Two saves in a penalty shootout and defensive mistakes: how Krylia and Lokomotiv reached the Russian Cup final

Lokomotiv's tenth win in a row

By casting lots in the semifinals of the Russian Cup, fans had the opportunity to enjoy the capital's Lokomotiv - CSKA derby.

After the season resumed, the railroad workers gained an excellent pace and won nine victories in all tournaments.

CSKA, on the contrary, stalled and survived the change of coach.

Ivica Olic took the place of Viktor Goncharenko.

Thus, on Wednesday, the Croat's Balkan duel with the Serb Marko Nikolic was to take place.

Curiously, the teams' paths have already crossed in 2021.

They met in the RPL at the end of February, and the red-greens were stronger - 2: 0.

And directly on the eve of the semi-final match of the Cup, the railroad workers defeated Rostov and secured the second place in the tournament table of the national championship.

In turn, the opponent interrupted the three-match winning streak under the leadership of Olic, losing to Sochi.

In addition, the army team faced serious staffing problems.

Two defenders, Mario Fernandez and Vadim Karpov, were injured at once.

Given the serious damage to Herdur Magnusson, the coaching staff had no choice but to assign Igor Diveev and Viktor Vasin to the center of defense.

The versatile Konstantin Maradishvili played on the right flank.

The hosts, on the other hand, could count on almost all the strongest.

In particular, Maksim Mukhin and Dmitry Barinov returned to service, who were located in the center of the field with Grzegorz Krykhovyak and Rifat Zhemaletdinov.

However, despite the losses, CSKA started the game from a position of strength and even scored a quick goal.

Jose Salomon Rondon, after a penetrating pass from Alan Dzagoev, processed the projectile on the penalty line and delivered an accurate blow.

Judge Sergei Karasev initially pointed to the center, but after being prompted by his colleagues on VAR, he went to watch the replay.

As a result, the referee canceled the goal due to a barely noticeable handball from the Venezuelan.

But Lokomotiv soon scored an absolutely clean goal.

CSKA unsuccessfully performed an artificial offside position and left Francois Camano alone in front of their own goal.

The Guinean easily outplayed Igor Akinfeev and scored the seventh goal after the season resumed.

Having conceded, CSKA continued to own the initiative, but rarely made it to someone else's penalty area.

The guests could only beat from a long distance.

So, shortly before the break, Ivan Oblyakov managed a powerful shot into the far corner, which Marinato Guilherme barely coped with.

And at the very beginning of the second half, the position of CSKA became almost hopeless at all.

Lokomotiv managed to score an extremely curious goal after a corner kick.

Oblyakov unsuccessfully put himself under the ball, and from his leg he flew into the net with a candle over the discouraged Akinfeev.

Having doubled the advantage in the score, the railroad workers finally closed on the defensive and did not even strive to carry out proprietary counterattacks.

The army team was not able to revive the intrigue.

Most of their attacks ended on the approaches to the penalty area.

Central defenders Vedran Chorluka and Pablo played another great game.

Even if the ball reached the goal, then Guilherme coped with it without any problems, who had the seventh match at zero in 2021.

And in stoppage time, the owners completely brought the matter to a rout.

Krykhovyak, after a nice discount by Anton Miranchuk, sent the ball into the far corner with a rebound from the bar.

Surprisingly, at the end of the match, Nikolic's wards struck only four hits, but three of them were effective.

CSKA has 18 and four on target.

As a result, the team made it to the Russian Cup final for the fourth time in the past six years.

Moreover, in the three previous cases, Loko won the trophy.

Success of Krylia Sovetov in penalty shootout

In the second match of the semifinal stage of the tournament, less status teams met - "Akhmat" and "Wings of the Soviets".

Grozny in the playoffs knocked Rostov and Ufa out of the fight and intended to take one more step towards the coveted trophy.

But Samara residents also dreamed of creating another sensation.

They almost guaranteed themselves a return to the Premier League at the end of the season and won 13 consecutive victories in all tournaments.

Including in the playoffs of the Cup were defeated RPL teams "Khimki" (4: 0) and "Dynamo" (2: 0).

It is curious that in the framework of this tournament "Wings" and "Akhmat" last met in 2004 in the final.

Then Grozny, who played in the First Division, won an unexpected victory at the Lokomotiv stadium with a minimum score thanks to a goal by Andrey Fedkov in the 91st minute.

After 17 years, the team from the Chechen Republic was considered the favorite of the confrontation.

Andrey Talalaev's charges took the ball under their control from the first minutes and began to carry out positional attacks.

The guests responded with quick counterattacks.

In particular, in the opening, the top scorer of the team, Ivan Sergeev, almost opened the score with a kick from outside the penalty area.

The opponent, although he possessed the initiative, began to create chances only in the second half of the half.

The goalkeeper of the youth national team of Russia Ivan Lomaev coped with two blows from outside the penalty area, and then literally threw himself chest under Vladimir Ilyin's shot from close range.

In the second half, the course of the game did not change much.

“Akhmat” continued to possess the ball, but did not often threaten the other's goal.

Both teams in such a responsible meeting were simply afraid to take risks and to a greater extent sought not to allow their opponents to excel.

Perhaps, after the break, the episode with the participation of Lomaev and Bernard Berisha, who replaced him, was most memorable.

The goalkeeper outside his own penalty area crashed into the striker, but the judge Vladimir Moskalev did not record any violation of the rules.

As a result, the fate of the confrontation was decided in a penalty shootout.

Moreover, Igor Osinkin, before its start, replaced the goalkeeper and released experienced Yevgeny Frolov on the field, as well as Dmitry Kombarov.

And these castles fully justified themselves.

In the "lottery" the goalkeeper parried the strikes of Gabriel Yanku and all the same Berisha.

Kosovar tried to play "panenka" right in the center, but the opponent stayed in place and calmly took the ball.

The Krylia footballers made all four of their attempts, and the decisive one was left to Kombarov.

Thus, the Samara team for the first time since 2004 made it to the Russian Cup final.