Riga giants dominance and super shift Zelenkovs – Football – Sportacentrs.com

There are the giants of Riga, and then the others are far, far away
In the next big game, RFS defeated the closest follower “Liepaja” away with 3:0, and Kurzemnieki are already behind the Riga giants by 14 and 11 points – one game is still in reserve, but the advantage in the middle of the second round is already significant and, what’s worse, mutual in games, the difference in levels is just as visible. Although this was the most equal of “Liepāja’s” four matches against the giants, RFS scored three goals in less than eight minutes at the beginning of the second half. And it could not be said that it was not brewing – the warning bells sounded already at the end of the first half, when the Riga players made six shots in the last 5+3 minutes and accumulated 0.59xG (practically the same statistics as in the first half so far). It was hardly a coincidence that the RFS attack opened up after switching from a 3-5-2 back to the usual 4-2-3-1.

The owner of the third place “Liepāja” lost against “Riga” with 0:3 and 0:4, against RFS – with 0:2 and 0:3, accumulating a total balance of 0-0-4, goals 0:12. The following statistics are equally terrible, accumulating shots 26-74 (avg. 6.5-18.5), on target 5-36 (avg. 1.3-9.0), corners 13-34 (avg. 3.3- 8.5) and controlling the ball an average of 41% of the time. And the xG indicator shows that the catastrophic goal balance is even very relevant – 1.52-12.68, or an average of 0.38-3.17. Against “Riga” xG was 0.40-2.93 and 0.23-3.05, against RFS – 0.20-2.93 and 0.69-3.77. In the first three mutual duels, Liepāja team had only one shot on target, in this one – two. “Liepāja”‘s record against the leading duo is the worst in the Premier League, but the purpose of this paragraph was not to disparage Kurzeme – no other team has more than one point against these clubs either (only Jelgava have played four games: 0-0-4, goals 2:11) in other words, in the first third of the season, the giants of Riga were so superior to everyone else. The other giant “Riga” beat its sister club “Auda” 2-0 – already the sixth dry mutual victory in the Premier League, already the fourth 2-0 in a row, but also the first time a goal was scored already in the first half and accumulated its biggest xG of the season (“Riga” dominated with 5.75-0.28, the ball only 55%, but shots 29:6, on target 12:2, corner kicks 13:6).

Five goals per shift
RFS scored the winning goal in the 15th second of the second half after an excellent team attack on the left flank, in which Petr Mareš and Mikaze Nagasawa, as well as Andrej Ilić and Cedric Cuadio participated in the aggravating part, but after a pass from the Ivorian, Dmitriy Zelenkov added the point into an empty net, who three minutes later also achieved 2:0. Rēzeknietis entered the field already in the 35th minute, replacing the center back Mārci Oša and allowing for a reorganization, he scored a goal in the third game in a row and has already scored five goals in the season – all while coming on for a change. If in Daugavpils, Tukums and against “Jelgavu” he scored 4:0, 4:1 and 3:0, then in Liepāja he scored the most important goals and became the main character.

In his youth, he also played for Liepāja “Metalurga”, FS “Metta” and Italian “Empoli”, Zelenkovs with five goals is the fourth best goal scorer in the Premier League – behind teammate Andrej Ilič (9), Marko Reža (7) and Faust Steponaviča (6). , and he is the top scorer among the reserves. Liepaja’s Glebs Kliushkins is the second with three goals, coming from the bench, while “Riga” forwards Regž and Režinaldus Ramiris, Liepaja’s Dutchman Nino Nordanus have two goals each, and outside the top three, the only reserve player with several goals is “Auda” Liepaja’s Vladimirs Stepanov. The big trio also dominates in the total number of reserve goals – RFS is the leader with nine goals, followed by “Riga” and “Liepāja” with seven, while “Metta” and “Jelgavai” have three each, which were tied in this round by substitutes Bruno Melnis and Dāvis Valmiers . “Tukums 2000″https://sportacentrs.com/”Telms”, which did not make any (!) changes in this round, and Salaspils “Super Nova” are without reserve goals. Although the leader in the number of goals is RFS, according to the proportional number of reserve goals, even “Liepāja” is in the first place – seven out of twenty or 35%.

The champions continue to wait for the transfer window
If the advantage of the capital at the top of the table is obvious, then the other eight teams are still looking for answers on how to properly group them. The questions were not answered in this round either, in which three perfectly regular draws were recorded – 0:0 between Tukum and Valmieri (xG 1.05-1.12), 1:1 between “Daugavpili” and “Metta” (xG 1.87-1 ,46) and 2:2 between “Super Nova” and “Jelgavu” (xG 1.85-1.31). There were even very equal games in Tukum and Daugavpils – unfortunately for the champions, whose weakened squad continues to skid, the hosts even had the best chances when both Raivis Ķiršs and Arturs Krancmanis hit the post in one attack at the end of the first half. The game in Salaspils stands out from the overall picture, in which “Jelgava” managed both ball control (69%) and shots (22:12), but already in the middle of the first half they were in a chasing role with 0:2 and created only one goal-scoring opportunity in the whole game. what Inst assessed by more than 15% – xG Jelgavaniki, as mentioned above, lost by 0.54 goals.

The head coach of “Valmiera” Jurgis Kalns continues to remind that after the serious injuries of Djibril Gay, Renārs Varslavāns and Žeremī Porsāns-Klemantes, he has to play with the front line, which played in the 1st league last season. Waiting for the transfer period (it will start on June 15, i.e. after the second round), Valmierians did not win for the third time in the season against the teams of the current bottom trio – against Daugavpils 1:1, Tukuma 4:3 and 0:0, against Salaspili 0:1 and 3:1. The home game against Daugavpils is already on Monday – without the dismissed midfielder Fraž Kermanis and also without the head coach, who at the end received the third warning of the season and considers it a bad memory after the previous press conference in which he criticized Vasiliy Mordatenko, who was the fourth referee in Tukum. No other team has so many stumbles against the bottom trio, but in connection with both this fact and other aspects, we must remind the peculiarities of the calendar – the number of games played against the teams of certain groups can be very different (that’s why, for example, the sixth place of “Audas” or the fifth place of “Metta” can be very tricky at the moment).

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???? Watch it @RFSDaily goals scored in a win over @LiepajaFK!

⚽⚽ 46′ 49′ Zelenkov
⚽ 53′ Ilič#OptibetVirsliga pic.twitter.com/CR6OB6Fgah

— Optibet Virsliga (@FutbolaVirsliga) May 17, 2023

???? Watch the goals of SK Super Nova Salaspils and FS Jelgava!

⚽ 5′ Peilans (own)
⚽ 25′ Rakel
⚽ 38′ Patijchuk
⚽ 82′ Valmiers#OptibetVirsliga pic.twitter.com/3UB9LDzdyH

— Optibet Virsliga (@FutbolaVirsliga) May 18, 2023

???? Watch BFC Daugavpils and @FSMETTA goal!

⚽ 68’ Mukwelle (11m)
⚽ 85′ Black#OptibetVirsliga pic.twitter.com/OJEmP7GrF8

— Optibet Virsliga (@FutbolaVirsliga) May 18, 2023