BATE Borisov and Dinamo Minsk footballers conduct their first matches of European group rounds with disastrous results
Sergey Chernik’s play a failure from the beginning
BATE players prove first to fail. Borisov’s game was unlucky from the very beginning. By the end of the 5th minute, Sergey Chernik had allowed Yacine Brahimi to score and, in less than half an hour, Yacine claimed his second goal. Crushingly, seven minutes later, Jackson Martínez brought the score to 3:0.
Alexander Yermakovich’s trainees hardly approached their rivals’ net in the first half, while the Portuguese took three more goals after halftime, giving BATE the biggest thrashing in the Champions League Group Stage — 0:6.
BATE head coach Alexander Yermakovich shares his thoughts:
How can you explain the result?
Frankly, there’s nothing to say, as the score is more than eloquent. We seriously intended to fight but failed — for a number of reasons. We were unprepared for such opposition. We’d like to ask our fans to forgive us; we’re ashamed of our game.
Did the goalkeeper’s mistake in allowing the first goal influence the match?
Because of our mistakes we missed not only the first ball but several more. Unfortunately, the level of the Champions League is such that each error is punished by teams like Porto. This is what happened and we’ve paid for our mistakes.
Is there hope for more positive results in home matches?
Of course, we remain ambitious. We’ll try to learn from our mistakes and avoid repeating the situation.
The next day, another representative of Belarus on the European arena — Dinamo Minsk — almost repeated BATE’s sorrowful entry to the Champions League. Like the Borisov players, the Minskers conducted the first 30 minutes of the match unsuccessfully, missing four goals, while three were scored by Athanasiadis.
In the first half, our squad threatened the Greek net only a couple of times, failing miserably. Five minutes into the second half, the Greeks slipped another goal past Alexander Gutor, with Dinamo only responding in the 80th minute, thanks to Nikolic. Just before the final whistle, Greek Tzandari scored, leaving Dinamo Minsk with an embarrassing result of 6:1.
