Lisakovich's beautiful feint, Krykhovyak's powerful kick and Vlašić's unrealized penalty: how Lokomotiv beat CSKA in the RPL

CSKA's catastrophic losses

The 20th round of the RPL, the first after the resumption of the season, turned out to be rich in matches with loud signs.

So, on Saturday the reigning champion "Zenith" unexpectedly parted ways with "Rostov", which is fighting for medals.

The Moscow derby "Lokomotiv" - CSKA aroused no less interest.

Taking into account the misfire of the Petersburgers, it acquired particular importance for the army men, because in case of victory they could reduce the gap from the leader to two points.

The railroad workers faced no less serious tasks.

The team finished last year in eighth place in the championship standings, seven points behind the third line.

Thus, another misfire could further alienate her from the European Cup zone.

Serious staffing problems of the opponent played into the hands of the hosts on the eve of the most important meeting.

According to media reports, due to the coronavirus, the captain and permanent first number of CSKA Igor Akinfeev, as well as the main defender Igor Diveev, missed the derby.

The club did not confirm rumors of COVID-19.

In particular, it was reported that the experienced goalkeeper just caught a cold.

One way or another, the army team had to urgently return Ilya Pomazun from the lease in the Urals, who took his place at the last line.

Viktor Vasin made up a pair of Herdur Magnusson in the center of defense.

Ivan Oblyakov, Alan Dzagoev and Emil Bohinen also remained outside the application for unclear reasons.

Accordingly, Konstantin Maradishvili and Ilzat Akhmetov are located in the support zone.

And at the forefront of the attack, Goncharenko did not release Ilya Shkurin or Fyodor Chalov, but the newcomer Solomon Rondon, who made his debut for CSKA just last week.

Lokomotiv also did not go without losses.

Due to muscle problems, Anton Miranchuk was not even on the bench.

The attackers Fedor Smolov and Ze Luis are still injured.

Therefore, Vitaly Lisakovich and François Camano made up the experimental duet ahead.

In the center of the field, there is a rhombus, and the position of the defensive player was taken not by Grzegorz Krychowiak, but by 19-year-old Maxim Mukhin.

Magnificent first half of Lokomotiv

Derby started for CSKA worse than ever.

The forcedly renewed line of defense of the guests could not withstand the first blow.

Daniil Kulikov started the effective attack, who took the ball away from Baktiyor Zainutdinov on the right flank of the attack, played into the wall with Dmitry Rybchinsky and cut the opponent's center of defense with a low pass into the penalty area to Lisakovich.

In turn, the Belarusian left Magnusson in half-position, removed Vasin with a beautiful feint and struck Pomazuna in the counter-attack.

After conceding the ball already in the sixth minute, the army team had to go ahead, but in front they practically did not succeed.

In the center of the field, CSKA midfielders were losing the fight to Kulikov and Krykhovyak.

The young Mukhin was also good, who regularly insured his partners, and also started the team's attacks.

Even Vlašić was not very noticeable.

As a result, for the entire first half, Goncharenko's charges had only one dangerous moment.

Rondon, during a quick attack from the penalty line, struck into the near corner, but Marinato Guilherme moved the ball to the corner.

For the rest, it was felt that the Venezuelan was not in the best shape.

It was hard for him to win the fight against the much more recent Pablo and Vedran Chorluka and cling to the balls.

And Lokomotiv looked fresh as a whole.

In particular, the hosts regularly ran away in dangerous counterattacks, filling the free zones left by the opponent.

One of these attacks at the end of the first half ended in a goal.

Mario Fernandez lingered on someone else's half of the field, and Krykhovyak, after a careful transfer of Kamano, dealt an incredible blow to the rally in the near nine.

Akhmetov and Vasin did not have time to cover it, and Pomazun had practically no chance to help out the team.

Nikolic's strange removal

During the break, Goncharenko went to extreme measures and made a castling double.

The place of absolutely imperceptible Arnor Sigurdsson was taken by Konstantin Kuchaev, and Chidera Edzhuke was replaced by Shchennikov.

At the same time, Zainutdinov dropped to the left edge of the defense, and the Nigerian climbed higher.

The release of fresh players helped the army team to change the course of the game.

Kuchaev added constructiveness in the attack, and Edzhuke regularly beat the nominal midfielder Rybchinsky on the flank.

For a while, the guests even managed to push the opponent to the goal.

But the team failed to realize their chances.

The most obvious red-blues missed around the 50th minute, when Guilherme made a double save.

The goalkeeper first parried Vasin's head blow, and then coped with finishing Kuchaev point-blank.

Following Akhmetov, from within the penalty area, inflicted a less successful shot into the hands of a naturalized Brazilian.

However, gradually Lokomotiv managed to recover.

The team took control of the ball and knocked down the opponent's attacking mood.

In the future, the army team was still going forward by inertia, but they lacked speed and sharpness.

There were almost no really dangerous moments at the gates of Guilherme.

The guests had the last chance to save the meeting 20 minutes before the final whistle.

Chalov, who replaced Rondon, won the fight for the ball at the front and threw it to the penalty area, but Rybchinsky blocked the pass.

It seemed that there was no violation of the rules in this episode, but Pavel Kukuyan, after watching the replay, fixed the player's handball.

The penalty kick from CSKA went to play Vlašić - and he did it very badly.

Horvath unexpectedly sent the ball above the crossbar.

It is curious that after that Nikolic lost his nerves, who in a minute received two yellow cards from Kukuyan and went to the stands.

Lokomotiv calmly brought matters to the first victory in the RPL since December 5th and beat CSKA for the third time in a row. Also worth noting is Dmitry Barinov's return to service after a severe knee injury. The defender appeared on the pitch shortly before the final whistle for the first time since 23 August.