Following their recent 2-0 defeat away from home at Dinamo Minsk last weekend in the Vysshaya Liga, Saturday’s hosts, Torpedo Zhodino, return home to their Stadyen Tarpeda where they’ll no doubt be looking to bounce back with a win here.
Zhodino had previously registered back-to-back wins in the Belarus top flight with victories over Shakhtyor Soligorsk 1-0 away from home and a 1-0 home win over Belshina, but defeat last time out has resulted in Torpedo Zhodino dropping down the early standings in the Vysshaya Liga to 6th place.
It’s still early days of course, and Zhodino will still feel confident that they can return to winning ways this Saturday as they’ve lost just 2 of their last 11 matches at home, while also picking up wins over Vitebsk, Dnyapro, Neman Grodno, Gomel, Dinamo Minsk and Belshina.
However, Zhodino will face a tough assignment against the early league leaders, Energetyk, this Saturday so perhaps the goal markets look the better option; indeed, 4 of the last 5 meetings against Energetyk have produced 3 goals or more.
Saturday’s visitors, Energetyk-BGU, currently sit top of the Vysshaya Liga with an impressive 100% winning record after winning their first three league matches of this new Belarus top flight season on the trot, so they too will be in confident mood ahead of this upcoming clash at Zhodino this weekend.
An end of season 5-3 home win against Dnyapro in the previous campaign has been further bolstered by three wins on the trot this term with victories against BATE 3-1, Rukh Brest 1-0 away from home and a 2-0 home win against FC Minsk which has helped the visitors to the top of the table this term.
However, with just 3 wins out of their last 8 matches on their travels in the Vysshaya Liga, Energetyk’s chances of grabbing all three points at Zhodino look to hang in the balance, but the goals market appeals once again where the visitors are concerned.
Indeed, 12 of Energetyk’s last 15 away matches have resulted in over 2.5 goals and as well as being the joint highest goalscorers so far this season with 6 goals to their name, Energetyk also possess dangerous striker Yaxshiboev (3 goals) in their attacking personnel.
This clash could therefore produce a few goals this Saturday.