FC BATE Borisov - European Underdogs

Pavial Navitski (PN) - Hello everyone and thank you for tuning into BATE Talk Radio today ahead off our Kubak Belarusi final game against Shakhter Soligorsk. I am joined today by ex-Barcelona man and Belarussian star Alexandr Hleb.

Alexandr Hleb (AH) - Yes Hello. I'm really looking forward to today and can't wait to see if the team can take their second piece of silverware under the new manager. This is a game we should win though so that will be what I am expecting.

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BATE(442 Diamond)
Rodionov(c), Klasnic
Aleksievich
Baga, Pavlov
Volod'ko
Polyakov, Filipenko, Radoi, Gordeychuk
Chernik

Gorbunov, Mladenovic, Gayduchik, Karnitskiy, Olekhnovic, Krivets, Mozolevskiy

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12" PN - BATE get off to a good start here in the Kubak Belarusi final. They have been by far the better side and the ball is no with Pavlov, he looks up and threads a ball through to Aleksievich.
AH - Klasnic is running into space, put a ball through!
PN- This he does and Klasnic is running into the box and he hits a shot!
AH - Dreadful, that was miles over. He really needs to be doing better than that when he gets into great opportunites.

26"PN- Klasnic is 30 yards out with has back to the goal and finds Aleksievich, who in turn gives it to Rodionov.
AH - He has nowhere to go, why pass it to him?
PN - Hang on here he's found Klasnic and Klasnic is surging into the box, he unleashes a shot and that is a fantastic save by the keeper to tip it round for a corner!
AH - Great save and a move that came out of nothing, we really need to get a goal to settle things down though. Aleksievich is setting up for the corner.
PN - The corner is wipped in and Filipenko is climbing high! His header, however, bashes off the back of a Shakhter defender and is dissapointingly cleared away.

HT: PN- Well the whistle blows to end what was quite a dissapointing half. You can only really say that there was two real golden chances, both of them for BATE and both of them for Ivan Klasnic. What are your thoughts Aleksandr?
AH - I just think that BATE need to come out in the second half with a bit more urgancy in them and a bit more tempo. Something needs to change in the centre of midfield to try and open up more chances for Klasnic and Rodionov, but I think the main thing is for BATE to realise that they can't win unless they score.

46" PN - Krivets on the ball now after coming on at half-time to replace Aleksievich. Krivits passes it back all the way to Radoi, much to the despare of the BATE fans who collectivly groan at the move.
AH - Hang on look at Gordeychuk out wide!
PN - Gordeychuk is in acres of space out wide! Radoi finds him easily and Gordeychuk runs down the wing, players pile the box. Gordeychuk wips in the ball...
AH - GOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!!! RODIONOV IS THE MAN!!
PN - What a sizzling low-cross that was by Gordeychuk and Rodionov is there at the back post to dircet it into the bottom corner, fantastic worked goal! 1-0!

76" PN - Shakhter are having a bit of possession here now. It's Yanush just outside the box for them but they can't seem to find a route through our defence. Yanush twists and turns before reluctantly passing to Bubnov.
AH - Don't foul him Radoi, don't do anything stupid.
PN - Radoi stands off him and Bubov has a pop at goal! Oh No!!! Shakhter have pulled back level!!
AH - You know when I said don't foul him I didn't mean stand ten foot away from him! Now Shakhter are level, it's 1-1 and game on...

FT: PN - Well Shakhter have managed to take us further than we expected and now we will have to put up with an extra half-an-hour.
AH - We have to blame ourselves for conceding. Radoi should have put a stop to Bubov's move before he had a chance to look up and shoot, he didn't and now we are paying for it. We just want the lads to rally round and really come out with the intention of setting the record back straight and collecting the trophy the really should be lifting.

98" PN - We're passing it around comfortably outside the Shakhter box.
AH - One daring person needs to take a gamble here and run inside.
PN - Klasnic traps the ball on the edge of the ball and looks around, Rodionov makes the run inside and has been chopped down by Postnikov! That must be a penalty!
AH - IT IS!!! The ref has gave it!!
PN - Rodionov is stood on the spot, Postnikov has managed to get away with a warning but he has gave BATE a golden opportunity. Rodionov stares out the keeper, makes his run up...
AH - That is a fantastic penalty straight into the postage stamp in the top-left corner, the keeper dived the right way but so what? No keeper could save that, top top penalty!!

FT (ET)" PN - The referee has blew up on a thrilling final, much more thrilling than we wanted?
AH - I was a little bit dissapointed to have only managed to beat Shakhter in extra-time, but it may be more to their credit than our dis-credit. At the end of the day we have won the Kubak Belarusi and the new manager has got his second piece of silverware only 3 months into the job!

Great win

Nice win m8, not the most impressive but a victory is victory.

Congratulations on the silverware
Loved the report too, nice idea with the commentary duo, really made it come to life and created a nice bit of tension and drama.

What a update! You managed to get the win too. Well done mate, keep it up. Love this at the moment!

BATE Borisov are going well this season, and coming up to the European summer transfer window there is no doubt going to be interest from bigger clubs for some of there stand out players. Most scouts that have traveled to watch BATE play this season will have usually came back with the same name, Vitaliy Rodionov.

As the captain of BATE and the current league leading top goalscorer, Vitaliy has been in stifling form this season. Vitaliy has proved a problem for defenders across the league and is often talked about as one of the finest players to grace the Vyssha Liga. He has proved clinical breaking off from his strike partnership with Ivan Klasnic, to run on to through balls from the tight midfield.

Vitaliy has been rumoured to be in talks with several large East-European clubs, however, there is heavy rumour that large bid from an unknown Dutch side has been received by the club. There have been speculation of many different clubs this could be, however, most fans believe that they would need a hefty fee to be brought in to be able to replace a player of his caliber.

Manager Alexandr Yermakovich has decided to not comment on this story at the moment. This is a deal concerning an official club legend, and the club will be wanting to keep rumours as small as they can.

no nightmare nick

Oh damn, i hate it when teams steal your stars from under your nose... i just hope the board don't sell him behind your back, or at the very least, you get a good chunk of cash for him!

So much colored text lol I've got a tip for you actually, Pavel Savitski plays in Belaruss, sign him up

unlucky too lose him though, but i felt like i was at that final whilst reading it keep it up

We started, what was possibly going to be our most competitive month yet, with a scrappy victory away at FC Gomel. They took the lead and then doubled it before half-time. I was furious, however the lads once again rallied round at half-time, as they did against Naftan, to produce a great comeback and maintain our winning streak.

We then faced off in our first 6 pointer of the season against our main title rivals this season, Neman Grodno. They produced a good fight and managed to grab a goal, but I think that our lads really wanted to win this game and go top of the table and on the day we just outclassed them.

We then completely smashed Dinamo Brest in and really taught them a footballing lesson. The thing is though, Dinamo took the lead. We learnt our lesson from other games and decided that this will not be a scrappy game in which we win by 1 goal and I need to give the team a lot of credit for that.

Our third home game in a row was no way near as impressive. A draw against Belshina is no where near ideal, especially in front of our own fans. We just couldn't seem to be clinical enough to grab our second and they punished us. I really hope I don't end up walking out of a game as disappointed as this again.

Next we came back up against Shakhter Soligorsk and the result, once again, was 2-1. Shakhter have got a decent side and we had key players missing due to injuries. But this time we were actually good enough to actually grab the second goal and finish off the game, meaning that their goal meant nothing.

Sadly, on our away trip to derby day against Dinamo Minsk, we could not repeat the victory as we did at home. This game was incredibly boring as they practically parked the bus and we had possession but were doing completely nothing with it. There have been plenty of times were we couldn't find that killer ball and this is something I will need to look at in the summer transfer window.

League Standings

We are top of the league, say we are top of the league! We have finally managed to get ahead of Neman, courtesy of our victory over them. We need to make a statement this season and win by a larger number of points than we are currently projected to, I believe we are capable of this as long as I bring in the right additions.

Player of the Month

Egor Filipenko, the boulder in front of defence, has won Player of the Month this month after having an ever-present month. Filipenko was constantly where he needed to be to break off opposition attacks and as long as he contiues this then I can simply not drop him.

Next Month...

We start next month off with 2 very winnable games against mediocre teams, and then we have the first leg of the Champions League Qualification Round 2 against Strømsgodset. This is a game that people believe will be evenly matched, however I think that if we put in a good performance in the first leg and get a result then we should win the home tie. Splitting these two games is a league game against 2nd bottom Dnepr Mogilev and it is quite clear that I will be fielding a pure, second string side. A game against 4th place Naftan follows the Champions League 2nd Leg and we then have our first game of the next Kubak Belarusi, a competition I want to retain.