Unassigned penalty, removal of Ponce and Larsson's goal: how Spartak in the minority snatched victory from CSKA in the Russian Cup

“Spartak” without the right to make mistakes and unchanged composition

It is unlikely that the fans of Spartak before the start of the season could imagine that their favorite team could lose their chances of getting into European competitions at the beginning of March.

However, it was in this situation that red-white appeared. Failure at the beginning of the season drove Muscovites into the second half of the Russian championship standings, and by 2020 the gap from the top five was 12 points. Thus, the capital club practically had no chance to break into European cups through the RPL.

Spartak had only hope for the Cup of Russia, all the more so the national team has not won the trophy since 2003. True, already in the quarter-finals of the tournament, the red-white team agreed with the principal rival of CSKA. CSKA, by contrast, practically secured a ticket to Europe, and therefore could be less motivated, if such judgments are generally applicable to the derby.

But the opponent started the year perfectly. In the first round of the country's championship after the winter break, the Tedesco team did not leave a chance to another Dynamo principal opponent - 2: 0. In turn, the army team only in the last minutes left the defeat in a home game with Ural.

And the red and white decided not to change the winning roster, releasing on the field the same players who got three points on Saturday. Thus, three people made their debut in the derby at once: Alex Kral, Esekiel Ponce and Alexander Sobolev. The forward leased from Krylia Sovetov in the second match in a row hit the starting roster.

But in the composition of CSKA there were several permutations at once. Firstly, the line of defense has changed a lot. In the defense center, the company, 17-year-old Vadim Karpov and experienced Viktor Vasin, was made up of Igor Diveev, who missed the game with Ural due to disqualification. On the left flank is Kirill Nababkin.

In the center of the field instead of Alan Dzagoev and Ragnar Sigurdsson appeared Kristiyan Bistrovich with Konstantin Kuchaev. Ivan Oblyakov also remained on the bench. At the forefront of the attack, Fyodor Chalov was alone.

The magnificent start of Spartak and the character of CSKA

Experts and fans before the match wondered which team will act in the first number. Spartak decided not to take the initiative into its own hands, but immediately gave the ball to an opponent.

It is not known what such a game would lead to, but already in the fourth minute the red-white managed to open an account. Roman Zobnin took the ball in his half of the field near the edge and instantly completed a transfer to the center of the field at Zelimkhan Bakaev. He easily walked away from Ilzat Akhmetov, advanced forward and from outside the penalty area struck precisely into the lower far corner. Interestingly, CSKA defenders did not meet their opponents at this point.

Not long in coming, and the second goal of the hosts. And this time, the opponent’s defense proved even worse. Karpov imprudently threw himself at Sobolev, the striker left Diveev’s tackle, burst into the penalty area, where the shell caught Ponce. In turn, the Argentinean easily left three opponents and shot on target. Enormous questions arose for the defense of CSKA, and the chances of the army to pass to the next stage after such a start seemed to approach zero.

However, the army team was lucky to quickly reduce the backlog. After the filing of Kuchaev from the left flank, Chalov missed the ball for Diveyev, who remained in the penalty area after the standard, and Igor calmly processed the ball on the goalkeeper line and shot.

After that, the game calmed down a bit. The guests attacked by inertia, and the hosts responded with dangerous counterattacks. And they turned out much more dangerous than the attacks of the army. In a couple of episodes, only Akinfeev saved his team. At some point, he even received slight damage to his elbow. Carried away by the attack, the wards of Goncharenko left huge zones in their half, into which Bakaev and partners burst into. Ponce clung especially well to the ball.

But the first half ended as no one expected. When the judge was getting ready to give a whistle for a break, CSKA scored a largely illogical goal. After filing in the penalty area, Samuel Zhigot unsuccessfully hit the ball with his head directly in front of him, and the oncoming Akhmetov shot right into the far corner and justified himself for the mistake in the episode with the first goal. So the army team, terribly started the meeting, went into the locker room in a good mood. Spartak squandered a solid advantage out of the blue.

Mass brawl and controversial decisions of a judge

Emotions flared up such that the players in the tribune room staged a mass brawl, which began with a skirmish between Sobolev and Mario Fernandez.

And the hosts were forced to start the second half without Bakaev, who seriously got in the course of one of the game episodes. Instead, Guus Til entered the field.

Despite this, the red and white took the ball under their control and with renewed vigor began to storm the opponent’s goal. Here are just a fun football the audience has not seen.

Firstly, both teams understood that any mistake could be fatal and lead to a departure from the Cup. Secondly, the army team, having restored the status quo on the scoreboard, for obvious reasons, no longer climbed into trouble.

As a result, the initiative passed either to one or the other side with a minimum of dangerous moments. As a rule, football players were only marked with inaccurate shots from outside the penalty area or with not too strong shots directly into the hands of goalkeepers.

But there were plenty of joints and tough martial arts in abundance. So, in one of the episodes, Ponce crashed into Akinfeev at full speed. Fortunately, Igor quickly came to his senses, and the striker received a “mustard plaster”. A little later, Ivan Oblyakov also received a card for a hard foul in midfield.

By the way, the army team in the end of regular time looked more interesting largely due to competent castling from Goncharenko. In addition to Oblyakov, he threw Alan Dzagoev into battle. Tedesco refreshed the game due to the release of Jordan Larsson and Andrei Yeshchenko.

Not without controversial decisions of the referee Sergei Ivanov. For example, in one of the last attacks of the hosts, the ball in the penalty area fell into Diveyev’s hand, but the judge considered that Igor played with it unintentionally.

In extra time, CSKA also looked more interesting, especially since Goncharenko exchanged tired Chalov for newcomer Ilya Shkurin. And the Belarusian could score one of the first touches. Having received the ball in the penalty area, he shot from close range into the near corner, but hit the post.

And in the 103rd minute, “Spartak” in addition remained in the minority. Ponce in his half of the field with his elbow waved away from Karpov and received a second yellow card for this. The episode provoked indignation at the entire bench of red and white. In particular, the reserve goalkeeper Artyom Rebrov received a “mustard plaster” for disputes with the judge.

As a result, the denouement turned out to be as unpredictable as possible. Having lost one of the leaders, the hosts at the beginning of the second additional half went ahead and were rewarded. However, the army team was frankly unlucky in this episode. Diveev, trying to neutralize Larsson after being thrown from the depths into the penalty area by CSKA, tripped over him and fell. The Swede was completely alone and calmly struck into the far corner. Red and white went to celebrate a goal to his fan sector. Even Tedesco came running there.

The guests had no choice but to go all-in, and Goncharenko threw the high powerful Yaku Biyol, who went ahead, instead of Karpov’s central defender.

True, a mass battle almost flared up on the field. Zobnin played very hard against his opponent and provoked a serious brawl. Fortunately, it didn’t come to a real fight.

CSKA pressed red and white to the gate, but failed to equalize. The most dangerous moment was missed by the very same Skurin, who beat from the goalie line and got into the defender.

And at the very end, Til missed a great opportunity to put an end. He broke into a rendezvous with Akinfeev, but Igor managed to fend off a powerful shot at point blank range.

One way or another, Spartak won a major victory in the cup match and made it to the semi-finals of the tournament, where it will play against Zenit. CSKA can only be praised for dedication and character. Unfortunately for the guests, one mistake Diveeva decided the outcome of the confrontation is not in their favor.