FC Neman Grodno of Belarus scored two in the second half to beat Balzan 2-0 in the first leg of the UEFA Europa Conference League second qualifying round at the Gyirmóti Stadion in Győr, Hungary on Wednesday.
The match was played in a neutral venue since teams from Belarus are unable to host football matches due to the war in Ukraine and Neman Grodno opted to play their home matches in Hungary.
Following a goalless first half, Neman Grodno took the lead thanks to a goal by Pavel Savitski and five minutes from time, Sergei Karpovich doubled the score
The second leg will be played on Tuesday at the Centenary Stadium on Tuesday and the team which qualifies will face NK Celje of Slovenia and Vitória SC of Portugal in the third qualifying round.
NEMAN Konstantin Rudzenok, Yegor Parkhomenko, Roman Paparyha (77’ Andrei Vasilyev), Yurii Pantia, Oleg Evdokimov (73’ Maksim Yablonski), Yegor Zubovich (85’ Maksim Krautsou), Ivan Sadaunichy, Alimardon Sukurov, Segei Karpovich, Mikhail Kozlov (85’ Aleksei Legchilin), Pavel Savitski (77’ Andrei Yakimov).
BALZAN Danilo Golovic, Ivan Bozovic, Samir Arab, Paul Fenech (90’ Marcus Grima, Angel Torres, Peter Olawale (71’ Manyluak Aguek), Ryohei Michibuchi (59’ Triston Caruana), Nikola Zerjal (46’ Aleksa Andrejic), Jake Grech, Nikola Braunovic, Momcilo Raso.
Referee: Ivar Orri Kristjansson ISL
Assistant Referees: Birkir Sigurdarson, Andri Vigfusson ISL
Fourth Official Vilhjalmur Thorarinsson ISL