Kamano's double, Smolov's goal and Zhemaletdinov's three assists: how Lokomotiv beat Sochi in the 22nd round of the RPL

Serious losses of "Sochi"

The 22nd round turned out to be rich in important confrontations within the framework of the struggle for medals and getting into the European Cup zone.

On Saturday, March 13th, Spartak beat Dynamo in the Moscow derby and moved up to second place, taking advantage of a misfire by CSKA.

And on Sunday, March 14, Lokomotiv hosted Sochi.

And if last season the teams solved fundamentally different problems in the national championship, then in this southerner they became one of the main discoveries.

Moreover, Vladimir Fedotov's charges approached the match in Moscow ahead of their opponents in the standings.

The guests occupied the fourth line, while the hosts - only the sixth.

However, earlier the team of Marko Nikolic managed to improve their position a little, having won over CSKA and Arsenal with a total score of 5: 0.

In the event of another success, the red-greens could catch up with Rubin and Sochi and reduce the gap from third place to three points.

And the Muscovites had every chance of this, because the southerners arrived in the capital without several leaders.

The team's brain Christian Noboa and one of the top scorers Anton Zabolotny missed the game due to the bust of yellow cards, and Nikita Burmistrov, who scored five goals in the current RPL season, was sent off at the end of the match with Rostov.

As a result, Noboa's place in the center of the field was taken by 20-year-old Danil Prutsev, who, as a rule, comes on as a substitute, with Marko Dugandzic at the fore.

Nikolic, unlike Fedotov, could count on everyone except Anton Miranchuk and Ze Luis.

Even Fedor Smolov returned to duty and scored the winning goal in Tula in the previous round.

Nevertheless, the Russian remained on the bench, and the coaching staff, in comparison with the last game, made only one permutation in the composition.

Captain Vedran Corluka, who had served a suspension, replaced Murilo in the center of defense.

An important goal of Lokomotiv

Considering the losses of the opponent, it is not surprising that Lokomotiv started the match more actively.

In the first minutes, the hosts literally suppressed the guests with high pressure and tried to create an overload on the right flank, taking advantage of the slowness of the left central defender Ivan Miladinovic.

Gradually, the intensity subsided, but the railroad workers still continued to possess the ball.

By the 20th minute, their advantage in this component reached an incredible 69%.

"Sochi" did not think about positional attacks and only occasionally organized counter-attacks. 

However, the advantage of Nikolic's charges did not lead to the creation of dangerous moments.

For a long time, they could not even bring the matter to a shot on goal by Soslan Dzhanaev.

And Francois Camano and Vitaly Lisakovich did not manage to get inside the opponent's penalty area often, although the Belarusian demonstrated his trademark dribbling in several episodes.

Closer to the middle of the first half, the game leveled off.

Now the southerners were much more likely to find themselves in the wrong half of the field and even had promising chances.

So, after half an hour of the meeting, Artur Yusupov struck from the penalty line into the hands of Marinato Guilherme.

Following Dugandzhich from close range sent the ball to the stands.

A goalless draw seemed quite a logical outcome of the first half of the match.

However, in the 42nd minute, Lokomotiv unexpectedly managed to come out ahead.

Rifat Zhemaletdinov, with an excellent cutting transmission, discovered a gap between Mikha Mevlya and Miladinovich and brought him one-on-one with Dzhanaev Kamano.

The Guinean did not miss his chance and calmly threw the goalkeeper.

“Sochi” could instantly equalize the score thanks to Pablo's gross mistake.

The Brazilian, after throwing in the direction of his own goal, instead of leaving the ball to Guilherme, threw it aside directly at Joaozinho.

The naturalized Brazilian, like Camano, tried to throw the goalkeeper, but missed the target a little.

Lost moments of Sochi

After the break, the guests had no choice but to go forward, and the hosts took advantage of this with pleasure.

As in the recent match with CSKA, they over and over ran to someone else's half of the field and burst into the free zones in the opponent's defense.

And already in the 56th minute, this tactic bore fruit, and the goal turned out to be similar to Grzegorz Krychowiak's ball against the army team.

Zhemaletdinov found Kamano on the left edge of the penalty area with an excellent cross, tossing Ivan Novoseltsev, and the striker, after a pause, struck the defender under the supporting leg.

Dzhanaev in this situation was caught in the opposite direction and could not save the team.

It seemed that the questions about the outcome of the confrontation were removed, but Sochi immediately managed to return to the game.

If Joaozinho forgave the opponent at the end of the first half, then Yusupov did not miss his moment.

After filing from the right flank and Dugandzhich's discount, the midfielder punched the rally into the far corner.

The southerners immediately made a replacement to strengthen the line of attack.

Instead of a tired Dugandzhich, a short but fast Maxim Barsov entered the field, designed to run behind the backs of the slow Chorluke and Pablo.

Nikolic replied with a double substitution.

Lisakovich was replaced in the attack by Smolov, and Dmitry Zhivoglyadov entered the field instead of Daniil Kulikov.

At the same time, the fresh footballer took his usual place on the right edge of the defense, and Rybchinsky climbed a little higher.

A little later, Dmitry Barinov came into play instead.

So Lokomotiv finally concreted the center of the field, but Sochi still managed to organize a kind of final assault, and the opponent had to endure a dozen unpleasant minutes.

In one of the episodes, Pablo only at the last moment blocked Barsov's kick from within the penalty area, and in another, the striker himself miraculously missed the ball, being on the goalkeeper's line.

Smolov's goal finally reassured the guests.

All the same Zhemaletdinov picked up the ball in his own half of the field and dragged it almost to someone else's penalty area, after which he passed the ball to a partner.

Fedor, on the other hand, put an end to the confrontation with a magnificent blow from the penalty line.

In turn, Zhemaletdinov managed to issue an assistant hat-trick.

Thus, Lokomotiv won the third victory in a row in the RPL and is now in fourth place.