The judge's decisions in favor of Zenit, the derby against the background of perestroika and the debut of 16-year-old Pinyaev: what will be remembered for the second round of the RPL

Ambiguous victory for Zenit

Zenit won two victories at the start of the new RPL season.

However, both matches turned out to be far from ideal for the Petersburgers.

Khimki managed to put the squeeze on only closer to the final whistle thanks to the timely substitutions of Sergei Semak, and the away confrontation with Rostov (4: 2) was overshadowed by the ambiguous decisions of Vitaly Meshkov.

At least in the episode with the first goal of Alexander Erokhin, the referee did not record a foul on Pontus Almqvist, who completed the assist Daler Kuzyaev.

And according to the former RPL referee Igor Fedotov, after a few minutes he was obliged to appoint a penalty kick to the guests for hitting Mikhail Kerzhakov in the head with his fist to Nikolai Komlichenko.

True, Meshkov even in the first half allowed his opponents to hit the penalty spot.

Erokhin became the protagonist of the meeting.

The midfielder scored as a substitute in the matches with Lokomotiv for the Super Cup and with Khimki.

In Rostov-on-Don, in a game with the former team, the footballer got into the base and scored a double, and also helped Wendel to excel.

Serdar Azmun extended the streak at the start of the season and converted a penalty kick.

He has three goals in three meetings.

The only fly in the ointment for the favorite was the injury of the main central defender Yaroslav Rakitskiy.

At the 74th minute, he had to be changed to another former Rostov performer Dmitry Chistyakov.

I remember the latter only with a minus sign - it was delayed with the execution of an artificial offside position and allowed Maxim Osipenko to reduce the gap to a minimum.

Controversial decisions of Berezutsky in the derby

CSKA and Lokomotiv approached the central match of the round against the backdrop of a major restructuring.

In the summer, the army team received a new mentor in the person of Alexei Berezutsky, and the railway workers, according to media reports, intend to arrange a sale of leaders in the near future.

However, only one of them missed the derby - Grzegorz Krychowiak.

In the end, he really left the club.

But even without the Pole, as well as against the background of not the most pleasant rumors, Marko Nikolic's charges looked worthy.

The team was not embarrassed even by Kristian Bistrovic's quick free-kick goal, and she again achieved a strong-willed victory - 1: 2.

In the second game in a row, Fedor Smolov scored, and Rifat Zhemaletdinov again scored the decisive goal, who hit Arsenal twice in the first round.

Now he, together with Erokhin, is leading in the tournament scorers race.

But the actions of the red and blue left questions. The hosts initially relied on defense. According to Berezutsky after the final whistle, his players “did not need ball control as such”. The coach himself made at least two controversial decisions. Fyodor Chalov was on the flank, and a pair of Igor Diveev in the center of defense was the nominal defensive player Yaka Biyol, although there were Viktor Vasin and Vadim Karpov on the roster. The lack of play of this pair in many ways became the reason for Zhemaletdinov's goal, when the guests calmly passed the opponent's center of defense in several passes.

CSKA became more active only after a triple substitution in the middle of the second half.

Including on the field for the first time this season, Nikola Vlašić, who may leave Russia in the near future.

CSKA could easily equalize the score, but they lacked luck.

Thus, they suffered a fifth defeat in a row from Loko in all tournaments.

Incredible confrontation in Ufa

And the brightest match of the tour took place in Bashkortostan, where Ufa lost to Dynamo - 2: 3.

In this meeting, the fans witnessed two penalties, and a stupid removal, and an incredible save in the minority, and a winning goal in the penultimate minute of regular time.

At first it seemed that the Muscovites would calmly score three points.

In the first half, referee Alexei Sukhoi twice allowed them to shoot a penalty.

In both cases, Serbian defender Nemanja Miletić committed fouls in his own penalty area.

It is noteworthy that Ufa was initially dissatisfied with the referee's decisions, but “having thoroughly studied all the available video replays,” they agreed with him and did not file a complaint with the RFU ESC.

Both penalties were converted by former Bashkortostan footballer Daniil Fomin.

Alexander Belenov was close to saving the team at least once, but he lacked a bit of luck.

In the second half, the blue and white could well have brought the matter to defeat, and closer to the final whistle, the opponent, in addition, remained in the minority.

Ruslan Fischenko managed to earn a removal in two minutes.

Moreover, the midfielder committed completely unnecessary fouls, for example, grabbed the ball with his hands.

But the hosts, even finding themselves in such a difficult situation, did not give up and managed to win back in the end.

Substitute Hamid Agalarov scored a double in six minutes with the complete connivance of the guests' defense.

Moreover, for the young striker, these goals became their debut in the RPL.

However, in the end, Dynamo still snatched a victory.

Sebastian Szymanski, after the filing of Dmitry Skopintsev, calmly sent the ball to the far corner with his head.

So, Sandro Schwartz's charges again scored three points and after two rounds share the leadership in the standings with Zenit, Rubin and Lokomotiv.

Spartak's modest success

In turn, another team from the capital, Spartak, on the eve of the match of the third qualifying round of the Champions League with Benfica, beat Wings of the Soviets with a minimum score on the road.

However, the main event of the confrontation was not the success of the red and white, but the debut in the Premier League of 16-year-old Sergei Pinyaev.

The name of the young talent has long been heard, and last season he already managed to prove himself in the FNL as part of his native "Chertanovo".

After the team was relegated to the PFL, the midfielder signed a contract with Krylya, for which many of his former teammates are already playing.

In the first match, Pinyaev got a quarter of an hour at his disposal and took full advantage of them.

A couple of times he beat the tired Ayrton on the right flank.

Especially memorable was the episode when Sergei left the Brazilian and performed a dangerous cross to the far post.

In another, the opponent knocked the ball out from under his feet in the penalty area only at the last moment, risking a penalty kick.

At least the young midfielder was noted for his technique and athletic arrogance.

“Age should definitely not put pressure on me - perhaps on Russian football.

For example, in Spain, people made their debut at the age of 15 ... My task is to develop.

Invest in yourself, in the team, so that it wins and scores points in every match, ”Pinyaev said after the final whistle.

As for the game itself, “Spartak” can only add the score on the scoreboard to its asset.

The Samarans who returned to the RPL looked no worse than the current silver medalist and could well score points.

And the guests snatched the victory only thanks to the penalty, which was converted by the former Krylia forward Alexander Sobolev.

He defiantly did not celebrate his goal.

Natural misfire "Krasnodar"

The main surprise of the tour was the defeat of Krasnodar against Khimki.

It seemed that the southerners at home should beat the bloodless opponent, but they did not score a single point.

As expected, Viktor Goncharenko's wards had a lot of possession of the ball (62%), but they rarely converted the advantage in moments.

The guests in the counterattacks looked even more dangerous.

One of the main reasons for the problems at the opponent's goal is the lack of a clean striker.

The coaching staff of the hosts, as in the match with Ural, decided to play without nominal forwards.

Only in the second half, Vladimir Ilyin and John Cordoba appeared on the field.

The latter immediately got a couple of opportunities to excel.

In addition, Krasnodar was again marked by unnecessary generosity.

At the very beginning of the meeting, the team earned a penalty, but Viktor Klasson could not beat Ilya Lantratov from the point, who saved three penalty kicks last RPL season.

But the goalkeeper of the Russian national team Matvey Safonov, on the contrary, was grossly mistaken.

After an hour of play, he unsuccessfully introduced the ball into the game with his hand and actually presented it to Besard Sabovich.

He immediately performed a serve to the far post, and Ilya Kukharchuk closed the cross and distinguished himself in the second match of the national championship in a row.