"At the moment, Akinfeev is the best goalkeeper in Russia"

On Monday, the match between Sochi and Dynamo Makhachkala will end the 17th round of the Russian Football Championship. It is the penultimate one before the winter break in the tournament — the teams will have to play 12 more rounds in the spring. The match between Sochi and Dynamo Makhachkala will be important in terms of the fight for the right to remain in the RPL. Sochi residents are in the last, 16th place, in the direct relegation zone. But in case of a victory over Makhachkala, they will reduce to one point the gap from 14th place, which gives them a chance to stay in the Premier League through transitional matches. The Dagestan club is in 13th place in the zone of transitional matches. He broke away by three points from the direct relegation zone (15th place) and is three points behind the 12th line, which gives the right to remain in the RPL without joints.

Last season, Dynamo finished 12th in the RPL, making its debut in its history, with the smallest budget in the league. And this season the club is already playing well in the Russian Cup. Khasanbi Bijiyev's team got out of the group in the RPL playoffs, and last week they almost knocked out CSKA Moscow. Having won at home against the Army in the first quarterfinal match (1-0), the Makhachkala team led minimally for a long time in the return leg, but in the end the opponent bounced back, scoring the second goal at the end of the meeting and converting it into a penalty shootout, where the red and blue turned out to be more accurate (5:4). Dynamo goalkeeper David Volk, who played this match, in an interview with Izvestia, told what it was like to face the legendary goalkeeper of CSKA and the national team Igor Akinfeev on the field, assessed the chances of his team avoiding relegation from the RPL and explained the nuances of the curious penalty performed by Matvey Kislyak.

— In the recent cup match with CSKA, you had a correspondence competition with Igor Akinfeev, who almost never lost a penalty shootout. How does it feel to go into the post-match series with this knowledge?

— Actually, I was very happy when I found out in the locker room before the game that CSKA would have Igor Vladimirovich in goal. It's great to play against him directly. He played a very good game, both in regular time and in the penalty shootout. He did what needed to be done, what he was good at. Personally, I am pleased to share these moments with him, a legend of Russian football. I think that at the moment he is the best goalkeeper in Russia — it's just nice to be around at this moment. Regarding the difficulties of playing against him, the pressure, and so on, you need to ask those who hit Akinfeev's goal and are directly in front of him. I just feel a warm feeling, a feeling of a smile, when I see him next to me.

— You lost a penalty shootout without hitting a single shot from CSKA, although in one case you almost beat Matvey Kislyak, but the ball inexplicably bounced into the goal. Doesn't it feel like it's Akinfeev's "aura" that leads his team to such a farce?

— I do not know (smiles). But if that's what happened, then anything can happen. So that's what was supposed to happen in this match. I'm not worried about that at all. The penalty shootout is more like a lottery. Sometimes you're lucky, sometimes you're not. I think we should have won in regular time. Or at least play in a draw, which suited us in the second leg, and calmly rejoice now.

— Why was it not possible to maintain the overall advantage of two goals in these matches? Dynamo Makhachkala usually defends well if it scores first.

— It is clear that there were chances at our goal, there was pressure. After all, CSKA is a great team. We dealt with it for most of the match. But in those moments where it was necessary to play more reliably, where it was impossible to make mistakes, we made mistakes. This is football— a game of mistakes. We made a mistake today, and tomorrow the opponent will make a mistake.

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— Why did this already beaten penalty kick end up with the ball rolling towards the far post after bouncing off you and ricocheting into the goal?

— Kislyak just shot worse than I jumped (smiles). As a result, I jumped over the place where the ball was flying. And therefore, the strike that initially seemed unsuccessful turned out to be gorgeous. The ball hit me not in the palm of my hand, but in the elbows. And that's why I turned inside the gate.

— Now, after leaving the RPL Path, you will have to play in the Russian Cup Regions Path against Rostov in early spring. How far is Dynamo Makhachkala ready to go in this draw?

— I don't know, we'll watch. There are chances. As they were on the Way to the RPL against CSKA. Maybe the chances will be a little better on the Way to the regions.

— How would you rate Dynamo's current league standings? Nikita Glushkov said in a recent conversation with Izvestia that your team will remain in the RPL without transitional matches. Do you share this opinion?

— Somehow I don't even think about these things. If you are personally responsible for yourself, then it seems to me that we have no other options than to finish the championship outside the relegation zone and outside the junction zone. We definitely can, or rather, we should do it. There's nothing complicated about it. We just need to analyze our game this year and try to correct all the mistakes that we make in order to get better.

— Before the winter break, you have two matches left with direct competitors in the fight for survival in the RPL — Sochi and Pari Nizhny Novgorod. Can these games be called decisive for Dynamo Makhachkala?

— I don't know what they define there, but, of course, these are very important games, like everything in the championship. It is wrong to divide games into important and unimportant ones. To be honest, I never open the standings. And I don't know who's in what position, who's the candidate for departure, the joints, and so on. Sometimes I just look at who's fighting for the championship.

— Does the departure of three leading players from last season — Egash Kasintura and Abakar Gadzhiev to Akhmat and Valentin Paltsev to Krasnodar - affect the results?

— In my opinion, this has no effect. It doesn't matter at all.

— Last season, before the winter break, you were the main goalkeeper of Dynamo Makhachkala, you constantly went on the field and played until you were called up to the national team. Why are you losing the number one status to Timur Magomedov this year?

— I do not know. Somehow I can't answer you in a football way. I have no arguments.

— Is it more difficult to fight for survival in the RPL this season than in the past?

— Yes, we were warned about this. We understood this, and we try to draw conclusions from it. We become stronger as a result of such a struggle. We looked good last season, we stayed in the RPL, and we also got a little stronger. And now we are.