Optibet’s Latvian football top league team Daugavpils won a two-goal lead over RFS in a Wednesday duel, but the Latvian vice-champions were able to play back, celebrating their sixth success this season.
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RFS won “Daugavpils” with the guests 3: 2 (0: 2), continuing the season without losing points.
Valērijs Afanasjevs and Namdi Ofors scored in the “Daugavpils” team, but Roberts Savaļnieks, Tomislavs Šaričs and Emersons Santana Deuslesiaāns stood out in the RFS ranks.
The home team surprised the leaders of this season with an unexpectedly organized football, which bore its first fruit in the eighth minute. 1: 0 for the benefit of Daugavpils was achieved by the experienced Valērijs Afanasjevs, whose long shot could not be caught by last season’s “Daugavpils” goal husband Danilo Kucer. After 15 minutes, Kuadio were awarded a free kick. Three minutes later, another dangerous episode at the RFS goal was created by Cuadio and Deuslesian.
In the 20th minute, Daugavpils laid a good foundation for RFS to make the first loss this season. Kirils Makejevs’s Oforu saw his fine effort strike the top of the bar following some good work up the middle by his teammates after 71 minutes. Eight minutes before the end of the first half, Tomāšs Šimkovičs fulfilled the standard situation, but the partners in the penalty area could not pass the ball past the goalkeeper.
Andrejs Kovaļovs hit that from around 35 yards out and Kučers and couldn’t do anything about, dipping and swerving, it did him all ends up. Four minutes later, Deuslesian started the game, who played precisely with his head in the penalty area after the partner’s center. An equalizing goal was close at hand, but Šariča clipped a free kick just wide of the goal.
RFS took the lead for the first time in the 82nd minute. A savage shot from just 35 meters by the keeper made a spectacular save. The rest also belonged to the guests, but the result remained unchanged, the Rigans celebrating their sixth success in the same matches.
Rigans have won in all five previous games and are the most productive players in the tournament with 15 goals. Emerson Santana Deuslesian scored the most – six goals, but former Daugavpils cedar Cedric Kuadio and Tomāš Šimkovič scored three points. In the previous round, after the release of three matches, last year’s best bomber Darko Lemajičs returned to the field, who has been silent in the game for a year and a half.
Meanwhile, “Daugavpils” started the season with two losses, followed by two victories, but in the previous round with 1: 3 the superiority of another capital, “Riga”, was recognized. Before Thursday’s duel, Latgalians shared the second place in the list of the most productive teams with 11 goals, but Namdi Ofors won the most – three.
It is significant that the RFS team is led by the former head coach of “Daugavpils” Viktors Morozs. In the off-season, the Latvian specialist moved to RFS, where he was assigned the duties of an assistant, but after Valdis Dambrauskas went to Croatia, Moroz became the captain of the Riga ship.
Last year, RFS won in all four games, finishing three games with one goal difference. RFS has been superior in the last seven mutual games and lost to Daugavpils for the last time in the spring of 2016, when the Latgale team returned to the Super League.
The champion “Riga” won “Metta” at home with 2: 0 (1: 0).
The team of the capital was victorious by the precise broadcasts of Elvis Stugls and Oleg Laizans.
The first 40 minutes of the game at Skonto Stadium were unexpectedly similar. “Riga” dominated the ball in control, but “Metta” was active in the defense and was able to repel the champions’ efforts to conquer the goal. In the last minute of the half, the home team performed a corner kick, but in the penalty area “on the second floor” Stuglis was at the ball, the tall footballer reaching 1: 0 in favor of “Riga”.
One of the best goal scoring opportunities for “Riga” was in the 56th minute, when Romāns Debelko broke into the penalty area, but Helmuts Saulītis caught his shot with his fingertips. The Rigans attacked actively in the following minutes and did not want to settle for minimal success. With five minutes played, Kule Mbombo nearly put the visitors another one up as he broke through in the middle and fired from just outside the box, but his shot passed just over the bar.
The home team’s efforts culminated in a last-minute success match. Mbombo broke through the attack, but shortly after the ball came to Laizāns on the other side of the penalty area, who deceived Saulīte and hit an empty goal.
“Riga” has won “Metta” eight times in “Skonto” stadium.
“Riga” has celebrated four victories in five games at the beginning of the season, three of them in a row. In the last two matches, three goals have been scored in each, but the leader of the attack in the team has not yet emerged. “Metta” started the season with two losses, but in the next three games they celebrated two victories, beating Jelgava and Tukums.
18-year-old striker Raimonds Krollis has scored four of the seven goals for the “Metta” team. However, Antonijs Cernomordijs did not leave the field on Thursday.
Last year, “Riga” won in all four games – if the result in the first two was 2: 1, then the other two duels ended in a devastating 4: 0 and 5: 0. “Metta” has won the “Riga” team only in the opponents’ debut in the Super League in 2016. Out of the next 16 Premier League games, “Riga” has won 13, including the last 11.
It has already been reported that in the introduction of the sixth round on Tuesday, Jūrmala “Spartaks” fought in a draw 1: 1 with the “Tukums 2000” / TSS team. For the Premier League debutants from Tukums, this was the first point in the highest league in Latvia.
At the end of the round on Thursday, “Jelgava” will host “Ventspils” in its square.
RFS is in the leading position of the Premier League with 18 points, but “Riga” is three less. “Ventspils” follows with ten points, Jurmala “Spartak” has two less, but “Liepāja”, “Jelgava”, “Daugavpils” and “Metta” teams have accumulated by six points. “Valmiera” scored five points, but “Tukums 2000” / TSS scored in six dues.
