Thursday 26 April 2012

Estonian Cup quarter finals: No shocks here

Flora 3-0 Viljandi

Flora progressed comfortably into the semi-finals of the 2011-12 Estonian Cup with a 3-0 win over Viljandi at the A.Le Coq Arena on Tuesday night. They had to wait until the 65th minute for the first goal from Valeri Minkenen who fired home from the edge of the box. Nikolai Mašitšev and Zakaria Beglarišvili added further goals to make the last few minutes panic free for Flora.

Trans 2-1 Tammeka

Following their dreadful start to the season, Trans secured a much needed win over Tammeka in a very wet Narva. Sergei Kazakov put Trans ahead early on after collecting a ball cleared from a corner and steering a left footed shot home. In an open first half, Tammeka were level just before half time when Trans defender Emmanuel Mbia Ekobena sliced a Rauno Tutk cross into his own net. Tammeka's Martin Hurt was sent off for picking up two yellow cards in quick succession around the hour mark, and Trans made their numerical advantage count when Sergei Leontovitš volleyed home from close range to make it 2-1.

In the remaining matches, Paide saw off Pärnu 4-0 and Levadia beat Flora II 2-0 with goals from Janar Toomet and Rimo Hunt. That win for Levadia sees them into the qualifying round of the 2012-13 Europa League as Trans and Flora have already qualified for Europe due to their league positions and Paide do not have a licence to play in European competition. The semi-finals are:

Tuesday 8th May
Paide v Trans (at Paide linnastaadion)
Levadia v Flora (at Maarjamäe)

The Estonian Cup is also known as the Evald Tipner Cup, after the legendary Estonian goalkeeper/striker (and all round athlete). The EJL has put together this nice little video in Tipner's honour and there is also a good article on Soccernet.ee:

Evald Tipner: Estonian legend

No comments:

Post a Comment