Three goals from Zenit and Dziuba at the head of the scorers race

In the opening match of the 19th round, Zenit defeated Dynamo at home and strengthened their leadership in the standings. Blue and white arrived in St. Petersburg, having an asset in a six-match unbeaten run, but had an extremely nondescript meeting with a lot of mistakes and missed three times in the first half.

Already at the sixth minute, the defenders of the guests were mistaken when performing an artificial position outside the game, and Serdar Azmun calmly sent a shot into the target range from close range.

At the 35th minute after the corner kick, the captain of the hosts Branislav Ivanovich managed to distinguish themselves. And the final score just before the break was established by Artyom Dziuba. Thanks to this goal, which became the 11th striker for the current RPL season, he broke into the leaders of the tournament scorers race.

The failed second half, “Loco” and double Lutsenko

Great news for Petersburgers came from Tula, where Lokomotiv sensationally missed four unanswered goals from Arsenal in a parallel match. At the end of autumn, the railway workers literally stayed with their last strength, and frankly showered in recent matches. Following a just defeat from Dynamo followed by defeat from the Gunners.

Moreover, in the first half, the wards of Yuri Semin had an advantage and created moments. One Eder missed out on a few lucrative odds. After the break, other people's gates could hit Alexei Miranchuk and Grzegorz Kryhovyak.

But luck did not accompany the guests that evening, which cannot be said about the hosts. In the second half, they realized both of the presented moments, and after the removal of Maciej Rybus they squeezed the opponent. The double managed to be noted by the experienced Evgeni Lutsenko, whose assets in the current season of the RPL are already seven goals.

18 minutes on VAR and Giner's anger

A draw in the central match of the round between Krasnodar and CSKA turned out to be in the hands of Zenit. Thanks to her, Petersburgers managed to increase the gap from second place immediately to ten points. The team of Murad Musaev remained in the role of the main pursuer.

Refereeing came to the fore in the last match at the Krasnodar stadium, or rather prolonged viewing of the replay by Vasily Kazartsev - the referee spent a total of 18 minutes to help the VAR.

But without a scandal, it still could not do. To begin with, Kazartsev decided for a long time whether to count Ivan Oblyakov’s beautiful ball, but in the end he pointed to the center. And in the second half, after much deliberation, the judge awarded a penalty for a rather controversial foul of the same Oblyakov on Ari. Igor Akinfeev took the naturalized Brazilian's shot from the “point”, but failed to finish it off.

In the end, already in the stoppage time, the referee was thinking about appointing a penalty kick for Krasnodar for a possible violation of the rules on Kirill Nababkin, but as a result he managed without a penalty.

After the final whistle, CSKA head coach Viktor Goncharenko spoke to Kazartsev in a raised voice, and club president Yevgeny Giner went even further and said that the head of the refereeing and inspection committee of the RFU “should be sent to prison”.

The fourth victory of Tambov with a new coach and Fedotov’s departure

In the lower half of the standings, Tambov won a fourth victory under the leadership of Sergei Pervushin and left the zone of transitional meetings. This time, the RPL newcomer in Saransk defeated Orenburg.

The first half ended without goals scored, but immediately after the break all possible problems fell on the guests. First Urosh Radakovich cut the ball into his own goal, and then Georgy Zotov received a second yellow card for a dangerous tackle.

Even in the minority, the wards of Vladimir Fedotov had a chance to escape, but in the end they allowed the opponent to bring the score to a major one. Well, the coach himself left the team after the match. Club President Vladimir Kiyaev said that the contract with the specialist was terminated by mutual agreement of the parties. And on Sunday, he officially headed Sochi.

Aliyev’s early goal and gift to injured Evseev

But “Akhmat” after the defeat from “Ufa” ends the calendar year just one point from the relegation zone. Wards of Vadim Evseev, on the contrary, won a second victory in a row and share sixth place with Arsenal. Thus, the team managed to cheer up their head coach Vadim Evseev, who received serious damage during the week during training.

The only ball at the very beginning of the meeting was scored by Azer Aliyev. Subsequently, the players of “Akhmat” had some good moments to recoup, and even twice hit the opponent’s goal posts, but the score on the scoreboard has not changed.

Take Pogrebnyak and the removal of Kornilenko

The match in Samara between Wings of the Soviets and Ural turned out to be much more productive. The teams scored five goals for two, and the strong-willed victory was won by Yekaterinburg residents.

The hosts opened the account. Nikita Chernov, after filing a free kick, was quicker than anyone else in a free kick. But the "Urals" found their answer to this in the person of Pavel Pogrebnyak. 36-year-old striker only for the fourth time this season, the RPL entered the field from the first minutes and scored a double.

“Wings of the Soviets” managed to recoup pretty quickly, but in the 83rd minute, the guests again brought success to the drawing of the standard position. Othman El-Kabir from the free kick on the left flank spun the ball into the near corner, for which Sergei Ryzhikov was frankly not ready.

And in the end, the judge also showed a red card to Miodrag Bozhovich’s assistant Sergei Kornilenko for disputes on elevated tones.

Goal exchange and bad luck Sochi

The other two teams fighting for survival, Rubin and Sochi, failed to determine the winner. Southerners, who missed the match of the last round due to an infectious disease, went ahead at the very end of the first half thanks to the exact blow of Dushan Lagator.

However, at the beginning of the second half of the meeting, the Kazan team recouped. Eugene Markov fired a perfect shot into the far corner and scored the fourth goal in the current season of the RPL.

Both teams had moments in order to snatch victory, but closer to success were still the hosts, who once hit the post and the crossbar of the opponent’s goal.

Zainutdinov's double and penalty missed by Popov

In the final match of the year in the RPL “Spartak” at home unexpectedly large lost to “Rostov”. Valery Karpin beat his former team for the third time in his career. The Red and White had a frankly failed meeting, and Domenico Tedesco made some controversial personnel decisions, for example, sent Alex Krall to the center of defense.

As a result, Spartak conceded four goals, although it could have been more (Ivelin Popov did not realize a penalty at the end of the first half). Double was issued by Kazakhstan midfielder Baktiyor Zainutdinov.

In all fairness, the red-and-white team won more than one single goal, but that evening, the former goalkeeper of Spartak, Sergey Pesyakov, performed several impressive saves and finished the match despite all the damage.