Gazprom Transgaz Ufa employees play football with Match TV sportscasters

On September 5, a football match celebrating the 65th anniversary of Gazprom Transgaz Ufa took place at the Neftyanik stadium in Ufa. The company’s team squared off against sportscasters from the Match TV channel.

An entire constellation of sports pundits from one of Russia’s most popular TV channels gathered together in Ufa. Two dozens of experts well versed in Russian and world sports, including Denis Kazansky, Nobel Arustamyan, Roman Skvortsov, Konstantin Genich, and Roman Trushechkin, proved their mettle both in theory and in practice. Shamil Sharipov, Director General of Gazprom Transgaz Ufa, set a cheerful mood before the match.

“I am pleased to welcome everyone to our professional and sporting holiday,” said Shamil Sharipov. “The performance of our national team at the World Cup is still fresh in our memories. The guys were successful because the whole country became a team. Likewise, all our colleagues present at this stadium and working across the region are a team as well, and we will be able to tackle all the challenges that face us.”

The visiting team opened the scoring with a penalty goal by Match TV’s Roman Naguchev. As early as in the first half, the gas workers responded by scoring two goals. The scorers were Dmitry Ponomarev, Deputy Director General of Gazprom Transgaz Ufa, and Ivan Epifanov, the company’s CNG filling station operator. By the middle of the second 30-minute period, the score was already even at 3:3. After a goal by Vitaly Ivanov, senior coach of the company, Konstantin Genich and Mikhail Mossakovsky from Match TV fired back with two goals. A pivotal moment occurred in the middle of the second half, when the entire team of Gazprom Transgaz Ufa was replaced by 14-year-old students from the junior school of the Vityaz-GTU football club. The youngsters managed to wear down the big-name guests by shooting the winning goal just two and a half minutes before the end of the match and bringing the score to 4:3. The TV broadcasters failed to even the score despite their willingness to do so. The sports show ended with a series of post-match penalties, in which the host team also got the upper hand with a score of 8:7.

It was not only the football game that the fans were greatly enjoying on that day. An hour and a half before the match, the gas workers arranged a veritable sports celebration at the Neftyanik stadium for all those who attended the event. Invitations had been extended to the company’s employees, many of which brought their family members with them.