Double Malcom and the largest defeat of CSKA in 19 years
Before the resumption of the Russian football championship, CSKA could be considered the last obstacle of Zenit to the second consecutive gold. CSKA must fight for the European Cups and interrupt their unbeaten run, which before meeting with the leader of the RPL has already reached five matches. Although the red-blue extremely rarely won a victory over the “Zenith” in recent years, they still managed to pick up points.
However, the intrigue in the match at the VEB Arena disappeared almost as quickly as in the game Sochi and Rostov the day before. Guests opened an account in the second minute. Igor Akinfeev at first saved his goal at the cost of a corner, but then he could not do anything with Branislav Ivanovich’s blow during the drawing of the standard.
In less than ten minutes from the starting whistle, CSKA missed the second goal. Again, Akinfeev rescued a team that failed in defense, but he was already unable to cope with finishing Malcom. Without Yaki Biyol and Ilzat Akhmetov, the army team barely managed to resist in their half of the field, and another goal immediately followed by Serdar Azmun, but he was canceled due to an offside position.
Gradually, the wards of Viktor Goncharenko joined the game and were able to respond with several punches, but the home team failed to complete their moments. But at the end of the first half, Zenit players showed how to do this. In the second added minute, Malcolm took the ball at the edge of the penalty area and precisely aimed at the goal of CSKA, scoring his third goal in the last two matches.
After the break, the army team continued unsuccessful attempts to recoup, but due to the large number of marriages, they failed to attack properly. The only goal moment created by Konstantin Maradishvili, but after his strike, CSKA only earned a corner. At the same time, “Zenith”, even when playing the second number, continued to threaten the gates of others, and Artyom Dziuba unmistakably acted in favor of his team.
The ending of the match tired CSKA players completely failed. Vadim Karpov held Dziuba with both hands and received a red card for this, while Igor Diveev interrupted Alexei Sutormin's blow with his hands, which was the reason for the penalty. Sebastian Driussi made a shot and set the final score - 4: 0. Zenit for the first time since 2001 beat CSKA with such a big difference.
Wards of Sergei Semak brought the advantage over Lokomotiv and Krasnodar to 12 points and became even closer to the league title. CSKA still remains in the Euro Cup five, but still five points behind the Champions League zone.
Sobolev’s first ball in Spartak and Arsenal’s activity in the end
Arsenal and Spartak came to a full-time meeting with the same amount of points. At the same time, Tula players could be considered the favorites of the match. Red and White lost several players during the break and were defeated by Dynamo in their last friendly match. Andreas Hinkel had to lead Muscovites in Tula, as his boss Domenik Tedesco was serving a disqualification.
However, Spartak did not allow Arsenal to celebrate its fourth consecutive victory over itself. Defining in this game was the class of individual performers, which turned out to be higher among the guests. Toward the close of the first half, they managed to open an account thanks to Alexander Sobolev. Having gone on a swing from Maxim Belyaev, he scored his first goal with the red-white team. With 11 goals per season, Sobolev caught up with Eldor Shomurodov in the race of scorers.
In the second half, Arsenal began to leave too much space in its half of the field, and the Spartacists actively used it. At the 66th minute, Ayrton, who had previously earned the pass of the next match with Ufa, hung from the left flank into someone else's penalty area, and his transfer was closed by another defender Nikolai Rasskazov. Soon, a successful counterattack was organized by Jordan Larsson, which Ezekiel Ponce was able to complete.
When it seemed that questions about the winner of the match should be removed, Arsenal unexpectedly issued a powerful ending. In the fourth added minute, Evgeni Lutsenko closed his canopy from the flank, not giving Spartak goalkeeper Alexander Maksimenko a chance to even react to the blow. Soon, the guests suffered another loss to the next game - George Jikia received another yellow card.
The match didn’t end there - the referee Yevgeny Turbin decided to check Andrei Yeshchenko’s clash with Gia Grigalava using VAR and awarded a penalty in favor of the home team. Approaching the “point” Daniil Lesovoi from the first attempt to beat Maksimenko could not, but still finished off the ball when it was already the ninth compensated minute. Only after this the victory of Spartak with the score 3: 2 became final. Tedesco wards climbed to sixth place in the standings.
The performance of Kvaratskhelia and the goal of Bakaev Jr.
The Saturday program of the 23rd round began in Yekaterinburg, where Ural hosted Rubin in its field. Both teams have not yet fully secured themselves from relegation to the FNL and therefore could not afford to lose points. This was especially true for Kazan, who after the victory of Akhmat over the Wings of the Soviets were only one point ahead of the last place.
The symbolic first blow in the match was dealt by Elena Purtova, the attending physician of Pavel Pogrebnyak. The Ural striker has already recovered from the coronavirus, but he should have missed this game, as he has not even had time to train with the team.
In his absence, wards Dmitry Parfyonov began the match quite confidently. Already in the second minute they could open an account, but Andrei Egorychev's goal from the corner was canceled after a video replay, since offside Eric Bikfalvi closed the review to goalkeeper Yuri Dupin. Soon, the Urals still got their way. Michal Kukharchik broke through to someone else's free kick and struck. The ball from the foot of defender Pablo Santos ended up at the Rubin goal.
Leonid Slutsky's team continued to play the second number for some time, until at the end of the second half they earned two corners in a row. During the second attempt, Pavel Mogilevets gave the pass to Hvice Kvaratskhelia, and the 19-year-old player scored beautifully with “scissors” - already in the third match of the RPL, the fans saw a similar goal.
After the break, the former Lokomotiv footballer did everything for another goal, which became his debut in the Russian Championship for Soltmurad Bakaev. The younger brother of the Spartak midfielder had only to get through the empty net after Kvaratskhelia passed along the left flank.
“Rubin” played out the match in the minority after the removal of captain Vyacheslav Podberezkin and kept the winning score. Kazan went ahead of Ural in the standings and, on the basis of Saturday's matches, moved to 11th place. Yekaterinburg lost for the third time in a row and remained two points from the relegation zone.