Viktoria Plzen 1-1 BATE Borisov: Bressan strike earns Belarusian champions deserved point

A second-half goal from Renan Bressan gave BATE Borisov a share of the spoils in a high-octane 1-1 draw with Viktoria Plzen at the Eden Stadium on Tuesday.

Plzen started in a sprightly fashion with Marian Cisovsky heading over from a corner within four minutes. Pavel Vrba's side continued pressing the visitors for the next quarter of an hour but to no avail.

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Filip Rudik and Mateja Kezman then nearly made Plzen pay for their wastefulness, having good chances saved midway through the first half. BATE had a number of other good opportunities moments later with Milan Petrzela and again Kezman missing the target when perhaps they should have scored.

The remaining minutes of the first period played out as a surprisingly open affair with BATE having nine shots on goal to Plzen's seven.

The possession game seemed to pay off for Plzen right on the stroke of half-time. Petr Jiracek squared the ball across the box for Marek Bakos to slide in and score with the last kick of the half.

The game was as open in the first moments of the second half as it had been in the previous 45 minutes. Both sides created chances, even if they didn't have the required quality to finish off those opportunities.

BATE finally managed to convert one of their chances in the 70th minute. A clever through-ball from Rudik found Renan Bressan who calmly finished from 10 yards out.

The match petered out after that, with neither side having any other clear-cut opportunities to win the game. The draw however was a fair result with both sides contributing to an open game, and both can look forward to glamour match against Barcelona and AC Milan in the weeks to come.