Zenit's victory without attackers, Dzagoev's magnificent shot and a spectacular denouement in Saransk: what did the RPL round 13 stand for?

Rubin's three-minute shock

After defeating the reigning champion of the country in the previous round, Rubin confidently beat Arsenal - 3: 1.

The decisive was the three-minute segment in the middle of the first half, when Leonid Slutsky's charges scored twice.

Karl Starfelt and George Despotovich managed to excel.

For the Serb, this goal was already the sixth in the current RPL season, in the league scorers' race is second only to Christian Noboa from Sochi.

At the beginning of the second half, Soltmurad Bakaev brought the score to a devastating one.

By the way, the midfielder acquired from Spartak played a strong match for the second in a row, because in addition to an accurate shot, he gave an assist to Despotovich.

In the last two meetings, Saltmurad has four points for performance (1 + 3).

The only thing that Arsenal had enough for was a prestige goal performed by Kirill Panchenko, who had transferred from Tambov.

The Tulyans suffered two defeats in a row in the RPL with a total score of 2: 8 and continue to be in the zone of transitional matches.

Karpin's victory over Spartak

Spartak lost to Rostov with a minimum score at home.

Pavel Mamaev scored the only goal in the middle of the first half from the pass of Roman Eremenko, "amnestied" by the RFU.

This defeat was the first for the red and white in the RPL in six matches.

The last time Domenico Tedesco's charges lost to CSKA in the derby was on 13 September.

After the arrival of Valery Karpin, Rostov turned into a truly inconvenient opponent for the ten-time national champion.

The Muscovites won their last victory over the southerners in the Premier League back in May 2018.

In the next five league matches, the yellow-blues won four wins and one draw.

Moreover, Rostov beat Spartak on the road for the third time in a row.

Karpin himself continues to improve the statistics of personal confrontation with the former team.

At the moment, he has four wins, a draw and two losses.

Unsuccessful series of "Krasnodar"

The teams representing Russia in the Champions League were also missing.

Thus, the bloodless Krasnodar lost to Akhmat on the road - 0: 2.

Moreover, in this match, in addition to a number of players, captain Alexander Martynovich, who received a red card in the game of the previous round, could not take part.

His place in the center of defense was taken by 19-year-old debutant Vyacheslav Litvinov.

And 20-year-old Eduard Spertsyan appeared in the center of the field.

As a result, even the numerous saves of Matvey Safonov did not help the southerners to score points.

“Akhmat” managed to open an account in the 66th minute - after a corner kick, Wilker Angel successfully watched the rebound.

And closer to the final whistle, Ismael set the final score with a kick from outside the penalty area.

During the week Krasnodar suffered three defeats in all tournaments with a total score of 1: 9.

Goal plus a pass by Zabolotny

Lokomotiv also suffered a second defeat in a row in the RPL, although before that the railroad workers had won the national championship for four rounds.

Marko Nikolic, on the eve of the meeting with Sochi, also had to solve serious personnel problems.

So, Grzegorz Krychowiak missed the game due to disqualification, and Stanislav Magkeev - due to injury.

Under these conditions, the Serbian coach had to rely on one Daniil Kulikov in the support zone.

And the injured Vedran Chorluka in the center of defense was replaced by Vitaly Lystsov, who played the first match after returning to Loko.

The specialist left Zé Luis and Anton Miranchuk in reserve.

In such a weakened line-up, the railwaymen conceded two unanswered goals in the first half.

Anton Zabolotny was involved in both goals.

First, he himself struck the gate of Marinato Guilherme with a beautiful header, and then made an assist to Nikita Burmistrov in a counterattack.

After the break, Nikolic threw his leaders into the battle, and Miranchuk sent the ball into someone else's goal with the first touch after a gross mistake by Emanuel Mammana.

In the time remaining before the final whistle, Lokomotiv had the advantage, but failed to level the score.

11 Ufa matches without wins

Ufa continues to experience serious problems during the 2020/21 season.

In the current RPL draw, the team, having lost a number of leaders, won only one victory and sank to the bottom of the standings.

So far, the team was not helped by the change on the coaching bridge of Vadim Yevseyev to Rashid Rakhimov.

So in the home match of the 13th round with Ural, the Bashkortostanians suffered another defeat (1: 2) and extended the losing streak in the national championship to 11 meetings.

Yekaterinburg, on the other hand, achieved their first victory in the RPL in six matches.

The main character of the meeting was Eric Bikfalvi, who made a double.

In the championship, the Romanians have already scored five goals, and in total he has 36 goals for Ural - he came out on to a clear fourth place in the list of the club's top scorers in history.

As part of "Ufa" the only goal was scored by newcomer Komnen Andrich.

In total, he has two goals in three matches for the new team.

Earlier, the Serb hit the gates of Chertanovo in the cup match.

Erokhin's goals in four RPL matches in a row

The current champion of the country "Zenith" on the eve of the match with "Khimki" faced serious losses.

First of all, the Petersburgers, for various reasons, were left without the entire line of attack: Serdar Azmun, Artem Dziuba and Sebastian Driussi.

Also, due to injuries, Wendel and Malcolm missed the game, and Wilmar Barrios spent the entire meeting on the bench.

Some fans assumed that the Moscow Region team would be able to take advantage of the losses of the blue-white-blue and take revenge from them for their defeat in the country's Cup final.

And Igor Cherevchenko's charges started the match actively.

Already in the ninth minute, Reziuan Mirzov could open the score, but after his hit on an empty goal, Yaroslav Rakitskiy delivered the ball from the line.

But "Zenith" realized its first moment.

Andrey Mostovoy closed the cross of Magomed Ozdoev at the far post.

Finally, Sergei Semak's team removed all questions about the outcome of the game shortly before the final whistle, when Alexander Erokhin closed Yuri Zhirkov's pass from the left flank.

The midfielder scored his sixth goal in the current RPL season and caught up with Azmun and Dziuba in the scorers' race, and he scored in the fourth meeting in a row.

Petersburgers managed to interrupt a series of three defeats in a row in all tournaments and catch up with Spartak in the standings.

Dzagoev's magnificent blow

CSKA headed the Russian championship standings for the first time since September 2019.

Unlike Krasnodar and Lokomotiv, the army team was not hampered by the tight schedule associated with the performance in European competitions.

The away match with Rotor was their third in a week, but the guests won with a minimum score, which became for them the fourth in a row in the national championship.

As expected, the Muscovites had an advantage for most of the meeting, but the hosts looked even more interesting in counterattacks.

Igor Akinfeev helped the capital team a couple of times.

However, shortly before the break, CSKA managed to open an account.

Alan Dzagoev, after Arnor Sigurdsson's discount, struck a strong blow into the near corner from outside the penalty area.

In the second half of the meeting, the army team calmly kept the result that suited them and did not allow the Volgograd team to do anything.

Red and blue after the break, struck eight shots on goal of Josip Chondrich and could well have distinguished themselves again.

Two send-offs and three penalties in Saransk

The final match of the 13th round of the RPL, in which Tambov and Dynamo met, turned out to be rich in events.

The blue and white won a second victory under the new head coach Sandro Schwartz - 2: 1.

And the referee Sergey Karasev appointed three penalties and showed two red cards.

The Moscow team opened the scoring at the eighth minute.

Young Daniil Lesovoy managed to hit the gates of 40-year-old Sergei Ryzhikov, who scored in the third RPL match of the last four.

And at the beginning of the second half, Tambov remained with nine.

First, Anton Kilin received the second yellow card, and after only five minutes Guram Tetrashvili was sent off for stepping on the foot of Sebastian Shimanski, who was lying on the lawn, with thorns.

Despite the obvious personnel problems, the outsider did not give up and earned a penalty in one of the attacks, which was converted by Herman Onugha.

And in stoppage time, Karasev appointed two more penalty kicks.

Nikolai Komlichenko used his chance, but Onugha did not.

Anton Shunin parried his kick to the right corner on the 99th minute.

The goalkeeper of the Russian national team saved the 11th penalty kick in his career.