For the next match in the oldest Russian derby, Dynamo and Spartak approached as full-fledged participants in the RPL championship race.
On the eve of the 22nd round, the teams lagged behind the leading Zenit by six and four points, respectively, which in the current conditions can hardly be called a big handicap.
If successful, the hosts could rise to the third line, and the guests could completely bypass the unexpectedly stumbled CSKA and climb to the second.
As befits status confrontations, passions began to boil long before the meeting.
The FTC RFU contributed to this, analyzing the episodes with the participation of Dynamo midfielder Daniil Fomin and Spartak defender Samuel Zhigot in the 21st round.
Both received a yellow card, which became their fourth of the season, as a result of which they risked missing the derby.
However, in the end, the warning to the Russian was canceled, while the punishment of the Frenchman remained in force.
It is not surprising that this caused bewilderment on the part of the red and whites, who turned to the Russian Football Union for clarification.
The hosts were helped by the return of injured players to the ranks.
Both winger Clinton N'Zhi and defender Ivan Ordets, who did not take part in the game against Tambov, recovered from the damage.
The Ukrainian paired up with Roman Evgeniev in the center of defense, and the Cameroonian subsequently emerged from the bench.
At the heart of his place on the right edge of the midfield was again taken by 17-year-old Arsen Zakharyan, and the role of the only forward was played by Vyacheslav Grulev.
Tedesco also did not shuffle the line-up much.
Instead of Nail Umyarov, Roman Zobnin appeared in the middle lane, missing the last game due to disqualification, and Zhigo was replaced by Ilya Kutepov.
The attacking trio again consisted of Alexander Sobolev, Jordan Larsson and Quincy Promes, who took part in organizing five of the six goals in the meeting with Krasnodar.
The first minutes weren't the most intense.
Despite the status of a guest, Spartak had a territorial advantage, but for a long time could not create anything dangerous at the gates of Andrei Shunin.
It was not possible to deliver the ball into the penalty area with the bottom, and long-range casts on Sobolev could not find the addressee.
At the same time, Promes did not look very bright, and the laterals Ayrton and Victor Moses showed themselves more actively than others.
In this regard, what happened in the 18th minute can only be called an accident.
Kutepov prevented the creation of an artificial offside position and allowed Grulev to break through to the penalty area.
He failed to break through, but Zakharyan caught the ball and shot it to the far post.
The pass turned out to be not the most accurate, and the team-mate did not have time to close it, but Pavel Maslov unexpectedly cut the ball into his own goal.
Only an offside position at the Dynamo forward could save the red and whites from a goal, but the video replay showed his absence.
👕 Starting lineups for the derby # DynamoSpartak
⠀ # TinkoffRPLpic.twitter.com / 25vUtdYjUG
- Tinkoff Russian Premier League (@premierliga) March 13, 2021
Surely at this moment many could have analogies with the teams' match in the Russian Cup.
Then Dynamo also opened the scoring in the first 20 minutes, after which they not only retained the winning result, but also increased the advantage.
However, this time everything turned out differently.
“Spartak” increased the pace, began to play low more often and already at the end of half an hour restored parity.
It is noteworthy that Sobolev played a key role, this time in the position of an attacking midfielder.
Alexander covered the ball with his body, left Evgeniev and Sebastian Shimanski out of business in one move, after which he “cut out” an exact diagonal pass to Moses.
He shot into the far corner and distinguished himself for the second time in the RPL.
It is all the more offensive that the Nigerian did not manage to finish the first half, leaving the field five minutes before normal time due to injury.
His place on the edge of the midfield was taken by Zobnin, and Umyarov came into the center, but it was not possible to rebuild immediately.
Dynamo took advantage of this, for the rest of the time they were marked with two dangerous long-range strikes.
Grulev was the closest to the goal, but he missed the target a little.
It is worth noting that Sergei Parshivlyuk could well become one of the main characters in the first half.
In 45 minutes, the defender twice violated the rules quite harshly against representatives of his former team and could well have earned a removal, but received only one yellow card.
He received a warning in the 41st minute, while a hard foul against Georgy Dzhikia at the beginning of the match was ignored by the chief referee Sergei Ivanov.
Sergei nevertheless entered the second half, but after six minutes Schwartz decided to play it safe and replaced him with Guillermo Varela.
However, this rearrangement did not change the course of the game.
Spartak continued to have the advantage and were much sharper in attack.
One of the most active was Promes, in a quarter of an hour he was marked with two shots on goal at once.
The second episode turned out to be especially effective.
Quincy played a roulette feint, thanks to which he broke away from the defender, but missed the target.
Therefore, Sobolev's goal from the penalty spot followed from the logic of the game, but it was preceded by an episode that could well cause controversy among the fans.
Spartak's massive attack ended with Maslov's lumbago, and the ball ricocheted from his foot into Dmitry Skopintsev's forearm.
After consulting with the video assistant, Ivanov personally went to watch the replay and pointed to the point.
In the remaining 30 minutes, each of the opponents could score.
Dynamo's chances were for Skopintsev, Evgeniev, eager to improve, and Konstantin Tyukavin, who came on as a substitute, but Varela missed the surest chance.
The pupil of "Real" beat from outside the penalty area, but Oleksandr Maksimenko miraculously saved his goal.
The goalkeeper managed to take a position on the goal line and parry a powerful blow from the Uruguayan with his knee.
It is worth noting that Shunin, at least, did not lag behind his counterpart.
He made three more rescues (5: 2), and in the end did not allow Ezequiel Ponce to excel.
The Argentinian struck great under the crossbar, the goalkeeper of the Russian national team in a spectacular jump moved the ball to the corner.
True, the "Spartak" forward did not calm down on this and soon had a chance to excel again, but struck the crossbar.
In the end, the hosts tried to arrange a bulk, but the guests survived.
Spartak beat Dynamo for the third time in a row in the RPL and continued their pursuit of Zenit.
Tedesco's wards bypassed CSKA in the standings and remained four points behind the reigning champion.
A little spoiled the mood of the fans of the red and white only the fact that the meeting was not finished by Jordan Larsson.
The Swede was injured and left the field on a stretcher.