The confrontation between Zenit and Krasnodar in St. Petersburg was the first truly serious test for both teams at the start of the season.
The reigning champions of the country beat Khimki and Rostov in the first two rounds, although they experienced certain difficulties in these meetings.
In turn, the southerners defeated Ural on the road, and then, in the corporate style, lost points in the match with an inferior opponent in the class - at home they lost to the same Khimki with a minimum score.
Now Viktor Goncharenko's wards needed to rehabilitate themselves in front of the fans.
In addition, the bulls have not defeated Zenit for more than three years - since April 2018.
Thus, their unbeaten streak had already totaled six matches.
The opponents' staffing problems also played into the hands of the guests.
Magomed Ozdoev and Yaroslav Rakitsky were injured.
Malcolm is still at the disposal of Olympic Brazil, and Sebastian Driussi left the club.
Fortunately for Serhiy Semak, the damage to the Ukrainian central defender was not too serious, and he entered the field from the first minutes.
The coach managed without surprises in other positions.
The starting lineup turned out to be exactly the same as in Rostov-on-Don.
As for Krasnodar, the main questions concerned Grzegorz Krychowiak.
The Pole just recently joined the team, but Goncharenko was not afraid to immediately throw him into battle.
An experienced performer, as expected, took a place in the support zone.
Moreover, the Belarusian for the first time in the new season of the RPL started the game with a clean forward at the base of another newcomer, John Cordoba.
The first half left conflicting impressions.
On the one hand, Krasnodar owned the ball 62% of the time and struck more shots on goal than their opponents - six against four.
On the other hand, Zenit realized almost all of their chances.
Petersburgers managed to distinguish themselves three times with four shots.
It quickly became clear that the guests would have problems in the center of the field.
And this applied not only to the support zone, where young Alexander Chernikov made the company to the newcomer Krykhovyak, but first of all to the middle of the defense.
Goncharenko was not afraid to throw Uros Spaich into battle, who had just returned from loan.
Moreover, the Serb formed a bond with Yegor Sorokin, with whom he had rarely played before.
In addition, the nominal defensive midfielder Tonny de Villena was forced to act on the left in defense.
As a result, during the first attack of the owners to the penalty area southerners almost went through a dangerous cast from the depths.
Matvey Safonov had to insure the partners at the exit.
And in the ninth minute, the experimental link fell apart.
Vilmar Barrios, who is not famous for his tricky sharpening passes, passed the ball right between two defenders, and Azmun confidently converted a one-on-one exit.
Offside in this situation was out of the question.
To Krasnodar's credit, the team did not let go of their hands and quickly restored the status quo on the scoreboard.
Young Eduard Spertsyan himself earned a free-kick and performed it superbly, sending a projectile into the near corner with a rebound from the bar.
But after a couple of minutes, referee Alexei Amelin canceled the goal, watching the replay, since the same Spaich was interfering with the wall.
The southerners got it back anyway.
In the middle of the half, the active Spertsyan made a cross from the left edge, and the ball ricocheted into the penalty area to Cordoba.
He demonstrated how a center forward should play: he competently covered the ball with a body from Rakitskiy and Douglas dos Santos and shot accurately.
Thus, the Colombian scored the second goal for Krasnodar and the first from the field.
Having scored, the guests continued to build up the pressure.
Basically, they tried to attack with the left flank, where Remy Cabella was regularly displaced to help Spurtsian and de Vilhene.
But Alexey Ionov and Christian Ramirez on the right were frankly bored.
But Zenit, closer to the break, coolly realized two chances.
At first, Azmun designed the double.
The effective attack began with Barrios's cool selection on the right edge, and continued with Daler Kuzyaev's cross from the right flank.
The ball bounced off Sorokin's leg straight to the Iranian, and Chernikov failed to interrupt the pass.
Finally, in the 44th minute, Alexander Erokhin, again from under Sorokin, sent a shell into the near corner and scored the fifth goal in all tournaments at the start of the season.
To summarize, the reigning champion, although he gave the initiative to his opponent, acted competently in the transitional phases and, at the first opportunity, ideally disposed of the space in the opponent's half.
Goncharenko did not wait for Sorokin's new mistakes and during the break he replaced him with Cayo Pantaleao.
With the appearance of the Brazilian for the defense of Krasnodar, it really became quieter.
However, the guests needed first of all to go forward and reduce the backlog.
The guests did it rather out of inertia.
Getting space in the wrong half of the field, they created half-moments, but this happened quite rarely.
"Zenith", of course, was not going to open up and calmly controlled everything that was happening.
Moreover, the hosts' counterattacks looked more interesting.
In the middle of the second half, Semak, being reinsured, decided to switch to playing with one forward.
The place of the almost imperceptible Artyom Dziuba was taken by Alexei Sutormin.
The vis-a-vis responded immediately with a triple castling.
Chernikov, Kabella and Ionov were replaced by Yuri Gazinsky, Viktor Klasson and Magomed-Shapi Suleimanov, respectively.
This move quickly bore fruit.
Having received an influx of fresh blood, the southerners began to attack much more actively.
The opponent, on the other hand, began to get tired.
As a result, this led to a resurgence of intrigue.
Moreover, Krasnodar managed to score after the corner was played.
Mikhail Kerzhakov miraculously pulled the blow at close range from Gazinsky, but did not cope with the finishing off from Spaich.
There were still about 15 minutes to play, and Semak reacted instantly, throwing Dmitry Chistyakov into the battle instead of Vyacheslav Karavaev.
The team switched to a scheme with three central defenders.
This helped the hosts to concrete the defense and prevent the opponent from organizing the final assault.
True, the anxiety was added by the forced departure of Rakitsky in the end.
Yaroslav at the beginning of the second half received an injury to the back of the thigh, but refused to change.
Closer to the final whistle, he aggravated the injury.
A place in the center of defense had to be taken by the nominal full-back Danil Krugovoy.
And at the time added by the referee, Krasnodar had a moment to save itself.
Klasson, after serving from the right flank, was allowed to shoot freely from the goalkeeper's line, but the Swede sent the ball over the crossbar.
Thus, Zenit won the third consecutive victory in the new RPL season in the class.
Southerners still have only three points in their assets and can hardly write this segment of the championship into their assets.