Belshina Bobruisk vs. Shakhtyor Soligorsk – Belarusian Premier League, September 27, 2020

Shakhtyor seems to have gotten nervous at exactly the wrong time of the season and has now allowed BATE to have the upper hand in the race for the title.

This week the Soligorsk club must travel to Bobruisk to take on a Belshina side that is desperate for points to escape relegation.

MyBookie is not treating Shakhtyor’s recent dip in form as an indicator of how this game will go. The away team is the big favorite to come away with three much-needed points on Sunday. Belshina has been able to surprise a few teams higher up the league this season but even the price for the home win isn’t really big enough to attract any real interest.

It might have only been a draw last week for Belshina away at Vitebsk but the point could prove vital in what has already become a close-run relegation scrap at the bottom of the table. After failing to pick up many points at all earlier in the season Belshina is proving that there is still a little fight left.

August turned out to be a good month for the Bobruisk club and now it is only a point off safety and level with a Gorodeya side in freefall. The problem may be that many of the other teams around Belshina still have some games in hand though. So, even though it is a very tough ask, last season’s second tier champions really need to get something from games like this.

Shakhtyor will be hoping that it is the Belshina of the early months of the campaign that it ends up facing on Sunday, as there is a real need for points here as well as it looks to keep up with BATE. After relinquishing the top spot last weekend, manager Roman Hryhorchuk will know that its biggest rivals will be hard to catch now.

The points gap is still just three however. With the game between Shakhtyor and BATE earlier in the season ending in a draw, it could be that the reverse fixture decides where the title goes this year. But if Shakhtyor cannot get past teams like Belshina then it won’t even be close.

Even a poor run of form, that has seen points dropped in the league as well elimination from the Europa League, shouldn’t mean that Shakhtyor will allow Belshina to do its own hopes of staying up a favor this weekend.

The odds don’t make a single win bet very enticing but this has to go down as an away win.