Fight off Safonov's penalty and Cabella's goal into an empty net: Krasnodar won a strong-willed victory over PAOK in the Champions League qualification

Disqualification of Martynovich and Berg's first appearance with the captain's armband

The new European Cup season started very badly for Russia.

Dynamo Moscow sensationally yielded to Georgian Lokomotiv in the second qualifying round of the Europa League and finished their performance at the European Cup arena. 

Next to start in the Champions League was Krasnodar.

Southerners, like a year ago, had to meet in the playoff round of the tournament with the Greek team.

In 2019, Murad Musaev's charges failed to impose competition on Olympiacos, losing with a total score of 2: 6.

Now they were in for a confrontation with the club of the Russian entrepreneur Ivan Savvidi PAOK, which, at the end of the last season of the Greek Championship, took second place, ahead of AEK Massimo Carrera. 

It is curious that PAOK already met with the Russian team in the Champions League two years ago.

Then the black and white in the third qualifying round proved to be stronger than Spartak (3: 2, 0: 0) and eventually completed their performance in the group stage of the UEL.

Now Krasnodar has an opportunity to take revenge on the opponent for the red and white.

True, in the first game against the Greek team Musaev could not count on several leaders at once.

In addition to the long-injured Ari and Dmitry Stotsky, the main defender Alexandra Martynovich missed the home match of the Champions League.

The Belarusian received a red card in the December Europa League match against Getafe, and the suspension has spread to all European Cup tournaments.

Martynovich in the main squad was expectedly replaced by Yegor Sorokin, who made a pair in the center of defense of Cayo Fernando.

The rest of Krasnodar's roster was the same as for the last RPL match with Khimki.

At the same time, the experienced striker Markus Berg brought the southerners to the game with the captain's armband for the first time.

In this role, he replaced just Martynovich.

⚡️ The composition today will be like this 👇 # KrasnodarPAOK # KRAPAOKpic.twitter.com / JP4LN0lpnV

- FCKrasnodar (@FCKrasnodar) September 22, 2020

Penalty after watching VAR and Cabella's successful fall in someone else's box

The match started very badly for the hosts.

Already in the seventh minute, the French referee Clement Turpin awarded a penalty kick to Krasnodar's goal.

After hitting from outside the penalty area, the ball hit Kayo's hand, and the referee did not notice the violation of the rules at first, however, looking at the replay, Turpen pointed to the "point".

At a difficult moment, young Matvey Safonov showed amazing composure.

In anticipation of the strike of the captain of PAOK Dimitrios Pelkas, the goalkeeper did not begin to guess and fall into the corner, but remained in place.

As a result, the ball flew right into his hands.

So the 21-year-old goalkeeper reflected the fourth penalty kick in his career and the first one in European competition. 

Having avoided the worst outcome, the Krasnodar players received a powerful boost of positive emotions and gradually took the ball under their control.

Already in the 14th minute, Sergei Petrov, who burst into someone else's penalty area, after a subtle pass from Christopher Olsson struck into the far corner, but missed the target.

In general, the southerners more often attacked with the right flank, where Wanderson was located.

Remy Cabella regularly moved here.

But sometimes the hosts had interesting multi-way rallies through the center.

For example, in the middle of the first half, Klasson missed the ball quite a bit, playing a wall against Berg.

Unfortunately, the advantage of the Russian team did not translate into a scored goal, but PAOK opened the scoring, realizing one of the rare moments.

Petrov on the right flank of the defense did not keep track of Andriy Zhivkovic and did not manage to intercept the cutting pass to the Serb.

In turn, the midfielder executed a perfect cross against Pelkas, who sent the ball into the net from a couple of meters and rehabilitated himself for a missed penalty.

Sorokin, who lost an opponent, tried to signal an offside position, but it was obvious that the Greek was scoring from the correct position.

But at the end of the first half, Turpen made a key decision in favor of Krasnodar.

Dimitris Yannoulis in his own penalty area inaccurately rolled under Cabella, and he fell.

The French judge immediately pointed to the "dot".

Klasson, unlike Pelkas, converted the penalty confidently.

The Swede carefully hoisted the ball over Zhivko Zhivkovic, who jumped into the corner.

The missed chance of PAOK and the realized moment of Krasnodar

In the second half, Krasnodar continued to have a minimal advantage.

In general, the team had the ball after the break for 55% of the playing time.

However, the hosts rarely managed to penetrate into someone else's penalty area.

PAOK footballers acted as closely as possible and practically did not leave space between the lines.

Berg, on the other hand, made the minimum number of touches.

Therefore, the southerners, as in the first half of the meeting, often had to attack through the right flank. 

Nevertheless, in the 54th minute, a rare transfer to Berg in someone else's penalty area almost ended with a penalty kick.

Marcus fell after contact with a defender, but Turpen did not record a violation of the rules.

The referee's whistle also kept silent after the controversial episode involving Petrov.

The defender burst into someone else's penalty area and found himself on the lawn.

An opponent caught Sergei's shirt with his hand, but the referee from France decided that this was not a reason for awarding a penalty. 

For a minute of that, Wanderson almost brought Krasnodar ahead.

The Brazilian spun the ball into the far top corner from the right corner of the penalty area, but Zhivkovic in a beautiful jump moved the projectile to the side.

And soon the most dangerous moment was created by PAOK.

Omar El-Kadduri, after a pass from outside the penalty area to touch, hit the far corner, but hit the crossbar.

Safonov coped with finishing off Jose Angel Crespo. 

At that moment, it seemed that the forces were beginning to leave the owners, but almost in a reciprocal attack, they took the lead.

Petrov cut the perfect pass into the penalty area on Berg's move.

Markus on touch threw Zhivkovic, and Cabella sent the ball into an empty net.

Having scored, the Krasnodar players retreated to the defense, and Musaev strengthened the support zone, instead of the goal-scorer Cabella, throwing Daniil Utkin into the battle.

And soon he had to make a forced replacement.

Tired, Wanderson left the field holding on to the back of his thigh.

Instead, Magomed-Shapi Suleimanov entered the game. 

PAOK had no strength left to stage the final assault on Safonov's gates.

However, the goal scored in Russia leaves the Greek team a good chance of final success.

Thus, the fate of a ticket to the Champions League group stage will be decided in a week in Thessaloniki.