Another attractive fixture in this weekend’s instalment of the Belarus Vysshaya Liga features the top six clash between Isloch Minsk and Energetyk-BGU with both teams keen to stay close to the early league leaders, BATE.
Last weekend’s 1-0 defeat away from home at Dinamo Minsk resulted in Isloch Minsk dropping down to 6th place on the Vysshaya Liga ladder but they return to the more familiar surroundings of their Stadyen Haradski for this upcoming clash where they’ve won their last three league matches on the trot.
Victories over Slavia Mozyr 2-1, Vitebsk 2-0 and a 2-1 win against Belshina should give the hosts plenty of confidence in bouncing back this weekend, and indeed, Isloch Minsk have made the most of a favourable fixture scheduling at the start of this new campaign.
Isloch were handed five home games in the first six matches of this new term and the hosts registered four wins to get themselves off to a positive start, but they’ll be up against one of the ‘dark horses’ in the top flight this Saturday.
Onto Energetyk-BGU and the visitors have been one of the surprise packages so far in this season’s Vysshaya Liga as they currently occupy 3rd place and are just one point behind league leaders, BATE, prior to this weekend’s action.
Energetyk also made an instant impact in the early stages of this season as the visitors registered three wins on the trot against BATE, Rukh Brest and FC Minsk and although they suffered a mini blip thereafter with losses to Torpedo Zhodino, Gorodeya and Neman Grodno, they seem to have steadied the ship in recent weeks.
The visitors have responded in impressive fashion by picking up three wins on the trot in their subsequent matches with victories over Smolevichi, Slutsk and most impressive of all, a 2-1 win over Dinamo Brest last weekend.
Energetyk have also held their own on their travels too as they’ve won 3 of their 5 away matches to date, and they’ll be keen to get a result at Isloch Minsk as they look to keep pace with the early pace-setters, BATE.
An away win may just be out of reach for Energetyk here but goals for both teams looks likely as 6 of the previous 7 meetings between Isloch and Energetyk have seen both teams hit the back of the net.