Loss of rivals and thirst for revenge
In the central match of the Rostov tour, Valery Karpin hosted Lokomotiv Yuri Semin. A week ago, the yellow-blue beat CSKA, and now they intended to “scalp” another metropolitan grand. At the same time, both teams came to the confrontation with the same number of points, and in case of victory they could catch up with Krasnodar, which stumbled in Sochi, and even more break away from CSKA, which broke the world with Ufa.
The railwaymen, in addition, probably burned with the desire to take revenge from the opponent for defeat in the first round. Then the southerners prevailed in Moscow thanks to the double of Eldor Shomurodov.
True, the hosts approached the match with personnel losses. In particular, the main central defender Dmitry Chistyakov, who received a serious cut in a duel with the army team, failed to enter the field. His place was taken by Dennis Hajikadunich. And in the center of the field the team could not help Daniil Glebov with Alexei Ionov. But Matthias Normann returned to duty. On the right, Baktiyor Zainutdinov reappeared.
Lokomotiv cost almost no loss, except for the long-injured Anton Miranchuk. Even Solomon of Querkvelia, who received a red card in a meeting with Akhmat, avoided disqualification. The Control and Disciplinary Committee canceled the removal of the defender, and he again got into the starting lineup.
But Vedran Chorluka received damage in that game and did not manage to recover. Instead, Benedict Höwedes came to the center of defense. Plus, Dmtiriy Barinov was able to play, having missed the last round due to the exhaustion of “mustard plasters”. He made a couple in the supporting zone together with Grzegorz Krychowiak, and the young Stanislav Magkeev remained in reserve.
Powerful start of Rostov and incredible implementation of Lokomotiv
The hosts began the match much more actively and from the first minutes pressed the opponent to the goal. They boldly delivered the ball to the flanks, especially on the right and loaded the ball into someone else's penalty area through the air. According to the results of one of these crosses, Ivelin Popov almost opened the score, but the projectile after hitting a head with a Bulgarian hit the crossbar. And after a couple of minutes, Shomurodov almost scored, who shot into the near corner in touch with the rally. Lokomotiv saved Marinato Guillerme.
Railroad workers organized their first counter-attacks only in the middle of the inning. Twice the yellow-blue ones forgot opponents on the far post, but neither Macieu Rybusu nor João Mariu managed to deliver an exact blow.
But it turned out at Krykhovyak. He unexpectedly shot on goal from 30 meters, for which Sergei Pesyakov was clearly not ready. At the last moment, the goalkeeper managed to transfer the ball into the post, but from it the projectile hit him in the back and still flew into the goal. So the Rostovites missed an absolutely illogical goal.
After a few minutes, their situation was almost hopeless. The guests fled to a quick attack. All the same, Krykhovyak managed to push the ball at Rifat Zhemaletdinov, and he delivered a precise shot from the bottom to the far corner. Pesyakov could save the team, but he was prevented by a rebound from the defender’s foot.
And finally everything became clear after the goal of Krykhovyak. The railway workers took advantage of the failure in the opponent’s defense, and the Pole nearly broke the net with a powerful blow. The goal became the ninth for Grzegorz this season of the RPL, and the guests scored three times in eight minutes. At the same time, wards of Semin demonstrated a fantastic implementation: with four shots on target, they scored three times. Now Rostov was required to perform a miracle.
Terrible lawn and Karpin's late replacements
However, the Karpin team was not going to give up and in the second half tried to escape. But the owners did not get too much. More often than not, they continued to throw the ball into the penalty area through the air, and Querquelia and Hövedes could easily deal with such crosses. These diagonals looked especially strange when the non-Horen Bayramyan had to fight for the ball.
But after hours of the game, “Rostov” decided to help judge Miakhil Vilkov. After Krykhovyak hit Zainudtinov’s legs in the Loko penalty box, he instantly pointed to the “point”, although the foul looked quite controversial. The red-green players tried to challenge the referee's decision, but he was adamant. Apparently, the VAR assistants also prompted Vilkov that there really was a violation.
The eleven-meter went to execute Popov and confidently sent the ball into the right of himself nine. It seemed that the southerners should have pressed the opponent to the goal, but instead, the guests calmly knocked down the opponent's attacking mood with small fouls and competent possession. In addition, Semin instead of João Mariu threw yet another defender Magkeev into battle.
And the Rostovites, it seemed, just got tired on the lawn of a rather dubious quality. Already by the break the grass in the penalty area was almost gone, but a lot of sand appeared, in which the feet of the players were stuck.
And Karpin was obviously late with replacements. Only in the very ending did he throw Alexander Saplinov into battle with Alexander Dolgov, but it was too late.
Not only that, the railroad could even bring the score to a large one, but the ball after a blow from Alexei Miranchuk from the penalty hit the crossbar. The yellow-blue ones responded with a dangerous shot of Popov from the penalty area - the shell went near the far post.
Thus, “Rostov” after the failed ending of the first half failed to create a miracle. The team missed a chance to catch up with “Krasnodar” in the standings and missed the railroad ahead.