Estonia round-up: Levadia lose in front of record crowd

Pancheri pressure
Levadia's Italian head coach Franco Pancheri is now under severe pressure with his side a full ten points behind second-placed TVMK Tallinn. Flora still lead the table by two points from TVMK. The game was also used by Levadia as an anti-drugs charity event for the third consecutive year, under the patronage of ice hockey legend Vladislav Tretyak. The three-time Olympic champion and ten-time world champion was present at Kadriorg and was greeted enthusiastically by a record Estonian Meistriliiga crowd of 4,500 at the Kadriorg Stadium.

Hamre strikes twice
As for the game, Tor Henning Hamre opened the scoring for Flora after just eight minutes, when he tapped in a rebound off goalkeeper Artur Kotenko, who saved the initial shot from Joel Lindpere. The Norwegian forward was on target again ten minutes later from the penalty spot after Vjatšeslav Zahovaiko was brought down in the area. Maksim Rõtškov pulled a goal back for Levadia with a superb free-kick from 25 metres and in the second half Levadia put Flora under massive pressure, but Flora's clever and disciplined defence held on.

TVMK struggle
Flora’s closest rivals TVMK had to struggle for three points away to JK Trans Narva, who were the better side in the first half, but went on to lose the game 2-1. "The cup win and good games in the league have obviously caused a lack of motivation," said TVMK head coach Sergei Ratnikov. "I had to have a serious talk during the break with the players." TVMK took the lead after 12 minutes thanks to Maksim Smirnov's accurate strike.

Kurjanov's deflected winner
Two minutes later Russian striker Dmitri Lipartov pulled Trans level from the penalty spot. Right-back Jevgeni Kurjanov hit the winner in the 77th minute when a free-kick from 28 metres out deflected off Trans defenders and ended up in the back of the net.

Klavan off the mark
Elsewhere, JK Tulevik Viljandi secured a comfortable 4-0 win at FC Kuressaare. Seventeen-year-old Ragnar Klavan scored twice, his first goals in the top flight, while veteran midfield player Viktor Alonen and young winger Aleksandr Dubõkin scored the other goals for Tulevik.