The meeting between “Spartak” and “Zenith” in the 20th round of the Russian Championship was preceded by an equally interesting and important match for the whole spring stage of the tournament. Moscow “Locomotive” took in his field “Krasnodar”. Although before the starting whistle, the “railroad” took only fifth place in the standings, they were only three points behind their closest rivals, so this game could seriously affect the overall standings.
The importance of the game was indirectly confirmed by the fact that Massimo Carrera decided to visit it. The Italian coach returned to Russia after being fired from Spartak to watch the match with Zenit. At the same time, the winner of the national championship draw before last decided to attend the game at the Russian Railways Arena.
Krasnodar on paper was a favorite, but several factors were at once against Murad Musayev’s charges. First, quite recently they had an exhausting match, both physically and psychologically, with Valencia in the Europa League. Already on the third day after an insulting draw, which did not allow them to go to the quarterfinal of the tournament, Krasnodar had to be in Moscow and enter the field against fresh Lokomotiv players.
Secondly, Krasnodar unexpectedly encountered a complete lack of attackers in its lineup - Ari was injured and could not play against the former team, Ivan Ignatiev was sent in double due to the situation with the signing of a new contract, and There is still a substitute player, although its effectiveness does not raise questions. As a result, the tip of the attacks had to leave the nominal midfielder Viktor Klasson.
"Locomotive" is no cause for concern to their fans did not give. On the contrary, in the last game with the "Anji" fans finally pleased Fyodor Smolov. After the transition from Krasnodar, the Russian forward scores not as often as expected, but in the game with the Makhachkala team he scored both a goal and a transfer to Jefferson Farfan. He spent the match with the former team in the status of a player of the Russian national team - on the eve of this game, Smolov for the first time after the World Cup received a call from Stanislav Cherchesov.
The meeting began not very pleasant for the hosts - already in the tenth minute defender Benedict Höwedes was knocked down after a collision with Sergei Petrov. The German football player was brought to life for more than a minute, and he still continued the game, but only until the end of the first period.
“Krasnodar” took advantage of this circumstance and for several minutes nonstop held the ball, but squeezed out of it only one tight blow of Klasson.
The “railroad workers” responded with a series of points in the participation of Anton Miranchuk, but all of them ended in vain for his team. Midfielder struck a free-kick into the wall, then unaddressed shot along the front gate, and then organized a counterattack for Farfan. The Peruvian had a great run up and shot into the near corner, but goalkeeper Matvey Safonov, who was part of Krasnodar, parried the blow. The young goalkeeper coped with a blow from Alexei Miranchuk with his head, after which the teams went on a break.
In the second half, Höwedes replaced Brian Idova. Lokomotiv head coach Yury Semin did not have to worry too much for the defender to enter the game as soon as possible, because the main events continued to unfold at the opposite goal. Safonov increasingly insistently claimed the title of a match player, repeatedly saving Krasnodar from the missed ball. Moreover, in one of the episodes, Charles Cabore unsuccessfully put his foot in, and the goalkeeper had to knock the ball to the corner.
For the opornika from Burkina Faso, the meeting with Lokomotiv turned out to be a failure. After a double replacement of Krasnodar in the 58th minute, when it was time for the guests to break the course of the meeting, Kabore received the fourth yellow card for the season, which led to disqualification for the next game from Anji. But the midfielder did not finish this match either - almost immediately he earned a second warning after Grzegorz Kryhovyak hit him with a ball in his hand.
Kabore was removed, and Lokomotiv was awarded a penalty. Anton Miranchuk powerfully struck from the 11-meter mark, and although Safonov guessed the direction of the strike, the goalkeeper could not stop the ball. Immediately Musaev released Suleimanov in the hope of saving the game, to the end of which there were about 20 minutes left. However, the striker managed only one time to give a corner and almost did not touch the ball more.
Toward the close of the meeting, Dmitriy Stotsky missed a good chance to reduce the game - Marinato Guilherme rushed to his feet in time and grabbed the ball. “Lokomotiv” won and caught up with “Krasnodar” on points, ahead of Musayev's wards in additional indicators. Before the break, the “railroad” teams rose to third place in the standings.