BATE side is packed with quality
Dundalk make their return to European football’s premier competition for the first time in 24 years when they take on BATE Borisov in Belarus on Wednesday night.
The assignment couldn’t be any tougher for Stephen Kenny and his side BATE have won nine consecutive Belarusian Premier League titles and have been in the group stages of the Champions League or Europa League five times in the past seven seasons.
Famous wins over Bayern Munich in 2012 — Bayern went on to win the Champions League that season — and Athletic Bilbao in 2014 are an indication of how dangerous an opponent they can be on their home patch.
Nine of the starting XI that beat Bilbao last October are still part of Aliaksandr Yermakovich’s squad. It is a group littered with internationals, 15 in all, and Lilywhites boss Stephen Kenny knows his side will have to raise their game if they are to pull off what would be considered in many quarters as a massive upset.
“They have a lot of pace in the team, they play quick one twos, they are very sharp and they are exciting to watch,” was Kenny’s description of the Belarusian champions.
In front of goalkeeper, Sergei Chernik, BATE have two Serbians who are vital cogs in their back four. Left back, Filip Mladenovic, “plays like a left winger”, according to Kenny, while Nemanja Milunovic, a towering centre back, signed from Serbian champions Mladost Lucani at the start of the season, has settled quickly and played in every game.
His central defensive partner is expected to be Denis Polyakov. The 24-year-old is a firm favourite with the BATE support and a survivor from the team that beat Bayern Munich. He also has 22 international caps for Belarus to his name.
BATE’s left side is an area that Kenny has earmarked for attention. Mladenovic is expected to be joined by Maksim Volodko on the left wing with Mikhail Gordeychuk also encouraged to work that area of the pitch.
“Gordeychuk is a little Wesley Hoolahan type who plays off the striker on the left side. He’s very inventive and is a very good player. They like to raid on that side,” remarked Kenny.
On the right, Kenny expects Igor Stasevich to pull the strings and deliver th
set pieces. Behind him, BATE are expected to play Maksim Zhaverchik although Latvian international Kaspars Dubra filled in at right back in Friday night’s 5–3 win over Slavia. Dimitri Baha and Evgeni Yablonski will sit in front of the back four.
If Dundalk are looking for good omens they might find it in Baha’s inclusion. The midfielder is a younger brother of assistant manager, Aliaksei, who just happened to be in the BATE team that was eliminated at the same stage of the competition by Bohemians in 2003. A Bohemians side managed by Stephen Kenny.
Kenny feels that BATE’s main threat comes in the shape of 31-year-old striker Vitali Rodinov. Nicknamed ‘The Professor’, Rodionovhas scored 84 goals in eight seasons for the club and has already hit seven league goals this season, two of those coming in the 5–3 win against Slavia.
“He has 40 caps for Belarus and 10 goals. He has a one in two ratio for BATE and scored the goals that got them into the Champions League last year so we will have to keep an eye on him,” added Kenny.
BATE have strengthened their squad with the signing of Nemanja Nikolic, a Montenegro international, in recent weeks. He made his debut for the club last Friday and it remains to be seen if he will be involved. But, whatever team BATE put out, Kenny feels Dundalk are more than capable of matching them.
“We have focussed on the systems that BATE will play and how we counteract it and what we will do in certain situations and we were also in DkIT to use their lecture rooms to do our video analysis. We watched BATE’s qualifying games against Debrecen and Skenderbeu from last season and some of their league games from this season.
“From our point of view, we won in Croatia last year. How do BATE compare to Hajduk Split? Well, they are the unknowns. We just have to look at counteracting and at ways to negate their strengths.”
A win for Dundalk would be a massive shot in the arm, not just for the club, but for the League of Ireland. UCD and Shamrock Rovers are still flying the flag but with St Patrick’s Athletic and Cork City limping out of the Europa League last week, the hope is that Dundalk can give a better account in the elite competition.
“We’ve worked so hard to be here. We’re representing our country and we are very proud to do that. We don’t take that fact lightly,” added Kenny.
