Although eight league places separate Sunday’s hosts, Dinamo Minsk and their local rivals, Isloch Minsk, there’s plenty at stake for this upcoming local derby with both teams keen to improve upon their respective standings in the Vysshaya Liga.
Looking at Dinamo Minsk first, and the hosts will be looking to avoid a third league defeat on the trot in Sunday’s clash at their Stadyen Traktar, following recent back-to-back defeats against Slutsk 2-1 at home and their weekend 2-1 loss on the road away at an improving Dinamo Brest outfit.
Dinamo Minsk haven’t bothered dealing with draws so far this season as the hosts have won 3 but lost 5 of their first 8 matches of this new Belarus top flight campaign, and results on home turf at their Stadyen Traktar have also been inconsistent as the hosts have picked up wins over Torpedo Zhodino and Neman Grodno, but also lost to Rukh Brest and Slutsk.
Despite results at home being indifferent and inconsistent, Dinamo Minsk have scored at least once in 10 of their last 12 matches at home in the league and they’ll fancy their chances of notching against their local rivals here.
Sunday’s visitors,Isloch Minsk, returned to winning ways on the weekend when they registered a 2-1 home win against basement dwellers, Belshina, as Isloch bounced back from last weekend’s disappointing 4-0 mauling away from home at Shakhtyor Soligorsk.
The manner of that recent defeat was a little surprising as Isloch Minsk had previously recorded back-to-back wins against Slavia Mozyr and Vitebsk, both by 2-0 margins, so they would have fancied their chances of walking away from Shakhtyor with something.
Anyhow, that’s now 3 wins from their last 4 matches overall for Isloch but the visitors will be desperate to avoid a fourth consecutive defeat on the road in this local derby having lost their last 3 away matches on the trot.
Defeats at Slavia Mozyr, Dinamo Brest and Shakhtyor Soligorsk have prevented Isloch Minsk from occupying a higher league position than their current placing of 5th, but they’re still just 1 point behind the Vysshaya Liga leaders, BATE, prior to this weekend’s action.
Dinamo Minsk are capable of scoring but so too are Isloch and with this being a local derby, both teams could well score here.