In the end, it was a fair result. And there was plenty of entertainment for the weekend crowd at the Corporation Stadium on Sunday night, as Rapid Bucharest from Romania drew with Ukraine’s Volyn Lutsk 1-1 in a Group-A match of the Sait Nagjee trophy international football tournament.
Both the sides played quality football, but were also guilty of being somewhat rough; the match saw as many as six yellow cards, with Rapid collecting four of them.
There were, in fact, two scuffles on the field, in either half, with players shoving each other a bit.
Fortunately, those incidents did not escalate, and the match went on to feature quite a few beautiful moves, from both the sides.
But, it was the Ukrainians who showed more keenness to go forward. There was a considerable period of time in the opening half, when all their players, except for the goalkeeper, of course, were in the Rapid half.
That was after the Romanians had taken the lead in the 12th minute, with George Tudoran providing the finishing touch from inside the box to a neat pass from the left by Madalin Martin.
Stung by the goal, the Ukrainians attacked relentlessly; it seemed only a matter of time before they equalised.
In the 58th minute, Redvan Memeshev, who was also the Man of the Match, made it 1-1.
It was a lovely goal too, as skipper Sergiy Kravchenko sent in an excellent cross from half-way down the rival half, and Memeshev came up with the perfect header.
The goal livened up the game even more as the Romanians also began to press forward more.
There was a flurry of opportunities for both sides till the end. But, neither could covert.
The result: Rapid Bucharest 1 (George Tudoran 12) drew with Volyn Lutsk 1 (Redvan Memeshev 58).
Rovers takes on Dnipro
Monday’s match will feature Shamrock Rovers from Ireland and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk of Ukraine, the two remaining clubs in the eight-team tournament.
While the Rovers have come here with their first team, it is a second XI that the Ukrainian club will field.
“But our team will also have a few players who are part of our main squad,” said Dnipro coach Dmitry Mikhailenkov. “We have come here with a team that has several young players as well as experienced ones. We are very happy to play in this tournament, which is a good opportunity for our players.”
His Irish counterpart, Pat Fenlon, said he sees the event as the ideal practice for the new season back home in Ireland, which starts next month.
“This is a great opportunity for us as we can try out different players and combinations,” he said. “And we get to play some fine teams from around the world.”
“I was watching Germany’s TSV 1860 Munich last night and they looked really good; they are the best team we have so far in the competition.”
Mikhailenko agreed. “Yes, Munich played really well,” he said. “But, I feel our rival for Monday’s match, Rovers, will be top contender for the title.”
