No Shortage Of Hleb - Vysshaya Liga 2020

Against all common sense and medical advice, the Belarusian Premier League rolls on. Having little better to do, i'm going to be following as much of it as i can.

The first round had a number of upsets, with 2019 league winners Dinamo Brest having to come from behind to get a draw against newly-promoted Smolevichi, runners-up and Champions' League perennials BATE Borisov getting whipped 3-1 by lowly Energetik-BGU and third/fourth-placed Shakhtyor Soligorsk and Dinamo Minsk both losing at home.

Star of the week was Energetik's new loan signing Jasurbek Yakhshiboev, who scored twice - shrugging off a number of agricultural challenges to cut through the Borisov defence for the first.

Assuming that nobody thinks better of it, the second round starts tomorrow (Friday the 27th) with Zhodino vs Belshina and Energetik away to Rukh Brest.

₴токёd fоя тнє мadиёšs

Artem Milevsky, once heavily tipped for a move to Liverpool - who presumably realised that they’d be better off buying Philippe Coutinho than a guy who habitually turned up for training drunk and kept crashing his Ferrari while drag racing - has taken the lead for Dinamo Brest against Slutsk.

Another shock as BATE Borisov lose for the second game in a row, away to Slavia Mozyr.

Could the string of upsets have anything to do with the fact that there is probably hundreds of millions of dollars being bet on every match? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Worth noting that these matches are not being played behind closed doors. Crowds are not necessarily huge but there is no attempt at spacing people out.

Big Minsk derby kicking off in a minute.

Лукашенко о коронавирусе: Надо сказать, что лучше умереть стоя, чем жить на коленях pic.twitter.com/Y4hZ39D7CI

— Дмитрий Смирнов (@dimsmirnov175) March 28, 2020

Better to die standing than live on your knees, says the big man, so I guess sport will continue for a while to come.

In a way I'm almost interested in the Belarus herd-immunity guinea-pig