Vysheyshaya Liga Match Report: 12th Round, June 7th 2020, Shakhtyor Soligorsk 1, Energetik-BGU 0

Sadovskiy Surprise

On a sunny late afternoon in Soligorsk, coach Vladimir sprung a surprise on us all, by re-introducing Denis Sadovskiy in goal in place of big Artur Lesko, who returned to the bench. Lesko has impressed me in recent games and none of the goals last week were his fault, so this change was unexpected. Otherwise, the same side took to the park, with the exception of the returning Yakshiboev, who slotted straight in to replace the suspended Yudchits.

The first half of the game was quite a hard watch. Tactically, Shaktyor coach Bernydub seemed to have watched our games very closely, and set up his side to snuff out our creative players, thereby creating space for his own. A particular target was Nosko who had his quietest game of the season; every time he had the ball in the first half, Shakhtyor's Selyava or Balanovich seemed to be right on top of him, obliging him to play sideways, backwards, or on a few occasions, lose the ball altogether. It was interesting to see another side expose how important a role Nosko plays in the middle of the park for us.

Shakhtyor were also particularly severe on Mawatu, who was clattered badly early on by the gangling Ihar Burko. Burko was yellow carded for his pains, and Mawatu, who had gone down screaming, was able to carry on, but despite a few trademark runs down their right he wasn't able to get his usual purchase.

Vitaly Lisakovich : A Confounded Nuisance

What transpired to be the game's only goal was scored by Belarusian international striker Vitaly Lisakovich. Lisakovich, with a low centre of gravity and a fair turn of pace, is a nightmare to face, as he is also one of these players who is never happy, always moaning at his team-mates, and greedy for more and more goals. The goal itself was straight forward. Bursting down our right in consort with Kenysh, Lisakovich played a smart 1:2 with the midfielder and burst clear into the area, with Svirepa totally bypassed by these crisp passes. With Sadovskiy coming off his line as best he could, Lisakovich hit a low, perfectly timed and powerful drive into the bottom left hand corner of the net. It was a finely judged finish. Shakhtyor seemed to go after Svirepa, rather, in the first period and he had an uncomfortable time of it throughout the game.

We showed a rare glimpse of our capabilities and almost had ourselves level with out first meaningful attack after 17 minutes. Untidy play on the right saw a lofted pass from Umarov, I think, find Yak on the edge of the area, his back to a watchful fluorescent wall. A 1:2 with Bakić, a bit of twisting and turning, and then Yak caressed a sharp angled ball to play in his strike partner. Bakić finished nicely past Gutor. The big no. 17 was a good yard offside, sadly, and the “goal” was disallowed amidst half-hearted protests.

With our creative outlet muzzled and our players looking unusually nervous and hurried, Shakhtyor dominated the opening half. They were very unlucky just after the half hour not to double their advantage. This time it was Serbian winger Igor Ivanović, from a central position near to the edge of our area, who played a beautifully weighted pass into the box for Lisakovich to run onto. The striker, who had again lost Svirepa, was faced with a much tighter angle this time. With his left boot he swept the ball across Sadovskiy and just beyond the stretching boot of the on-rushing Selyava; it cracked the inside of the base of the left hand post, and bounced clear. One or two more speculative shots came in in the ensuing melee before the chance faded. At the other end, we offered very little, with Yakshiboev and Bakić having very little to work with. A speculative trundler from Umarov was about the best it got for us in the first half.

Clearly, the way the half had gone was not sustainable from an Energetik point of view, and Umarov was withdrawn in favour of defensive midfielder Vasili Sovpel, which definitely had an effect after the break. Shaktyor too replaced Ivanović with Dmity Podstrelov, another attacking move.

Finally waking the Gutor

Energetik had a better shape in the second half and had clearly heard some strong advice from Vladimir in the interval. The side grew a bit in confidence as the second half wore on, whilst riding our luck a bit defensively. Yakshiboev finally tested Gutor in the home goal with a very powerful drive on fifty four minutes. A lofted free kick from Mawatu, aimed at Bakić was knocked down into the Yak's path by a defensive header from Burko, and the resulting instinctive Scud missile of a shot was palmed over at half stretch by the Shaktyor keeper. A few minutes later, a burst down the left by Girs and cross, eluded the home defenders, and Yak headed into the keeper's arms at the right post, having caught it awkwardly, unable to get enough traction on it. These were encouraging signs from Energetik.

Alarmed by these signs of their opponents' resurgence, Shakhtyor nearly added a second on 63 minutes. A skirmish between Mawatu, and Kendysh saw the home midfielder emerge with the ball, and seeing a gap in our retreating defence, played the pass of the game- a beautifully weighted diagonal pass across the park, into space, for Lisakovich to run onto. He reached the ball ahead of Sadovskiy and rounded the flailing goalkeeper, but the angle was too tight, and a few of our defenders were back blocking the goal; the chance was lost with Selyava and Podstrelov lurking. Podstrelov also stung Sadovskiy's midriff with a powerful left foot effort from just inside the area, which the young keeper held well.

To my personal relief Selyava was withdrawn for the gangling Bodul with a little over twenty minutes remaining- he had had an outstanding match and worked so hard alongside Balanovich to create the circumstances for them to win- what Scottish coaches like to call "earning the right to play". His performance was one of the best I've seen against us this season, even if Lisakovich will claim tomorrow's headlines.

Doing a Vitebsk?

As we entered the last quarter of the game Lisakovich set up another really close call for Shakhtyor. He pickpocketed the luckless Svirepa and strongarmed his way towards goal, more than matching a determined challenge from Sovpel before playing in Podstrelov, lurking in the area to the left of our defence. The no. 19 crashed a low drive across Sadovskiy, beating him, and again the ball crashed off the inside of the post and out to safety. Sadovskiy takes a bit of credit for getting something on the ball and perhaps helping to deflect it a little. It began to feel like one of those games where the side that's been pummelled for most of the game snatches a late, unexpected equaliser- a fate known in the trade as "doing a Vitebsk". 

We had two possibilities to emulate Sergei Yasinsky's annoying side, as the clock wound down. Mawatu, on the touchline, halfway inside the Shakhtyor half, fed Tweh, who in a quicksilver turn fed Yak. The Uzbek perhaps snatched at the shot a little, striking the ball narrowly over the bar when quite well placed. But a bigger what if? moment was to come five minutes from the end.

Another Shakhtyor move had petered out at the edge of our area and Sadovskiy released the ball quickly. It reached Girs on the half way line who hit it long in the direction of Yak, who flicked on. The connection was perfect as it fell to Bakić, running diagonally into the area and finding the gap between Burko and Antić. The lanky Montenegrin bore down on the cautiously advancing Gutor; his cracked the ball powerfully goalward, hitting the keepers midriff and half raised arm. With the power taken out of it, time stood still as the ball dropped towards the goal-line, terribly slowly. And just-just-wide. That was the big moment, and it didn't quite fall our way. Yakshiboev, knowing this, threw himself to the ground in frustration , as Bakić leant on an advertising hoarding and wondered what might have been. In truth, we must credit Gutor with a fine stop- Bakić couldn't have done anything much better.

Shaktyor managed the remainder of the game well, seeing it out largely through a series of half hearted corners and set plays. The final whistle below, and their fans were able to greet a narrow, hard-fought win with some relief.

Pride and Disappointment

Look, this result is a real disappointment. This game between second and third in the table was tactically absorbing, rather than a classic; people who had seen previous free-flowing Energetik performances may have hoped for more goals and excitement. Being Energetik-minded, it's a pity that we couldn't convert one of the three good chances we carved out in the second half. From our point of view, a point may have been deserved. But the neutral would bring up the two shots that clattered the inside of our post, and consider that we had had luck enough. 

We have to remember the youth and inexperience of this side and that we were playing, in my opinion, the best side in the division. Shakhtyor are very strong and have depth in every aspect of their squad. They move the ball better than BATE and seem much hungrier for success than their Borisov rivals, who approached today's game in Vitebsk as a jaded glutton faces another eighteen course dinner. Shakhtyor have now won seven in a row and not conceded at all in that time. They won today by stopping us playing initially, and then using that as a platform to grind out a crucial three points.

We struggled to cope a bit in the first half, as Shakhtyor overwhelmed us physically, and shut down our creative outlets quite ruthlessly. However, we can take a lot of pride from the recovery shown by the players in the second half, and their refusal to be cowed, or curl up and concede a few, in the face of such opposition. I felt that the issues raised last weekend by running out of energy in the last few minutes were addressed; we played at the same physical level of performance throughout the ninety minutes. We pushed a very good side hard in the second half, and if we can maintain these levels of performance and application better results surely lie ahead against hapless Belshina, and Dinamo Minsk, in the next two games. Our ambition to finish in the top three is still very much on and with BATE and Shakhtyor still to play we'll have a big say in the eventual destiny of the title.

As for Shakhtyor, their trip to the Borisov Arena next weekend is one for the neutral to really look forward to, and they should be going there with every expectation of winning. It falls to them to try and chase down BATE in the next few games, and it's our target now to keep the pressure on the top two as much as we are able, by returning to consistently winning ways. Coach Vladimir will be able to hammer this message home in training this week and use it as motivation.

TL;dr? Here's the highlights, then.

Jon Blackwood

Twitter: @jonblackwood