Dupin's saves, Despotovich's goals and the magic of Makarov and Kvaratskhelia: how Rubin got involved in the fight for RPL medals

Victories over direct competitors

After the resumption of the season, Rubin has become one of the brightest teams in the Russian football championship.

Kazan won five matches out of six in the RPL and climbed to fourth place at least until the end of the CSKA - Rotor meeting.

In this segment, only Lokomotiv scored more points in the national championship, which won all the meetings.

And many experts and fans admit their sympathy for football, which is demonstrated by the wards of Leonid Slutsky.

In the first part of the season, the two-time national champion often alternated bright games with frankly failures.

So, after victories over Zenit and Arsenal, defeat from Khimki could follow.

The team regularly took points from the giants, but lost them in meetings with inferior rivals in the class: "Ural", "Tambov" and "Akhmat".

In the new year, the situation changed, and Slutsky's wards began to show much more stable results.

They continued to upset the giants, for example, they beat Spartak (2: 0) and Zenit (2: 1).

Success in these meetings gave the citizens of Kazan the necessary courage.

At the same time, they turned out to be stronger in confrontation with less formidable opponents.

The only game that stands apart is the game against Khimki, in which Rubin lost (1: 3), but in it the team lost its fortune.

In addition, the team acquired a truly champion character, and in the second part of the season it scored points even in those games in which it was far from perfect.

First of all, an incredible triumph over Zenit comes to mind with a decisive goal by Denis Makarov in the 92nd minute and a penalty shot by Yuri Dupin in the 99th minute.

Less striking, but no less important, turned out to be the last victories with a minimum score over Sochi and Rostov.

The remaining schedule of meetings will also play into the hands of Kazan in the fight for medals.

Of the direct competitors, they will have to accept only Dynamo.

For the tour before that, they will face off at home with Krasnodar, which is not in the best condition.

The rest of the opponents (Ural, Arsenal and Rotor) are quite capable of Leonid Slutsky's charges.

Bright play in attack

In many respects, the rise of “Rubin” is connected with the high-quality game of the team leaders, who, after the winter training camp, gained excellent shape.

First of all, we are talking about flanking midfielders Denis Makarov and Khvich Kvaratskhelia.

Georgians have noticeably added and began to take an active part in scoring the rivals' goal.

In the game against Spartak, he gave an assist to George Despotovich.

In the confrontation with Ufa, he scored himself and helped Makarov do it.

Finally, in a tough game against Sochi, the 19-year-old came on as a substitute after the break and scored a beautiful winning goal.

Along the way, Khvicha turned into the real leader of the Georgian national team and in March in its composition hit the gates of Spain and Greece.

Makarov also added.

He makes an average of 3.0 hits per match (5th in the league) and 2.0 strokes (8th).

Everyone knows about the football player's signature trick with leaving under his left foot, but this does not prevent him from deceiving the defenders over and over again.

It is important that Denis also managed to shine at the international level in the spring.

Together with the youth national team of Russia, he went to the European Championship and looked one of the best, although he had not been called up to it before.

Opponents are often unable to cope with such masters on the edges of Rubin's attack, and it is from these zones that most of the goals of Kazan come from.

This is largely due to the injury of Hwang In Byom, who previously played the team in the center of the field.

With his return, Slutsky may have even more options for interactions in the alien half of the field.

However, Despotovich makes the actions of Makarov and Kvaratskhelia truly effective.

The signing of the contract with the Serb can be called the main transfer success of the club.

The Serb immediately became the leader of the team and in the current RPL draw he has already scored 11 goals, four of which after the resumption of the season.

The tall striker is excellent at riding and clings to the ball.

In terms of the number of duels won on the second floor (3.3) Despotovich is second only to Oliver Abilgor (4.9) in Rubin, who is second in the league by this indicator.

And most importantly - he has a powerful delivered blow and a real "killer instinct" - he feels where the ball will be in the next moment.

Reliable defensive action

Finally, one cannot fail to note the increased reliability of Rubin in defense.

In the first part of the season, the team conceded quite a lot - 24 goals in 19 RPL games and scored only five of them.

In 2021, the situation has changed dramatically.

In six matches, Kazan allowed their opponents to hit their gates only four times and recorded four "crackers" in their asset.

In this regard, one cannot fail to note the actions of the duet Philip Uremovich - Karl Starfelt in the center of defense.

Slutsky's decision to transfer the Croat to this position from the defensive flank seemed controversial, but in the end it quickly bore fruit.

Both fight well on the second floor and do not allow themselves to be beaten downstairs.

The Swede also has an excellent first pass (an average of 91.3% of accurate passes) and often starts attacks from Kazan.

It is also impossible not to mention the already mentioned Abilgor.

In his person, Slutsky received a new Pontus Wernbloom in the support zone.

The Dane lacks Hvichi's technique and Boehm's passing culture, but is great at breaking.

It has already been said about how difficult it is to win a single combat on the second floor.

At the same time, Oliver is the best in the league in terms of the number of interceptions (3.2), and in terms of the number of tackles (2.0) he is second only to Ilya Samoshnikov in Kazan.

The latter became one of the main discoveries of the season as part of Rubin, because in just a few years he made an incredible journey from playing in the Amateur Football League to the Russian national team.

In March, Stanislav Cherchesov called the left-back to the national team for the first time.

Perhaps in the very near future he will replace Yuri Zhirkov in this position.

Ilya's advantage is that he is strong both in destruction (2.5 selections and 2.2 interceptions) and in creation.

A capable footballer regularly joins the team's attacks on his flank and interacts with Kvaratskhelia.

The degree of his skill was shown well by the goal in the match against Ufa.

In this episode, Samoshnikov played against Makarov, burst into the penalty area and beautifully outplayed the goalkeeper.

The first invitation to the national team, along with the defender, was received by Yuri Dupin.

This is especially surprising, because he is already 33 years old, and he started playing in the Premier League quite recently.

But with each season at the elite level, the goalkeeper is getting stronger.

In the fall, Yuri went through a not very successful period and even ended up in reserve for two matches.

Returning, Dupin began to act more confidently.

Since then, he spent six out of eight meetings in the RPL and conceded only four goals in them.

At the same time, it cannot be said that the defenders leave the goalkeeper out of work.

In almost every meeting, he makes some incredible saves.

For example, Rubin would hardly have won the most important victory over Sochi, if not for a couple of goalkeeper rescues in the first half.

In the confrontation with Zenit, Yuri scored six saves and deflected a penalty from Artyom Dziuba in time compensated for the second half.

With such a reliable footballer behind the back, the whole team feels more confident.