Kornilenko clinches Belarussian win

FC Dinaburg 0-1 Belarus
Belarus continued their preparations for this summer's UEFA European Under-21 Championship with a friendly victory against Latvian side FC Dinaburg in Daugavpils today.

Kornilenko converts
FC Dynamo Kyiv forward Sergei Kornilenko scored the only goal of the game for a below-strength Belarussian side missing Aleksandr and Vyacheslav Gleb as well as Timofei Kalachev. All three will play for the senior side in a friendly against FC Lokomotiv Moskva on Wednesday.

Four injuries
Belarus U21 coach Yury Puntus was also deprived of Maksim Tsygalko, Viktor Sokol, Pavel Kirilchik and Pavel Beganskiy through injury. His side have been drawn with Italy, Croatia and Serbia and Montengro in Group A at the finals tournament in Germany.

Attacking football
Belarus took initiative from the first minute of the match but both teams had chances to score. The winning goal arrived three minutes after half-time, with Aleksej Suchkov's corner played back across goal by Valery Tarasenko and Kornilenko on hand to head in from close range.

Happy Puntus
Puntus was pleased with his side's display, saying: "We couldn't name a full-strength squad for a number of reasons. Nevertheless, some players gained another opportunity to try to win a place in the starting lineup. Now I know there is competition for places in the team and we have a couple of good players in each position. If we lose someone in the final tournament there will be a capable replacement. I want to gather all the strongest footballers on 28 April when we play Switzerland in Borisovo."