Four penalties in Saransk, the resignation of Musaev and Rakhimov, the pursuit of Spartak for Zenit: the main events of the 24th round of the RPL

Lokomotiv's fifth win in a row

Lokomotiv won the sixth consecutive victory in all tournaments after the season resumption and the fifth in a row in the RPL.

In the 24th round, the railroad workers on the road turned out to be stronger than the outsider Rotor - 2: 0.

It is curious that this meeting became the debut at the head of the Volgograd team for Yuri Baturenko, who had previously worked as an assistant to Yuri Semin for many years, including at Loko.

Under the leadership of the new coach, the team suffered their first defeat from the red-greens since July 2003.

The main hero of the confrontation was the guests' midfielder Rifat Zhemaletdinov.

In the first half, he gave an assist pass to Grzegorz Krychowiak, and shortly before the final whistle he scored a beautiful goal.

After moving to the top ten position, the player really changed.

In 2021, the footballer of the Russian national team has six points for performance (2 + 4) in the championship.

In turn, the Pole scored the fourth goal after the resumption of the season in all tournaments.

And Marinato Guilherme had the fifth match with zero and became the leader of the current season of the national championship in the number of "crackers" - 11.

Kvaratskhelia's third goal in seven days

Rubin started the year successfully.

In the last round, Kazan unexpectedly lost to Khimki, but on Saturday they returned to the victorious path in the home confrontation with Sochi - 1: 0.

At the same time, the match turned out to be extremely difficult for the hosts.

Throughout most of the meeting, the guests had an advantage and created chances at the opponent's goal.

As a result, they delivered twice as many punches as their opponent (12 versus six).

But better than any praise was the goalkeeper of Kazan Yuri Dyupin, who made three saves.

And right after the break, Leonid Slutskiy made an effective substitution, which decided the outcome of the game - he released Khvichu Kvaratskhelia onto the field.

And in the 71st minute, the technical midfielder scored a beautiful goal.

After the corner was played, he poisoned the ball into the far corner from outside the penalty area.

The goalkeeper Nikolai Zabolotny rendered involuntary help to the footballer, who began to fall into the neighbor ahead of time.

For Kvaratskhelia, this goal was the third in the last seven days.

Previously, as part of the Georgian national team, he upset Spain and Greece.

And for the first time in history, Rubin turned out to be stronger than Sochi. 

Five goals conceded by Krasnodar

But the affairs of Krasnodar, on the contrary, are not going well.

Southerners not only flew out of the Russian Cup and Europa League, but also suffered a third defeat in the last five matches in the national championship.

Moreover, the team of Murad Musaev for the second time in the last month conceded five or more goals.

In early March, he lost to Spartak 1: 6, and on Saturday - to Akhmat - 0: 5.

Moreover, this defeat for the team was one of the largest in history and the largest - at the home stadium.

Grozny, on the contrary, achieved victory with the maximum difference in the score in the national championship.

This time, even the return of Matvey Safonov to the ranks did not help the owners.

To begin with, they allowed Evgeny Kharin to excel in the fifth minute.

In addition, Igor Smolnikov was soon injured, and the nominal midfielder Alexey Ionov had to take a place on the right edge of the defense.

Krasnodar finally collapsed at the beginning of the second half, when Andrei Semyonov and Bernard Berisha scored two goals in three minutes.

Soon, the forward of the Kosovo national team, who came on as a substitute, managed to issue a double.

And Ionov put an end to the confrontation, unwittingly hitting his own goal.

Musaev announced in the late afternoon that this match was his last at the head of the southerners.

The next day, the club's management confirmed his resignation.

Two points for Tyukavin's performance

Another coaching resignation took place after the Dynamo - Ufa match, which ended in a major victory for the blue and white with a score of 4: 0.

Bashkortostanians suffered the sixth defeat in the last seven RPL meetings, and therefore Rashid Rakhimov decided to end work with the team, and the club's management did not interfere with him.

Muscovites, on the other hand, won the fourth championship match out of the last five.

The players of the Russian youth team again made a significant contribution to the success.

The failure at the European Championship did not affect their actions in any way.

Daniil Lesovoy opened the scoring, and Konstantin Tyukavin not only gave him an assist, but also scored the third goal in the last two rounds of the RPL and the fourth in all tournaments after the resumption of the season.

In turn, 17-year-old Arsen Zakharyan scored an effective pass and earned a penalty for Nikolai Komlichenko.

The oldest goal of the championship

Another outsider, Arsenal, was also defeated.

In mid-March, the Tula scored a sensational victory over CSKA and seemed to have gained the necessary boost of confidence.

However, in the following rounds, the team lost to Akhmat and Ural with the same score 0: 2.

Moreover, the match in Yekaterinburg started perfectly for the guests.

Already in the second minute, Sergei Tkachev earned a penalty.

However, Vladislav Panteleev shot from the “point” rather ingeniously, weakly and practically in the center of the goal, and Yaroslav Godzyur saved the hosts.

Ural immediately punished the opponent for this oversight.

After the filing of Igor Kalinin, the second goal in the current RPL season was scored by one of the most experienced players of the team, Pavel Pogrebnyak.

Also, at the age of 37 years, 4 months and 27 days, he became the author of the "oldest" goal in the current championship of the country.

And in the end of the match, the newcomer Ramazan Gadzhimuradov put an end to it.

In turn, the 23-year-old football player scored his debut ball in the Premier League.

Sychev's ten saves

In addition to two retirements in the 24th round, one coaching debut also took place.

Ivica Olic played the first match at the head of CSKA.

Ironically, the meeting with Tambov went down in RPL history.

And the point is not in the Croatian, but in the judge Vitalia Meshkov, who appointed four penalties at once and set a new tournament record.

And the outsider was the first to earn the right to execute the penalty kick.

Igor Diveev played in his own penalty area inaccurately in the selection, and the referee pointed to the "point".

Artyom Arkhipov confidently outplayed Igor Akinfeev and scored the second goal after the season resumed.

Moreover, both goals of the team in 2021 are on his account.

In the future, Meshkov assigned a penalty only to the gates of the nominal owners, and all of them were for handball.

In one case, the arbitrator had to use the help of the VAR to make a decision.

As a result, Nikola Vlašić and Jose Salomon Rondon realized their attempts.

But the second Croat failed.

20-year-old Vitaly Sychev, stretching himself to the string, coped with his blow to the right corner of himself.

Thus, the CSKA midfielder did not realize the second penalty in the current RPL season and the fourth in the army team.

In turn, the young goalkeeper of "Tambov" played a great game.

He has really saved the team many times and has recorded ten saves to his credit.

For Muscovites, another fly in the ointment was a serious knee injury of the main central defender Herdur Magnusson.

The Icelander was carried off the field on a stretcher shortly before the final whistle.

"Thriller" in Rostov-on-Don

Another Moscow team - "Spartak", occupying the second place in the standings, won their fourth victory in a row with a total score of 16: 5.

Following Krasnodar, Dynamo and Ural, the red-whites managed to beat Rostov - 3: 2.

Moreover, the metropolitan team for the first time since December 2013 did it on the road.

Neither the debut ball in the Premier League of the rival midfielder Georgy Makhatadze, nor the next effective cut by Pavel Maslov, prevented the guests from scoring three points.

The young defender scored his second own goal in the last three meetings of the national championship.

However, the wards of Domenico Tedesco managed to show character, and Alexander Sobolev became the main character in their composition.

The striker of the Russian national team has issued the fourth double in the current RPL draw.

And in the last four rounds, he has seven goals and one assist.

In total, the forward has 12 accurate strikes, and in the top scorers' race of the tournament he came close to Zenit players Serdar Azmun and Artem Dziuba, who distinguished themselves 13 times.

Quincy Promes did not leave the field without a point for performance.

The Dutchman made an assist to Sobolev and scored the fourth point in five matches (2 + 2) after returning to Russia.

Two accurate hits of Zenit in extra time

After the victory of their favorite team, Spartak fans hoped for Zenit's misfire in the confrontation with Khimki.

Their aspirations seemed unfounded, because the Moscow Region team is the main discovery of the current RPL season and in the last ten matches they won eight victories with two draws.

However, it was the reigning champion who closed the opponent's successful streak.

It is noteworthy that the last defeat in the championship Igor Cherevchenko's wards also suffered from the Petersburgers on November 1 of last year.

As a result, the two failures were separated by five months.

This time, Serdar Azmun managed to open an account already in the ninth minute, but the referee Pavel Shadykhanov canceled the goal, since Dejan Lovren hit Dmitry Tikhiy in the face before serving into someone else's penalty area.

However, in the second minute added to the first half, the hosts still distinguished themselves by all the rules.

Vyacheslav Karavaev sent the ball into the net after a corner kick.

And in the 92nd minute, Andrei Mostovoy, who came on as a substitute, put an end to the confrontation.

For the midfielder of the Russian national team, this goal became the fourth in the current draw of the national championship and the second in the last three rounds.

At the same time, he scored both, appearing on the field during the meetings.