Viktoria Plzen 1-1 BATE Borisov: Renan Bressan earns Belarussian champions an opening day point

Renan Bressan's second half strike earned BATE Borisov a well deserved 1-1 draw against Czech champions Viktoria Plzen.

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In a wonderfully open game at the Eden Stadium the hosts struck first through Marek Bakos in the first half but they were unable to hold onto their lead and the Belarussian side grabbed an equaliser with twenty minutes remaining.

Plzen started in a sprightly fashion, with Marian Cisovsky having the first effort for the Czech side but he headed over from a corner in the fourth minute.

The hosts continued to dominate in the first quarter of an hour but they were unable to open the scoring and they were nearly made to pay by Filipp Rudik and former Chelsea striker Mateja Kezman. Both players had good chances midway through the first half, and Milan Petrzela and again Kezman missed further chances when perhaps they should have scored.

The remaining minutes of the first half played out as a surprisingly open affair and the hosts took one of their opportunities and took the lead. Petr Jiracek broke into the penalty area before playing a square pass across the box for Bakos to slide in and score with the last kick of the half.

The second half continued in the open nature that the first had finished with both sides creating chances, even if they didn't have the required quality to finish off those opportunities. Pavel Horvath for the hosts, and Kezman, once again, for their Belarussian visitors having the two best scoring chances in the opening exchanges.

BATE though, finally managed to convert one of their myriad of chances in the 70^th minute. A clever through-ball from Rudik found Bressan who calmly finished from ten yards out.

With the visitors finally back in the game it looked like they would press for the victory but neither side had any other clear-cut chances to win the game. However after such an open game a draw was the fairest result given they had contributed to such a fantastically open game.