In another round of the Optibet futbola Virslīga we played draw (1:1) against FK Metta on away game in Riga.
For the first time this season, two core players of our team were unable to play – because of disqualification, this game had to be skipped by Djibril Gueye, while Daisuke Yokota was injured.
For those reasons, this was the season’s first game in the starting 11 for Eriks Punculs.
From the first few minutes of the game, Valmiera started to organize the attacks one after another, and it was not long enough to wait until the first goal – in the 12th minute Valmiera’s midfielder Luka Silagadze scored an excellent goal with a long shot just outside the penalty area – 1:0. This was Luka’s first goal this season, which he added to his five assists.
Tamaza Pertia’s men did not slow down – can’t blame them on chances they created, there were 21 shots on goal in a total of the game, but, unfortunately, no more goals were converted in the following minutes after Luka’s goal.
Valmiera’s constant failing to score led to Metta’s late goal in the 86th minute of the game scored from the penalty kick – Rihards Matrevics guessed the right way, but couldn’t reach the well-struck ball from 11 meters – 1: 1.
In the remaining minutes of the game, Valmiera players were short on luck on scoring a winning goal, the game ended with a draw, which was the team’s second this season.
Following the loss of our next opponents Riga FC (0:3) against the RFS team in the same round, we moved to 1st place in the tournament table.
Will we save this place, share it, or lose it will decide the home game this Friday (30.04, 18:00, VOC) against three-time Latvian champions Riga FC.