Dinamo reach semi-finals

League champions FC BATE Borisov bowed out of the Belarussian Cup quarter-finals after a 1-0 defeat against FC Dinamo Minsk.

Great free-kick
Dinamo boosted their chance of winning a place in next season's UEFA Cup as Bulgarian Petar Zlatinov scored a 25-metre free-kick after 53 minutes to stun their hosts. BATE later hit the crossbar through Oleg Strakhanovich and the same player had a shot cleared off the line late in the game but, with Dinamo's Maksim Tsygalko also missing two good chances, the result was just about fair.

Plum tie
The winners will now take on holders FC Gomel who secured a 2-1 win at second division FC Lokomotiv-96 Vitebsk. Yuri Sulimenko and Anton Ivanov scored late goals either side of Aleksandr Praslov's equaliser to give Gomel victory.

Other semi-final
The other semi-final will see FC Lokomotiv Minsk take on FC Belshina Bobruisk after Lokomotiv secured a 3-2 extra-time win against FC Dnepr-Transmash Mogilev while Belshina won 2-1 against FC Neman Grodno.

Golden goal
Andrei Lukashevich and Dmitri Rogovik had scored to give Lokomotiv the lead in the first of those two games only for Dmitri Kalachev and Aleksandr Pishur to level the game with four minutes remaining. Nikolai Shvydakov scored the 'golden goal' for Lokomotiv in the 105th minute.

Fond memories
Having won the tournament in 1997, 1999 and 2001, Belshina took a step toward making 2003 a special year with a 2-1 win against Neman. Ruslan Danilyuk gave Belshina a 16th-minute lead only for Neman to respond through Yuri Mamido two mintes later. However, Neman had no answer to the second Belshina, goal scored by Aleksei Deniseni in the 47th minute.