Two deletions, one realized penalty of three and Mamaev’s scoring comeback: how Rostov beat CSKA in the RPL

Fatigue of CSKA and Eremenko against the former team

The last game day of the 21st round of the RPL gave the fans two intriguing matches at once: “Rostov” - CSKA and “Spartak” - “Krasnodar”. In the first of them in Rostov-on-Don there were teams fighting for medals and trips to the Champions League.

Opponents came up to face-to-face confrontation with identical indicators in the standings, having 35 points each and were three points behind the second Krasnodar. At the same time, the Lokomotiv competing against them beat Akhmat on the eve. This meant that the loser of the match in southern Russia rolled back to fifth position.

At the same time, “Rostov” was much easier. After the match in Grozny, Valery Karpin’s wards calmly came to their senses, while CSKA on Wednesday held a difficult 120-minute match with Spartak in the Russian Cup, and even suffered a defeat in it, which could not but affect the emotional state of the army.

It is not surprising that Viktor Goncharenko conducted a serious rotation of the squad, and in Rostov-on-Don, four players left the field from the first minutes, who were left in reserve at the Otkrytie Arena: Kherdur Magnusson, Arnor Sigurdsson, Ivan Oblyakov and Georgy Schennikov.

But the most interesting thing is that forwards Ilya Shkurin and Fedor Chalov also remained on the bench. The coaching staff of the red-and-blue decided to play without nominal attackers at all, detaching Sigurdsson, who was used to playing on the flank more often.

Karpin, for the first time, included Pavel Mamaev in the reserve. The midfielder did not qualify for the match with Akhmat because of an injury, but this time he was ready to go into battle during the game. But another ex-army player Roman Eremenko got into the base and got the opportunity to play against the former team.

Reflected Akinfeev penalty and Akhmetov's removal

Unfortunately, the match began with a severe injury to Dmitry Chistyakov. Defender of “Rostov” extremely unsuccessfully faced with a partner Maxim Osipenko, received a serious dissection of his head and was forced to leave the field. The problem for Karpin was that he no longer had central defenders on the bench. I had to move Alexei Kozlov to the center of defense, and lower Khoren Bayramyan to the right flank. High Alexander Saplinov entered the line of midfield.

But the injury of the lead artist did not affect the hosts much. From the first minutes they seized the initiative and began to storm the gates of Igor Akinfeev. And already in the middle of the first half, it paid off. After being taken out of the center of the field, Ilzat Akhmetov in the penalty area did not follow Eldor Shomurodov and put his opponent on the lawn. Judge Vladislav Bezborodov instantly pointed to the point, and showed the army team a red card for a foul of last hope.

Roman Eremenko went to perform the penalty kick, but the ex-CSKA footballer blundered. Igor Akinfeev, apparently, knew perfectly well where the former partner could break through, and guessed the direction of the ball’s flight.

And just a few minutes later the army team punished the opponent for extravagance. This time Bairamyan made a grave mistake. At first, he didn’t really hit the ball in midfield, then, trying to fix his own blot, he actually completed an assist for Sigurdsson. Arnor fled to a rendezvous with Sergei Pesyakov, but Bayramyan managed to catch up with him and tried to block the direction of the blow. However, the Icelander at the last moment still managed to penetrate precisely into the near corner.

Having opened an account, the guests, as expected, clung to their gates, completely giving the initiative to the opponent. The hosts weaved combinations in the alien half, but most often it all ended with a supply into the box, which CSKA's defenders coped with.

But the blow of Eremenko from outside the penalty area in the 31st minute turned out to be an unpleasant surprise for them. Finn was with the ball about 25 meters from the goal. Nikola Vlašić seemed to be covering him, but Roman with one touch put the shell a little to the side and shot through. The ball hit the crossbar, and bounced off it exactly behind the line and flew into the field. The judge immediately counted the goal. So the seventh issue of “Rostov” still managed to upset the former team, although it did not realize a penalty.

Karpov's controversial removal and Chalov's fatal blunder

The second half turned out to be no less eventful. No sooner had the game resumed than Rostov earned a second penalty. Young Vadim Karpov on the edge of the penalty area did not keep up with Ivelin Popov and knocked the Bulgarian down. However, Bezborodov did not immediately point to the point. It took the judge a few minutes to watch the replay. As a result, he not only appointed a penalty kick, but also removed Karpov, although it seemed that Vadim deserved the maximum yellow card, because his partners managed to secure him in a controversial episode, therefore, there was no talk of a foul of last hope.

This time Popov came to the point and did not leave Akinfeev a chance. Yvelin spread the goalkeeper and the ball in different angles.

And ten minutes later another significant event took place. Instead of the tired Danil Glebov, Pavel Mamaev appeared on the field. The football player who had served his prison sentence held the first official game a year and a half later. But in such an intense match, the midfielder simply could not stop there. Almost in the first attack, he picked up the ball in the semicircle of the penalty area and shot precisely into the near corner. He helped distinguish himself and rebound from the defender. Having scored, Pavel did not restrain his emotions, but tore off his T-shirt, for which he received a mustard plaster.

After that, it seemed that the outcome of the confrontation was finally decided. With eight of them, there were practically no chances for CSKA to win two goals. CSKA moved forward rather by inertia, and “Rostov” responded with much more dangerous counterattacks. Mamaev was especially active, who was not going to dwell on one goal, and Shomurodov, who really wanted to score and beat Artyom Dziuba in the scorer race.

But 13 minutes before the end of normal time, Osipenko revived the intrigue. After being thrown into the penalty area and shot by the replacement Fedor Chalov, the defender corrected the shell exactly in the net. So the army team out of the blue got the opportunity to escape almost in a hopeless situation.

Rostov, after that, unexpectedly "swam" - and snuggled up to their own goal. And the guests almost punished them for this. In the very end, the army team earned a standard near someone else's penalty area, and another substitute footballer Alan Dzagoev suddenly rolled the ball into the penalty area at Sigurdsson from the bottom. In this situation, Saplinov played not in the best way, with his hand heaping the Icelander onto the lawn.

Bezborodov again pointed to the point and has already appointed the third penalty in this match. Chalov went to beat him. But the best RPL scorer of last season failed to realize the one-meter. Forward ingenuously struck a corner to his left, and Pesyakov guessed the direction of the blow. Magnusson, on finishing, sent a shell to the stands.

But after that, CSKA did not give up, the more so the judge added eight minutes to the main time at once. Eight of the army team staged a real assault on the gates of Pesyakov, but the opponent still fought back. With the final whistle, the players of both teams literally fell on the lawn from fatigue. They held one of the most spectacular matches of the season, and the victory ultimately went to yellow-blue. CSKA remains to blame for their own mistakes, the judge and Chalov’s inaccuracy.