Footballers of Novopolotsk's Naftan won the Belarusian Cup for the first time

June 1, Minsk /Igor Khadasevich - BELTA/. The new owner of the Belarusian Football Cup 2008-2009 is Naftan Novopolotsk, reports a BELTA correspondent. In the final match at the Dinamo stadium in the capital, the Novopolotsk team managed to beat the footballers of Shakhtyor Soligorsk with a score of 2:1 (in extra time). At the end of the first half of the match, in the 42nd minute, the experienced Naftan forward Valery Stripeykis opened the scoring. In the second half, the miners attacked a lot, but the defenders and the goalkeeper of the Novopolotsk team, Nikolai Romanyuk, were at their best. Only two minutes before the end of the regulation time, Sergey Kovalchuk restored the balance. The fate of the decisive match was decided at the beginning of the first extra time: in the 95th minute, the winning goal was scored by the young Naftan defender Dmitry Verkhovtsov. In the remaining playing time, the Soligorsk team had several excellent opportunities to score, but failed to convert them. Naftan could have taken advantage of the fact that the opponents went on the attack in large numbers, but also failed to realize favorable moments at the goal of Andrey Pavlov. As a result, the match referee Andrey Zhukov recorded the victory of Igor Kovalevich's team. It should be noted that the new owner of the Cup of the country became the 13th winner of this tournament. Soon, Naftan will debut on the international stage in the new tournament - the Europa League, which this season replaces the UEFA Cup. -0-