Noboa's masterpiece, Larsson's uncounted goal and a conflict in the sub-boom: how Spartak lost to Sochi in the 18th round of the RPL

The match between Sochi and Spartak was rightly considered one of the most important and anticipated in the 18th round of the RPL, and this despite the presence of such iconic meetings as Zenit - Dynamo and Krasnodar - Lokomotiv.

The reason for this was not only the fact that the red and whites share the first line in the standings and are among the top three contenders for gold, but also the events that surrounded this confrontation in recent years.

It is noteworthy that in the last two seasons of the Russian Premier League, Spartak and Sochi met in the first round, and the matches invariably ended in major referee scandals.

In 2019, Sochi were dissatisfied with the work of Vladimir Moskalev, who scored a rather controversial goal after being hit by Samuel Gigot.

In that episode, the Frenchman grabbed the head of defender Evgeny Pesegov with his hands, after which he struck irresistibly from the second floor.

And already in August 2020, that famous game took place, after which Leonid Fedun announced his readiness to remove the red and white from the championship.

The reason for this was the lost two points and two penalties assigned to Alexander Maksimenko's goal, both of which raised serious questions.

As for the rosters, in this regard, it was the Sochi coaching staff that surprised me.

Several major players remained in the reserve at once, including Anton Zabolotny, Nikita Burmistrov, Ivan Miladinovich and Elmir Nabiullin.

“Spartak” could not count on the injured Alexander Sobolev and Alexander Kokorin.

As for the second, his participation in the match until the last was in question, but in the end, the striker still did not go with the team on the road.

In the first third of the half, the hosts looked much sharper.

Knowing perfectly well that Spartak does not perform in the best way in positional attacks, the Sochi players gave up the ball and started playing second.

This plan worked, and the guests contributed a lot.

Domenico Tedesco's charges tried to lure opponents from their half of the field, but often they only hurt themselves.

Combinations at their own penalty area were accompanied by defenders' mistakes, which led either to losses or to additional tests for Alexander Maksimenko.

As a result - two dangerous blows performed by Artur Yusupov and one by Christian Noboa.

And the Ecuadorian was closer to the goal.

He found himself unsupervised in the opponent's penalty area, but shot slightly above the crossbar.

Over time, the red-and-white realized the futility of such a method and began with more and more forces to switch to someone else's half.

In the period from the 20th to the 30th minute, the Muscovites struck seven shots at the goal of Sochi and established total control over the ball (83% - 17%).

Ezequiel Ponce and Ayrton were beaten twice, Victor Moses was shooting dangerously, however, only Jordan Larsson's “shot” from a free-kick reached Soslan Dzhanaev.

The hosts defended themselves with large forces and blocked most of the guests' attempts.

On the eve of the meeting, Larsson ranked first in the number of effective actions (8 goals + 4 assists) in the team, and at the end of the half he had every chance to catch up with the top scorer of Spartak in the person of Ponce (nine goals).

The Swede effectively handled Ayrton's serve from the flank and easily outplayed Dzhanaev, but in between times he played along a little.

Chief arbiter Igor Panin did not notice the violation of the rules, but the video assistant clarified the situation.

Subsequently, Jordan struck another dangerous blow, but this time by.

Like the first, the second half began with a series of dangerous attacks performed by Sochi.

First, Sergei Terekhov opened in the zone of the left semi-flank and delivered a dangerous blow from within the penalty area, and then Marko Dugandzhich and Timofey Margasov were close to the goal.

But Alexander Maksimenko prevented the first to excel, and the second lacked accuracy.

However, already in the 57th minute, the owners still achieved their goal, and Noboa created another masterpiece.

The Ecuadorian shot irresistibly from outside the penalty area and came in second in the RPL scorers race.

At the same time, the hosts made their first substitution.

Oleg Fomenko, acting head coach in the absence of the disqualified Igor Fedotov, sent Anton Zabolotny onto the pitch.

But this did not prevent the "leopards" from retreating in large forces.

“Spartak” again found itself out of place and was forced to break into the massive defense of the opponent, with which there were serious difficulties.

Tedesco again acted original and released the nominal defender Ilya Kutepov instead of forward Larsson.

Initially, this might have seemed like a gesture of despair, but a few seconds later, Spartak had a great chance to restore parity.

Ponce received a pass in the penalty area, but missed from five meters.

The last 15 minutes of the match were a demonstration of serious problems of the red and white both with the composition and with the game.

In addition to Kutepov, Nail Umyarov and Oston Urunov also appeared on the field, but none of them could seriously affect the final result.

The guests could not find the keys to the enemy's defense, and the most dangerous moments arose after the serves on Gigot.

The French defender has repeatedly become the recipient of canopies, but failed to break through Dzhanaev.

"Spartak" lost away to "Sochi" and lost the chance to lead the standings.

For the red and white, this defeat was the third of the season.

As for the referee scandals, this time there were practically no reasons for dissatisfaction with the work of the referees.

More or less controversial can be considered only the episode with the fall of Gigot in the penalty area, but even the Frenchman himself was not particularly indignant about the actions of Ibrahim Tsallagov.

But Tedesco suffered again, receiving another yellow card for communicating with the reserve judge.

Nevertheless, after the end of the meeting, a conflict between the teams occurred in the under-stands.

First, the head coach of "Spartak" quarreled with Dzhanaev, and then a fight broke out altogether, in which the German assistant Andreas Hinkel was injured. 

“After the end of the match of the 18th round of the RPL“ Sochi ”-“ Spartak ”, a verbal conflict arose in the room under the stands between the hosts 'goalkeeper Soslan Dzhanaev and the guests' head coach Domenico Tedesco.

The players and staff of both teams tried to calm the situation, but during the skirmish, according to the coach of "Spartak" Andreas Hinkel, he was physically affected by the midfielder of "Sochi" Joaozinho.

Checking in progress.

Participants of the incident are being interviewed, data from CCTV cameras are being studied.

An assessment of what happened after a thorough study of all the materials will be given by the FTC RFU, ”the RPL said.