Dinamo Minsk vs. Belshina Bobruisk – Belarusian Premier League, October 24, 2020

Dinamo Minsk continues to make a last-ditch effort to break into the top three on Saturday as it welcomes Belshina Bobruisk to the capital city.

The visiting side is desperate for points to escape relegation to the second tier after just one season in the Belarusian Premier League.

MyBookie makes the much bigger home team a clear favorite to win this one and it is the capital city powerhouse that is in the better form of the two. Belshina does need to pick up some wins in the last few games to stay up, but the good form of August seems to have deserted the smaller club. The odds for the draw may interest some but the home win is the more likely outcome.

It has left things a little late but Dinamo Minsk is doing all it can now to finish in the top three and qualify for European soccer next season. There have been three wins in a row – including last week’s sensational away victory over Shakhtyor Soligorsk – and only Dynamo Brest has a better record in the last five games.

Dinamo has just four games left of its season but is only four points behind Shakhtyor in third now – and some positive results in the last month of the campaign could really shake up the look of the top half of the league. Dinamo crushed Belshina 4-0 away from home earlier in the year and manager Leonid Kuchuk will be expecting more of the same on Saturday.

Belshina’s own good form has now deserted it, as the last few months have brought little in the way of game time or points. The wins of August seem a very long time ago now and the Bobruisk club is heading for a drop down in divisions just a year after winning the second tier.

The positive news for Belshina is that it still has one or two games in hand on most of its relegation rivals. There is a four-point gap between it and Slutsk and Gorodeya – so there would still seem to be time to close that in the remaining weeks of the season. Taking anything from Dinamo – in the form it is showing – feels like a tough ask though.

Dinamo Minsk is just about the form team in the Belarusian Premier League at the moment and whether it eventually makes it into the top three or not, I’m not sure that Belshina is the side to slow down its momentum. The Bobruisk club has struggled to adapt to the top flight all year and relegation is now creeping up on this weekend’s visiting side.