Chasing the bulls: Zenit does not let the leading Krasnodar go far
Thanks to a strong-willed home victory over Dynamo Moscow (2:1), Zenit St. Petersburg fully joined the race for gold in the Russian Football Championship. He is only three points behind Krasnodar, which won in the last 13th round against Rubin Kazan (1-0) and became the sole leader of the tournament after the misfire of Moscow Lokomotiv in an away meeting with Tolyatti Akron (1-1). CSKA Moscow also continues to fight for the first place, having minimally defeated Samara Krylia Sovetov (1-0). Read more about the results of the 13th RPL round in the Izvestia article.
Zenit – Dynamo
Dynamo was unable to use several leading players at once in this match. The captain of the team, Daniil Fomin, was disqualified due to too many yellow cards. Injuries prevented the main goalkeeper Andrei Lunev from playing, as well as midfielders Anton Miranchuk and Bakhtiyor Zainutdinov. Midfielder Denis Makarov has been in the infirmary since September.
Konstantin Tyukavin was entrusted with the captain's armband in Fomin's absence. 19-year-old Kurban Rasulov played in the goal in the championship for the second match in a row. Dynamo tried to play as strictly as possible from behind. Due to the tight defense, the blue and white team did not allow Zenit to create anything at their gates for a long time.
And in almost the first moment at someone else's goal, the guests were able to open the scoring — Bitello scored from Danil Glebov's pass. But before the break, Sergei Semak's team was able to equalize — after Maxim Glushenkov's shot, Andrei Mostovoy turned the ball into Dynamo's goal with his heel. At that moment, few people knew about the incident with the author of the goal, which happened three days before the match.
On the night of October 23, an attempt was made to kidnap Mostovoy in St. Petersburg — a group of unknown people tried to push him into a car, but with the help of their friend, a former hockey player of the Atlanta youth team (Mytishchi) Alexander Grakun, a 27-year-old football player, was able to fight back. Judging by his game with Dynamo and his behavior while talking to reporters after the match (at that time, the story of the failed abduction had not yet surfaced in the media), this event did not really unsettle the player.
And Zenit began to actively pressure the opponent in the second half. As a result, Gustavo Mantuan put the hosts ahead in the 71st minute. There could have been more goals against Dynamo, but Rasulov saved the team of Valery Karpin several times. In the end, he was powerless when he faced Luciano Gonda, who was going one-on-one, who managed to pass to Pedro, who sent the ball into an empty net.
But the referee fixed the Brazilian's offside and did not count the goal, and also showed Rasulov a red card for the joint with the Argentine, but after watching the video replay for a long time, he canceled the removal of the young goalkeeper, replacing the punishment with a yellow card. Zenit remains in fourth place, but is only three points behind the first. Dynamo is already 13 points from the leader and is stuck in the middle of the table on the eighth line.
"The most important thing is the victory of our team, it's great that we were able to achieve it by turning over the game that we were losing," Zenit midfielder Alexander Erokhin told Izvestia. — I think we played a good match both in terms of the quality of football and dedication. And they deserved to win. But we are not relaxing — we continue to pursue the teams that are currently higher than us in the table.
Akron – Locomotive
After two bright wins in the Moscow derby over Dynamo (5:3) and CSKA (3:0), Lokomotiv again had to play with an opponent from the bottom of the table. With such teams, the Railwaymen have a hard time playing matches in the current championship. Because of this, in August and September, Mikhail Galaktionov's team played five draws in a row, missing the opportunity to build a gap from the competition.
A similar situation happened with Akron. However, this time Loko was quite successful in opening up the opponent's defenses. The problem was not the attacking game per se, but the poor execution of the moments. Togliatti defended for most of the meeting, but even in the first half the guests had several opportunities to open the scoring. But as a result, we missed it ourselves closer to the break. Gilson Benshimol Tavares scored the goal.
In the second half, Loko again had the advantage. Akron, in turn, lost its leader Artyom Dzyuba due to injury after the first hour of the game. In the 67th minute, Cesar Montes equalized after a corner kick from Alexei Batrakov. And a little later, the same Batrakov gave a pass to Nikolai Komlichenko, who was right in front of the opponent's goalkeeper, but the guest's striker shot just past the goal.
The final draw resulted in Loko being two points behind Krasnodar. Akron remained in 12th place and is one point ahead of the transition zone.
"Lokomotiv has a problem playing with teams from the middle and bottom of the table again," Nikolai Naumov, former president of the Railwaymen, said in a conversation with Izvestia. — Moreover, this time the team looked good in terms of the quality of the game. If the point losses with Baltika (1:1), Rostov (3:3), Krylia Sovetov (1:1), Akhmat (1:1) and Dynamo Makhachkala (1:1) were caused by the fact that Mikhail Galaktionov's team had little She showed offensively against opponents who defend with great strength or put great pressure, but with Akron, Loko completely outplayed the opponent and found ways to create good chances ahead. But the implementation failed. And that's the problem — with such losses of points, they don't become champions.
Krasnodar – Rubin
The Southern club took advantage of the personnel problems of Kazan, who lost several leading players. Krasnodar opened the scoring quickly enough — Viktor Saa scored in the 13th minute. However, in the future, the bulls slowed down and almost did not attack.
And in the second half, Rubin had the advantage. All of this almost ended badly for the reigning champion in the 82nd minute when Darkhan Shabanhajay hit the crossbar with a free kick. But Krasnodar was lucky to bring the game to victory and regain its leadership in the championship. Rubin is stuck in seventh place in the middle of the table. The gap from the first is already 11 points.
CSKA Moscow – Krylia Sovetov
Once again, as in the lost Loko derby, CSKA could not count on their legendary goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev. But his replacement Vladislav Torop made several saves in the match with Krylia, rehabilitating himself for a curious goal conceded by Lokomotiv striker Dmitry Vorobyov after a direct shot from an acute angle from the corner flag.
Having played without conceding goals, the young goalkeeper made a significant contribution to the success of the army team, who did not play well in attack. But in one of the rare moments, Matvey Lukin managed to hit the Wings' goal in the 71st minute. That was enough to win. The Army team is third and two points behind Krasnodar. Samaritans are still 11th with a two-point margin from the transition zone. The Volga team scored only one point in the last five rounds — one draw and four defeats. But due to the successful start in the championship, Magomed Adiev's team still has a head start in the fight for survival.
Four more matches also took place in the last round. Spartak Moscow scored a minimal victory at home over Orenburg (1-0). Rostov played a 1-1 draw with Dynamo Makhachkala. "Pari Nizhny Novgorod" broke a series of four defeats in a row at home, achieving a draw with Kaliningrad "Baltika" (0:0). And the tour ended on Monday evening with an unexpected home defeat of Akhmat Grozny from Sochi, which was last (2:4).
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
