© EuroFootball.com
On Saturday, the 15th annual "Unity Cup" tournament started in the Russian capital of Moscow. According to the website alyga.lt, last year's finalist and Lithuanian champion FBK "Kaunas" faced the tournament debutants Bolnisi "Sioni" (Georgia) in the first group D match and secured a victory in the last minute with a score of 2-1.
"Kaunas" 2 - 1 Bolnisi "Sioni"
23' [1 - 0] Edin Pehlic
45' [1 - 1] Levan Silagadze
90' [2 - 1] Vyacheslav Hleb
"Kaunas": Stonys; Radžius, Bagužis, Kančelskis, Kunevičius; Papečkys, Kvaratskhelia, Strachanovič, Pehlič; V.Hleb, Beniušis.
In the 23rd minute, after a pass from Vyacheslav Hleb, the first goal was scored by defender Edinas Pehlicius. Kaunas had another chance to score a goal later on, but V.Hleb's shot hit the post.
At the end of the first half, the "Sioni" players managed to equalize the score. The goal was scored by the Georgians with a header after a corner kick.
Nevertheless, at the very end of the match, the Lithuanian champions managed to score the winning goal - Belarusian V.Hleb, who is participating in the "Kaunas" trial.
As Romualdas Kontrimas, the director of "Kaunas," officially told the website of the "A League," the Lithuanian club also had a numerical advantage, as one of the opponents' players was sent off the field.
In the next match of group D, Belgrade's "OFK" (Serbia) defeated Ashgabat's "MTTU" (Turkmenistan) team 2-0, while in group B, Tallinn's "Levadia" (Estonia) crushed Naryn's "Dordoi-Dinamo" (Kyrgyzstan) 4-0. In a high-scoring match, "Baku" (Azerbaijan) lost 3-4 to Tiraspol's "Sheriff" (Moldova) team.
The leader of group A became Borisov's "BATE" (Belarus), who beat Tursunzade's "Regar-Tadaz" (Tajikistan) 2-0 and surpassed "Aktobe" (Kazakhstan) with a 1-1 tie against the junior team of Moscow's "CSKA". Group C saw the Latvian champions "Ventspils" at the top, who also won with a two-goal margin against Tashkent's "Pakhtakor" (Uzbekistan) and lead the group due to a 2-2 draw in the match between Donetsk's "Shakhtar" (Ukraine) junior team and Yerevan's "Banants" (Armenia).
"Kaunas" will face "OFK" on Sunday for the first place in the group, and on Tuesday the Lithuanian team will play against the "MTTU" club. In the quarterfinals on Wednesday, the two strongest teams from group D will face the teams from group C.
