Europa League: Vidi went down 0-2 to Belarusian side BATE

Europa League Group Stage begins with a defeat, MOL Vidi FC went down 0-2 to Belarusian side BATE on Thursday evening.

Vidi FC 0-2 (0-1) FC BATE Borisov

Vidi FC: Tujvel — Stopira, Vinícius, Juhász, Fiola (Hodzic 64) — Hadzic, Nikolov (Berecz Zsombor 78), Nego — Milanov (Hangya Szilveszter 76), Scsepovics — KovácsTuominen 27, Filipenko 85
FC BATE Borisov: Scherbitski — Filipovic, Yablonski, Dragun, Ivanic (Gordeichuk 66), Milunovic, Filipenko, Stasevich (Volodko 87), Tuominen (Skavysh 61), Baga, Polyakov

Location: Budapest, Groupama Aréna – Attendance: 14,726

Referees: Mads-Kristoffer Kristoffersen, Dennis W. Rasmussen, Victor Skytte, Niels Hoeg, Jørgen Burchardt, Morten Krogh

Vidi kicked off their second ever Europa League group stage at 18:55 pm yesterday. The setting for the Group L game was the Groupama Arena in Budapest with the opponents being BATE Borisov of Belarus.

BATE had traveled to Hungary without 37-year-old Aleksandr Hleb and international Nikolai Signevich. The duo remained behind due to injury. Vidi was missing keeper Ádám Kovácsik who had suffered an injury in the weekend league game and suspended Szabolcs Huszti. They also had to do without Danko Lazovic and Krisztián Géresi.

Marko Nikolic included new signing Georgi Milanov in his starting eleven. Fiola, Nikolov, and Tujvel also started the game following the weekend loss to Puskas Academy. BATE had Dmitri Baga and Nemanja Milunovic in their team and the pair had appeared in the 2015 Vidi-BATE game. Vidi also had Vinicius, Juhász, and Kovács in their team.

Match referee was Danish official Maks-Kristoffer Kristoffersen and he had featured twice in games involving Hungarian sides. The Skonto-DVSC (2-2) game in 2015 and the Vidi-Cukaricki match, which ended in a 2-0 victory.

There was a good crowd inside the Groupama with Marko Scepovic taking the kick off. It was Vidi that had the first chance of the game and it came after 5 minutes. Nego started the move, which ended in a shot from 22 meters by Kovács, which went wide. The first booking came after 13 minutes when Polyakov and Stopira ran for the ball by the side of the BATE box, but the referee pulled out the yellow and showed it at the Vidi full back. The home side won a couple of corners as the minutes went by but there was no sign of a breakthrough.

The match was fairly balanced and it was Ivanic who ran into a tight angle on 25 minutes, but Tujvel comfortably dealt with the effort. The keeper turned 35 years old a day earlier. BATE took the lead after 27 minutes. Finnish player Tuominen ran through and shot from a tight angle and the ball nestled in the bottom left corner (0-1).