By Yegor Glebov
In the previous round, BATE lost to Shakhtyor, which truly disappointed the team, especially as, early on, everything had been going smoothly in their bid to win the championship title at their home stadium. BATE’s away match in neighbouring Zhodino presented no difficulty for fans desiring to travel, since the distance is not far. However, the team was expecting a real battle.
In the first half, the Borisov squad scored twice, outwitting goalkeeper Vasily Khomutovsky. In the 9th minute, BATE full-back Yegor Filipenko caught Sergey Krivets’ angle pass on his head and, later, was twice close to scoring: however, in the first case, the goalkeeper saved the situation and, in the other, Yegor misjudged his kick. By the end of the first half, the championship’s best shooter — Vitaly Rodionov — had scored his 13th goal. Torpedo’s goalkeeper did well initially but then failed to cope with another attempt on his net, which brought the score to 2:0.
In the second half, Vitaly Rodionov insistently went on the attack but it was Zaven Badoyan (who came off the substitute’s bench) who scored: the first by the Armenian legionnaire with BATE this championship. Torpedo seemed to accept their defeat but BATE defender Denis Polyakov then made a careless pass along the penalty area, allowing Alexander Yatskevich to intercept the ball and easily score, sending it past BATE goalie Andrey Gorbunov. However, the Borisov team remained two goals ahead until the final whistle.
This was BATE’s first win under Alexander Yermakovich (replacing head coach Victor Goncharenko, who moved to Krasnodar Kuban in mid-October). After the victorious match, the new coach noted that this was due to Mr. Goncharenko, who has headed BATE since 2008. Since 2006, BATE has been Belarus’ strongest football team.
