Saturday afternoon’s hosts, Isloch Minsk, will head into this upcoming clash against Rukh Brest looking to avoid a fourth straight defeat in the Vysshaya Liga after being dealt three losses on the trot in recent weeks.
Early back-to-back wins against Neman Grodno and Smolevichi had seemingly got Isloch Minsk on their way at the start of the campaign, and with a favourable fixture schedule which handed Isloch five home matches in the first six rounds of this new season, it looked like Isloch would be one of the teams to beat in the early stages of this term.
Inconsistency has subsequently crept in though and along with additional wins against Slavia Mozyr, Vitebsk and Belshina, Isloch have also suffered regular defeats to date as well and the hosts find themselves in 7th place and six points adrift of the top three.
The hosts have won five of their seven matches so far on home turf though at their Stadyen Haradski, and they may well fancy their chances of returning to winning ways this Saturday but they’ll be facing a stubborn Rukh Brest outfit.
Rukh Brest currently occupy a creditable mid-table position in the Belarus top flight in their first ever season in the Vysshaya Liga and they’ve adapted pretty well to the big step up in quality so far this season.
Although Rukh Brest have managed to capture just three league wins to date this term, the visitors have made themselves extremely tough to beat, especially away from home where they’ve suffered just one defeat out of their first six outings.
That loss was an understandable one too as they lost 1-0 at current league leaders, BATE, but aside from that, Rukh Brest have given a good account of themselves on their travels in this campaign.
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Wins on the road at Dinamo Minsk 1-0 and a 4-2 victory at Neman Grodno have been complemented by picking up points in draws at Slavia Mozyr 0-0, Torpedo Zhodino 0-0 and a 1-1 draw at Slutsk, while five of their six away matches to date have resulted in under 2.5 goals.
Rukh Brest are expected to set themselves up in a defensive fashion again this Saturday where they’ll be happy to take a point and perhaps chalk up a fourth clean sheet on thew road in what is expected to be a low-scoring affair against Isloch here.