The 23rd round of the Russian football championship was marked by the revival of the Moscow Spartak. Even before the winter break, it seemed to everyone that the season for the team was irretrievably lost and only success in the Cup of Russia could save it. And after the defeat from “Rostov” with a score of 1: 4 in their field in the final match of 2019, many did not even rule out that a red-and-white spring faced a struggle for survival.
However, a couple of successful guest games with Dynamo and Orenburg in February and March somewhat corrected the situation. True, not so much as to dream of something more than sixth place. But a three-month hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic changed all alignment. Now an option is not ruled out in which Spartak will turn from a failure of the championship into a participant in European cups.
It so happened that all the red-white neighbors in the standings in recent days suddenly faced serious problems. Arsenal, due to the loss, released a direct competitor at a distance of three points. Dynamo is now inferior to fellow countrymen one mark point, although it has a match in reserve. But due to the positive coronavirus tests passed by several players, the entire team was quarantined.
The closest rival of the white-blue “Krasnodar” agreed to postpone the meeting. Previously, she was appointed on July 19. However, the real prospects of Dynamo are unclear. For example, on July 1, they scheduled an away match with Sochi, which, in turn, refused to postpone the game with Rostov, which also revealed cases of infection. It is possible that Dynamo will have to send the youth squad to the south. This is very likely fraught with loss of points.
Muscovites can hardly wait to transfer games from CSKA and Arsenal. To conduct them after the recovery of the players, there simply will not be enough dates on the calendar. The state of the team after exiting quarantine mode is not encouraging either. Only after gaining a form, athletes run the risk of losing it again due to the forced omission of joint training.
CSKA faced purely game problems. In a home game against Zenit, the defense of the army failed. Defenders' mistakes caused a major defeat. The unconvincing actions of Viktor Vasin forced the former red-blue player Dmitry Kuznetsov to say that the defender does not match the level of the club. Two other defenders, Igor Diveev and Vadim Karpov, according to experts, are still too young and inexperienced. Be that as it may, the near future of the team and Viktor Goncharenko himself so far raises too many questions.
In the 24th round, the army is planning a match with Dynamo, whose fate will most likely become known next week. And on June 30, CSKA should take Spartak, which is five points ahead. Given the listed difficulties of the red-blue and face-to-face meeting, the handicap does not seem so significant.
On the fourth line in the table, ahead of two points CSKA and seven - “Spartak”, is “Rostov”. What to do with the team of Valery Karpin, the leadership of the RFU is puzzling. So far, one thing is clear: in the case of further exposure of unfired youth for matches, the Donetsk team can hardly count on earning points. This means that, theoretically, Spartak can minimize the backlog from yellow-blue in two rounds. Before the winter break, such a plot seemed implausible.
In fact, of the first seven RPLs, only Zenit, Lokomotiv and Spartak received a game practice and achieved a positive result in the 23rd round. After St. Petersburg, it was Muscovites who showed the highest quality football, even if they could not do without separate blots on the defensive. Perhaps only now about Spartak can we begin to speak as a team of Domenico Tedesco.
The German specialist has been at the head of ten-time Russian champions for more than eight months. This is a sufficient period in order not to associate the team with the previous mentor Oleg Kononov. In addition, because of the pandemic, Tedesco had two preparatory periods in order to convey his ideas to the wards in detail.
Yes, the functional state of the team remained a mystery, perhaps for the coaching staff itself. Fans of red and white were not just afraid for the result of a guest meeting with Arsenal. During the short-term camp, the wards of Domenico Tedesco devastatingly lost to Dynamo, while the opponent defeated CSKA in Moscow. However, pessimistic forecasts did not materialize: in Tula, the game at Spartak was set from the very beginning.
The match showed that the leaders of Spartak managed to gain good condition. Obviously, Zelimkhan Bakayev, who had previously had a COVID-19 infection, pleased his mentor with explosive raids. His example, as well as the case of Roman Zobnin, showed that a professional athlete can recover from a disease quite quickly. In the center of the field, Alex Kral takes on more and more leadership functions, without which it is impossible to imagine the modern Spartak. For the first time Alexander Sobolev scored for Muscovites.
The listed players, and then the Argentinean Esekiel Ponce, who replaced the Russian striker, easily ran into a counterattack and drew out geometrically verified combinations that were clearly worked out in Tarasovka. It was felt that they were not attacking as they should, but they were implementing the coaching schemes.
In the last minutes, Alexander Maksimenko flashed with skill, reflecting a penalty. Of course, he wanted to leave his gates “dry.” However, the end of “Spartak” as a whole smeared, conceiving two optional goals. At the same time, some questioned the legality of the appointment of 11-meter judge Eugene Turbin in compensated time.
Spartak veteran Valery Gladilin, however, noted that the team had “a small lack of play” and a lack of teamwork.
“Mostly engaged in individual training. It is necessary to establish communications in all lines. Therefore, the current tactics of the game "second number" was perfect. Spartak played for the result and achieved it ... There is a chance to get into the Europa League. From CSKA separates five points. You can get into the "five", - quotes the words of Gladilin "Soviet Sport".
Events in Russian football in recent days are unfolding very quickly. No one can guarantee today that Dynamo was not infected at the time of June 14, when the test match with Spartak took place.
In the meantime, it seems that the calendar of the final stage of the championship for the red-white is one of the easiest. They will hold four of the seven remaining meetings at the Opening Arena. It will not be necessary to leave the borders of Moscow to meet with CSKA. Red and white will have to go on a visit only to Sochi and Rubin. The teams of Leonid Slutsky and Vladimir Fedotov can hardly be called an insurmountable obstacle to solving the task of saving the season.