reformed in 2006. They have moved from their home town in the Gomel region over the summer and are now known as Maxline Vitebsk. It's 170 miles between the Roegachev and Vitebsk!
(CREDIT ФК "Нафтан" Новополоцк INSTA)
Bumprom Gomel ran away with the Gomel region title in the Second League last season scoring 165 goals and winning 17 of 18 games in the regular season.
Niva Dolbizno won the Brest Region West Division winning all ten games in the regular season with Zhodino Yuzhnoe winning the Minsk Region North Division.
I'm going to go with two games of the weekend in the First League with Maxline visiting Slonim and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk hosting Shakhtyor Petrikov who finished in 3rd place last season.
(CREDIT - fcmolodechno on INSTA)
I think the best signing made by a First League side could have been made by Molodechno. Yuri Kozlov, 31, scored 13 goals in 23 games for First League champion's Naftan Novopolotsk last season. He has played in the top tier for Neman Grodno, FC Minsk, Slutsk, Dynapro and Luch Minsk. Kozlov has never been a prolific scorer in the Premier League but in the First League he has played 70 games (63 starts and 7 sub appearances) and scored 34 goals.
Below is a corner's league for the first week of the Premier League which shows Slutsk and FK Gomel being the best teams winning 8 each.
CORNER'S LEAGUE
| TEAM | WON | CONCEDED | TOTAL |
| SLUTSK | 8 | 3 | 11 |
| FK GOMEL | 8 | 2 | 10 |
| FC MINSK | 7 | 5 | 12 |
| DYNAMO MINSK | 6 | 3 | 9 |
| SHAKHTYOR SOLIGORSK | 6 | 2 | 8 |
| BELSHINA BOBRUISK | 6 | 2 | 8 |
| SLAVIA MOZYR | 5 | 7 | 12 |
| ISLOCH | 3 | 6 | 9 |
| TORPEDO ZHODINO | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| ENERGETIK-BGU | 3 | 8 | 11 |
| NAFTAN NOVOPOLOTSK | 2 | 6 | 8 |
| BATE BORISOV | 2 | 8 | 8 |
| DYNAMO BREST | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| SMORGON | 2 | 6 | 8 |
SATURDAY 1st APRIL
PREMIER LEAGUE
Naftan Novopolotsk v FK Gomel Torpedo BelAZ Zhodino v Smorgon
Isloch v Dynamo Brest
FIRST LEAGUE
Slonim v Maxline Vitebsk
Zhodino Yuzhnoe v Volna Pinsk
Lida v Osipovichy
Niva Dolbizno v Bumprom
SUNDAY 2nd APRIL
PREMIER LEAGUE
Slutsk v FC Minsk
Neman Grodno v Shakhtyor Soligorsk
Slavia Mozyr v Dynamo Minsk
BATE Borisov v Energetik-BGU
FIRST LEAGUE
Ostrovets v Baranovichi
Lokomotiv Gomel v Molodechno
Arsenal Dzerzhinsk v Shakhtyor Petrikov
DNEPR Mogilev v Orsha
NOT IN ACTION
PREMIER LEAGUE - Belshina Bobruisk
FIRST LEAGUE - Vitebsk
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