Phoenix Edge Past Luunja in Late Surge
Luunja and Jõhvi Phoenix met in the Esiliiga B regular season on 23rd August, and the visitors took all three points with a 3-2 win. The match opened quietly enough, with Karis giving the hosts a 12th-minute lead before Minajev equalised before the break. To be fair, neither side looked like they'd break through until the second half when the tempo shifted.
Silov restored Luunja's advantage in the 79th minute, but by then Phoenix had already begun to turn things. Minajev struck again just two minutes later, and then completed his hat-trick in the 88th minute. And here's the thing — three goals in eleven minutes is not how you want to lose a game.
Luunja sit fourth in the table with 44 points from 26 games, having won 13 and drawn five. They'd come into this fixture on a mixed run, including a 1-2 defeat to Tartu Kalev on 20th August and a 2-2 draw with Pärnu JK Vaprus U21. The sort of consistency they needed was exactly what they couldn't find.
Phoenix, meanwhile, were coming off a 2-2 draw against Tabasalu and a 1-3 loss to Tallinna Kalev II. Minajev's brace before the end and then his third goal late on changed everything. He took apart a defence that had been holding firm for the better part of the match.
The result means Phoenix moved ahead in the standings while Luunja's position slipped. Fourteen points separate the fourth-place hosts from the leaders, and this defeat adds pressure at the wrong time. By then, the match had already shaped itself around those final minutes.