A primitive attack and problems with high pressure: how Spartak lost at home to Rostov in an RPL match

A principled match for Karpin

The leader in the RPL standings "Spartak" immediately after the meeting with "Krasnodar" last week was waiting for a confrontation with another team from the south of Russia - "Rostov".

The match became even more important than the previous one.

This was largely due to the figure of Valery Karpin.

He gave Spartak nine years: four as a footballer and five as head coach and general director.

In 2014, the specialist left the club, and Leonid Fedun afterwards called him a “downed pilot”.

It is not surprising that after this Karpin set up his wards in a special way for red and white.

So, last year, Rostov won a crushing victory with a score of 4: 1 at the Otkritie Arena.

True, in comparison with that match, serious changes took place in the composition of the yellow-blues, because in the summer a number of leaders left the team, including all the authors of the goals of that evening: Baktiyor Zainutdinov, Alexey Ionov and Dmitry Chistyakov, as well as Eldor Shomurodov.

A small plus for Rostov was the cancellation of Roman Eremenko's red card, which he received in the game against Khimki.

But Mathias Normann did not have time to recover from his injury and did not get into the application. 

But from the first minutes Pavel Mamaev entered the field.

Thus, the fans had the opportunity to watch his confrontation with Alexander Kokorin.

But the striker remained in reserve.

The rest of Spartak's roster almost completely repeated the roster for the game against Krasnodar.

Is that the place of Pavel Maslov, disqualified for busting cards, was taken by Ilya Kutepov.

Domenico Tedesco also earned a disqualification.

In Krasnodar, he received his fourth yellow card in the current RPL season and had to watch the match with Rostov from the stands, giving instructions to assistants by phone.

Mamaev's goal

The first half turned out to be frankly unsuccessful for Spartak.

“Rostov” started the game more actively, and also from the first minutes outlined exactly how he was going to prevent the leader from launching his signature fast attacks through the flanks. 

The guests literally suppressed the opponent with high pressure, demonstrating a good level of physical readiness and incredible dedication.

At the same time, Dmitry Poloz acted on the left edge of the attack, and Eremenko on the right.

In the center, the newcomer Pontus Almqvist did not allow the defenders to calmly carry out the first passes.

As a result, “Spartak” in the first 45 minutes did not manage to do anything.

Before the goal was scored by the yellow-blue ones, they could not establish control over the ball, and after that they seized the initiative, but had no chance to pass the echeloned defense of Rostovites.

Most often, the red-and-white were looking for a pass from Victor Moses on the right flank, who was opposed by the young and inexperienced Nikolai Poyarkov.

But the latter was successfully insured by Danil Glebov, who was shifting from the center.

Ayrton, on the left, was almost invisible. 

And on the 26th minute Rostov unexpectedly opened the scoring.

Moses allowed Poyarkov to serve from the left flank.

Georgy Dzhikia was the first on the ball, but corrected it directly to Eremenko, who from the right corner of the penalty shot shot to the line of the goalkeeper Mamaev.

Pavel shot in touch under the pivot leg to Alexander Maksimenko, who did not play in the best way.

Samuel Zhigo, who did not manage to cover the transfer to Mamaev, also made a mistake. 

At the same time, this shot on target was the only one in the match for Rostov.

"Spartak" also scored with only one and not dangerous shot.

After a corner, Ezequiel Ponce sent the shell into the hands of Sergei Pesyakov.

He struck a little earlier with his head just above the crossbar.

Controversial removal of Hajikadunich

Not surprisingly, immediately after the break, Tedesco decided to replace.

Instead of the absolutely inert Zelimkhan Bakaev, who was marked only with a yellow card, Alexander Sobolev, who recovered from an injury, entered the field.

He made a pair of forwards with Ponce, and Jordan Larsson dropped down to the top ten.

With the release of a powerful, textured forward, Spartak increased the pressure on the opponent's goal, and Sobolev himself began to quite successfully cling to the ball.

However, in general, Rostov continued to act in his half of the field as carefully as possible, avoiding gaps between the lines.

Moments at the gates of Sergei Pesyakov, if they did arise, are extremely rare.

For example, the same Sobolev, literally making his way past the opponent, from outside the penalty area shot into the far bottom corner, but missed the target a little. 

Tedesco, trying to change something, soon threw into battle and Kokorin, who replaced Ponce, but this did not help either.

Probably, “Rostov” would have brought matters to a quiet victory, if not for the extremely controversial removal of Dennis Hadzhikadunich in the 75th minute. 

The Swede on the left flank in the fight for the ball with Sobolev barely touched his opponent on the leg, but he fell to the lawn with a cry of pain.

Judge Vitaly Meshkov believed the attacker and showed the Swede a second yellow card.

Left without the main central defender, the Rostovites succumbed to panic for a while.

So, Larsson got an excellent opportunity to score from within the penalty area, but shot almost into the hands of Pesyakov. 

However, Karpin reacted in a timely manner to the removal of the ward with substitutions and a change in the tactical scheme.

He threw Denis Terentyev, Khaitam Aleesami and Vladimir Obukhov into the fight and switched to a scheme with three central defenders.

Tedesco, on the other hand, left this arrangement, replacing Kutepov with Andrei Yeshchenko.

And instead of Moses, Oston Urunov entered the field.

However, the latter returned to the bench just a few minutes later due to damage.

“Spartak” switched to playing in bulk, but could not extract any special dividends from it.

The red-and-white footballers, if they won the fight in someone else's penalty area, lost the rebound.

In fact, the owners did not manage to create a single dangerous moment at the gate of Sergei Pesyakov.

Moreover, in the whole game they delivered only two hits on target.

So Tedesco's wards, having shown an absolutely faded game, suffered their first defeat in the RPL in more than a month and risk losing their leadership.

Rostov beat Spartak at Otkritie Arena for the second time in a row.