Belarus keep feet on the ground

Belarus continued their perfect start to qualifying for the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship on Wednesday with a 2-1 victory against Latvia in Group 8.

Kryvets strikes
Having kicked off their campaign with a 1-0 win at home to Hungary and a 3-0 victory in San Marino, Belarus made it a hat-trick of successes by beating Latvia 2-1 in Borisov. That result looked unlikely, however, when home goalkeeper Pavel Tchesnovsky was sent off for a professional foul after only seven minutes, but Belarus showed their character and went on to win with goals in each half from Serguei Kryvets and Dmitry Komarovsky.

Serbia test
With difficult away games against Serbia and Hungary to come in the next two months, Belarus are not getting carried away with this initial success. But coach Yuri Kurnenin can be quietly confident of the form his young charges are showing. Most of his side play in Belarus, with just Aleksei Kuchuk, 20, and Leonid Kovel, 21, based abroad at FC Sheriff and FC Karpaty Lviv respectively. Both are established players and the Under-21s are benefiting from their experience as they have been playing at a senior level for a long time.

Afanasiev stars
FC MTZ-RIPO Minsk midfielder Mikhail Afanasiev captains the Under-21 side and the 20-year-old is the most experienced player in the squad. He leads in both goals scored and games played having hit nine in 26 matches at this level already. FC Dinamo Minsk midfielders Sergei Kislyak, Anton Putilo and Sergei Gigevich are also central to Belarus's success. The 20-year-old Putilo is the fastest and most skilful of the three and is a key creative player for both the Under-21 and Dinamo sides.

Platanov verve
FC Naftan Novopolotsk striker Dmitri Komarovski and FC BATE Borisov attacking midfielder Sergei Kryvets are also both dangerous going forward, as are the Platonov brothers, Pavel and Dmitri, who have both impressed in BATE's UEFA Champions League qualifying campaign. Coach Kurnenin may not be showing it yet, but as his side sit top of Group 8, there is real cause for optimism. "We have to win every match in order to reach play-offs," he said. "If we manage to do that, we can talk about the next goal."