Republic

Gomel football team cruising to national cup

The seventh round of the national football cup started in three cities of the country at once. The leading team “Gomel” once again laid its claims for the top award, a spokesperson for the Belarusian Football Federation told BelTA. Playing an away match against Vitebsk “Lokomotiv”, the Gomel team won thanks to the sniper strike by Valeriy Stripeikis at the 43rd minute of the game. After seven matches “Gomel” is in the lead with 18 points. Despite a defeat in a regular game, Minsk’s MTZ-RIPO club is in the second place with 14 points. The team failed hopes of their fans by losing 0-2 to outsider “Neman” of Grodno. Moreover, the guests won while undersized after Dmitriy Makar had been sent off the field in the first time. It was the first defeat of the Minsk team this season and the first victory of the Grodno team. Once again Minsk “Dinamo” could not beat Mogilev “Dnepr”, though the former played on the home turf. Though the vice-champion of the country did not let “Dnepr” score a goal, “Dinamo” failed to turn several favourable situations to their advantage and tied the score. Wednesday (May 31) will see another four games of the round: Darida (Minsk district) – Torpedo (Zhodino), Lokomotiv (Minsk) – Shakhter (Soligorsk), Dinamo (Brest) – Belshina (Bobruisk), BATE (Borisov) – Naftan (Novopolotsk).