Given the current position of the teams in the standings, the match between Lokomotiv and CSKA promised to become the key in terms of the struggle for a direct ticket to the Champions League. First of all, it was for guests who, in the event of a tie or loss, even lost their theoretical chances of taking second place. On the eve of the 29th round, the army team was four points behind the railwaymen and were obliged to play exclusively to win.
Thanks to the misfire of “Krasnodar” in the guest game with “Wings of the Soviets”, “Lokomotiv” reached the clean second place in terms of lost points, but also had no right to relax. Although the triumph in the confrontation with CSKA could not guarantee him silver, he was able to bring the railwaymen as close as possible to the goal. In this case, they were five points away from the “bulls” and already on Sunday could celebrate their entry into the group stage of the Champions League. True, only if the southerners lose points in the match against Dynamo.
A small help for Lokomotiv was the loss of one of the leaders of the CSKA attack. In a meeting with Rubin, Arnor Sigurdsson received a fourth yellow card and was forced to miss the game with Lokomotiv. In his place, it was decided to release Alan Dzagoev, recently recovered from another injury. At the same time, the state of the veteran red-blue remained in doubt. After resuming the championship, he spent only ten minutes on the field - too little time to make an idea of the level of his physical condition. On the other hand, Igor Diveev and Kirill Nababkin, who had left the disqualification, returned to the base.
At the same time, Lokomotiv itself appeared for the first time in a long time. Goalkeeper Marinato Guilherme and midfielder Dmitry Barinov recovered from injuries, while defender Maciej Rybus served a suspension for busting the mustard. As a result, all three started the match at the start. At the same time, the midfielder Anton Miranchuk, who came out from the first minutes in the last three games, very unexpectedly remained on the bench. The company was made up of him and one of the main characters of the last meeting, Jefferson Farfan. And this despite the fact that the Peruvian struck the gates of “Ufa” and brought the railwaymen the most important points in the fight for silver.
Many experts expected that in the opening the teams will act with extreme caution, but in reality everything turned out differently. Lokomotiv in an unusual manner took the ball under control and began to stretch the opponent’s defense in positional attacks, while CSKA focused on counterattacks. And this tactic almost brought the army team success in the first 20 minutes. Both times, Fedor Chalov was at the forefront, distinguished himself in the last three meetings. But this time, the striker was noticeably nervous. At first he could not punish Guilherme for a reckless exit from the goal 25 meters, and then unsuccessfully struck from the penalty area. The railroad workers responded with a dangerous blow to Murilo, and then Eder nearly marked. This time Igor Akinfeev unsuccessfully performed a take-off and landed in a Portuguese striker.
One of the main characters of the next segment was Diveev. First, the central defender of the guests shook the bar with a powerful blow from the standard, which reminded the legend of the club Sergey Ignashevich. And ten minutes later he distinguished himself with a minus sign, knocking down Eder in his own penalty box. Chief referee Yevgeny Turbin personally watched the replay and pointed to the point. “Lokomotiv” for the tenth time of the season received the right to perform the 11-meter, and Alexei Miranchuk beat Akinfeev.
The ending of the half was left for the red-blue, which locked the counterparts in their half of the field. But they could not create anything dangerous at the gates of Guilherme. But the situation of the owners complicated the damage to Eder. The Portuguese was injured and was forced to leave the lawn, as a result of which Lokomotiv spent the last minutes with ten men.
It was logical to assume that in the second half the railroad workers would retreat to their own half and count on counterattacks. This was hinted at by the appearance of high-speed Rifat Zhemaletdinov, ideally suited for participating in fast offensives. In the end, it happened. CSKA almost completely reigned in possession of the ball in the first quarter of an hour (78% - 22%), but could not crack the opponent’s massive defense. With a stretch, Dzagoev’s strike after a flank feed was dangerous, but he lacked precision.
It is noteworthy that it was Dzagoev who first left the field of guests. Perhaps the reason for this was the imperfect form of Alan, or Goncharenko’s decision to change the model of the game in attack. Instead of an attacking midfielder, Ilya Shkurin appeared on the field. In the winter transfer window, Belarus became the only reinforcement of the attack line of CSKA, but subsequently was injured and recovered for a long time.
Nevertheless, it was after the release of Shkurin that CSKA began to play much more actively and soon regained parity. At the same time, the transfer came from the left flank, and not the right, which for most of the time was the main option for the development of attacks of guests. Georgy Schennikov shot in the penalty area, and there Nikol Nikola Vlašić turned out to be the quickest. At the right time, the army leader understood the episode very well and left Guilherme out of business.
Equal score did not suit any of the teams, so both went forward with great strength. Following the precepts of Nikolic, the hosts focused on long-range strikes, especially dangerous of which were inflicted by Alexei Miranchuk and Grzegorz Kryhovyak. The guests tried to bring the ball to the penalty area, where Vlašić continued to break in. Shkurin fought for the riding balls, but could not win the fight against Vedran Chorluka.
In the end, the decisive again was the blow from the 11-meter mark. At the same time, the Turbine verdict may not have any questions for CSKA fans. The hosts filed in the penalty area, and Chorluka hit the head. He turned out to be not the most dangerous and was easily countered by Akinfeev, but along the way the ball hit the hand of Kirill Nababkin raised up. Initially, the arbiter did not notice a violation, but after a signal from the video assistants he again pointed to the point. Miranchuk turned out to be accurate for the second time, having strengthened his status as the top scorer of the RPL after the resumption of the season. Alexey has seven goals - one more than Serdar Azmun and Yevgeny Lutsenko.