Belarus round-up: Neman clear of chasing pack

FC Neman Grodno extended their lead at the top of the Belarussian first division with a comfortable 2-0 defeat of FC Zvezda-VA-BGU Minsk.

Dominant Neman
Neman opened the scoring on 25 minutes through Andrei Tuchinovitch and Vitali Tarashik extended the lead on 51 minutes in a match the hosts dominated from start to finish.

Dropped points
Neman's principal rivals, FC BATE Borisov and Torpedo-MAZ Minsk, both dropped points with Borisov stuttering to a 1-0 defeat against FC Gomel, Vasili Borel's scissor-kick securing victory. Gennadi Blizniuk could have doubled the score for the hosts, but his late penalty went wide.

Torpedo defused
Torpedo, meanwhile, were held to a 1-1 draw by FC Dnepr-Transmash Mogilev, the visitors going ahead through Igor Rozhkov on 21 minutes, but Andrei Dovnar salvaged a point with the equalizer. In another hard-fought encounter, FC Dinamo Minsk and Shaktior Soligorsk fought out a 1-1 stalemate, Sergei Kornilenko cancelling out Dmitri Bespanski's opener.

Trio of wins
Elsewhere, FC Belshina Bobruisk beat FC Molodechno-2000 3-2, FC Torpedo Zhodino defeated FC Dinamo Brest 1-0 and FC Slavia Mozyr overcame FC Lokomotiv-96 Vitebsk 2-1.