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Nākotnes Līga 2025 (Latvian 2nd tier), Matchday 15. JFK Ventspils met Rēzeknes FA in the “Ventspils Olimpiskais Stadions”. The game has ended with the final score of 1-1 equalized in the extra time.

JFK Ventspils, as a phoenix club, was created on the basis of the former FK Ventspils youth academy – which team has won six Virslīga titles and seven Latvian Cups (Latvijas kauss), in addition to becoming the first Latvian club to participate in the group stages of a UEFA competition (UEFA Europa League, back in 2009).

Rēzeknes FA on the opposition side, a team from the state city of Rēzekne, was founded in 2011 and competing in the Latvian second level (Nākotnes Līga) since then. The club is most known for achieving the silver medal back in season 2014, and also for playing in the two-legged promotion play-off against FK Metta in that year.

JFK Ventspils, led by its Russian-Uzbek coach Igor Kichigin, started the game in 4-4-2 (double 6) formation, with Togolese-Beninese Pierre Hounlete and French-Moroccan Yasin Essennouni as defensive midfielders. Their main tactic at the start was to possess the ball confidently, and to build up the offense by short passes, without taking big risks. Through this building phase, they often slowed down the tempo to wait for the right opportunities to attack. This massive ball possession based game turned to be effective, as their rate was 78% in the 15th minute, and it was still convincing near to the final whistle (64% in the 88th minute). The team has finished the clash reduced to nine men.

Rēzeknes FA, led by the local born coach Guntars Silagailis (who was also player of the team), opted for a 4-2-3-1 formation. They were able to demonstrate high level of aggressiveness and resilience at the physical challenges. In the 54th minute, the team was reduced to ten men while they were one goal down, but the coach decision to operate with a 3-defender back line, hand in hand with the team’s / players’ adaptability and attitude definitely should be mentioned. The good and motivating goalkeeping performance of experienced Aleksejs Maslobojevs gave extra boost for the team, towards the game’s final actions.

The leading goal came up in the 22nd minute, when JFK Ventspils young striker (2009 born) Ņikita Solomonovs found the opposition net by his right-footed shot (1-0). In the extra time of the second half, when the home team played with nine men in the opposition of ten, Rēzeknes FA substitution player Patriks Pozņaks (who was sent to the pitch for the second forty five minutes) equalized the score, collecting one very valuable point for his team (1-1 / as you can see by the image below).

(Patriks Pozņaks of Rēzeknes FA, with his late equalizer)

With this 1-1 draw, JFK Ventspils slipped back to the 4th position, while Rēzeknes FA has strengthened its 10th place.

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