The match between Dynamo and Rubin in the ninth round of the RPL was interesting primarily from the point of view of the coaching duel.
The wards of one of the leading Russian specialists Leonid Slutsky had to try to stop the team of the German Sandro Schwartz on the road, under whose leadership the blue and white made serious progress and began to show modern football.
Both teams rely on fast attacks and high pressure, and therefore it was interesting whether they would risk playing with an open visor in the most important match, or if someone would give the ball to the opponent.
At the same time, Kazan on the eve of the reporting meeting were left without a helmsman. In the meeting with Zenit on September 20, Slutsky received a red card, and Rubin could not oppose anything to the reigning champion. In turn, the Muscovites returned to the victorious path, defeating Sochi with a minimum score. And on Wednesday they had to play with teammates from Stavropol in the Russian Cup.
At the same time, Schwartz was left without several performers.
Daniil Lesovoy was accompanied by defender Diego Laxalt in the club infirmary, and the main goalkeeper Anton Shunin did not have time to recover from a chin cut.
But the main thing is that Arsen Zakharyan's muscle damage was not serious.
Denis Makarov also got a place in the main squad, who only in August moved to Dynamo from Rubin.
At the same time, Vyacheslav Grulev was at the forefront of the attack, and not Konstantin Tyukavin, who was not helped to return to the base even by a goal in Stavropol.
The guests could not count only on the disqualified Georgy Zotov, whose place on the right flank of the defense was taken by the versatile Mikhail Kostyukov.
From the first minutes, captain Philip Uremovich also entered the field, who in the confrontation with Zenit left the field before the break.
The first half of the match against Dynamo seemed to have become a continuation of the meeting with Petersburgers for the guests.
Kazan looked just as inert in attack and lost under pressure from others.
Once again, George Despotovich did not receive the ball at all, remembered only by an elbow strike in the face of Denis Makarov and a yellow card.
Surprisingly, even Khvichi Kvaratskhelia did not succeed in Moscow.
The owners left the technical Georgian a minimum of free space and acted competently on a safety net.
Separately, it is worth noting Guillermo Varela, who, with the support of Makarov, completely closed the right flank of the Muscovites' defense.
The opposite edge did not work for the guests at all.
As a result, Rubin had practically no dangerous moments before the break.
The team did not penetrate into someone else's penalty area, where Despotovich was unable to fight the tall Ivan Ordets and Fabian Balbuena, and was content with only a couple of shots from outside the penalty area in the hope of a rebound.
Igor Leshchuk confidently went to the third "cracker" in a week.
Schwartz's charges did much better on the other side.
They competently found zones on the flanks and semi-flanks.
Of course, the maximum pressure was exerted on the nominal forward Kostyukov.
Zakharyan, together with Dmitry Skopintsev, have repeatedly created problems for the opponent.
On the right, Makarov was active.
Actually, the first goal came from the flank.
Montassar Talbi made a gross mistake near his own penalty area, trying to knock out the ball, and actually presented it to Sebastian Shimanski.
The Pole instantly redirected the ball to Makarov, who gave the cutting pass to Varela.
Daniil Fomin closed an excellent serve of the Uruguayan from close range.
Having opened an account, the Muscovites caught the courage and literally locked the opponent in his penalty area.
The hosts showed excellent physical readiness and, even holding the third meeting in seven days, immediately turned on high pressure in case of a loss and quickly regained possession of the ball.
"Rubin" could not find an antidote to this tactic, and therefore did not respond with a clear counterplay.
Finally, all questions about the outcome of the confrontation were removed at the beginning of the second half, when Dynamo doubled the lead.
This time, the owners were helped by the standard position.
After a corner kick performed by Shimanski, Grulev outplayed the same Talbi in the air and sent the shell to the far corner.
For the young striker, the goal was his debut in the current RPL season.
Even having achieved a comfortable superiority, Schwartz's charges continued to operate at high speeds with or without the ball and organized pressure on the other side of the field.
Often, an elementary marriage prevented them from creating sharp moments at other people's gates.
And Yuri Dyupin remained reliable at the last line, making a total of eight saves.
However, closer to the middle of the second half, the course of the game changed dramatically. The hosts began to leave forces, and Slutsky made a timely double substitution. The places of absolutely inert Despotovich and Kvaratskhelia were taken by German Onugha and Soltmurad Bakaev. The latter especially helped the team. The midfielder with an overabundance of desire went into every single combat, broke the rules, swore with opponents, but thereby turned on his partners.
The ending of the meeting was entirely up to the guests.
The blue and white pressed against their own penalty area and already quite rarely ran out in counterattacks, although the opponent left a lot of free space.
In those minutes Leshchuk came to the fore, who until then had been practically out of work.
The goalkeeper made several important saves and won a standing ovation from the stands.
Largely thanks to him, the Kazan team did not manage to revive the intrigue, and after such a match it would be difficult for Schwartz to send the reservist back to the reserve.
However, once Leschuk's goal was struck by Rubin.
Slutsky's team managed to translate the corner draw into a goal.
Oliver Abilgore sent the ball into the far corner with a neat kick.
However, judge Aleksey Sukhoi, after consulting with his colleagues at the VAR, found that the projectile crossed the front when giving a corner in the air.
Dynamo won their second victory in a row in the RPL and are now second only to Zenit in the standings.
Kazan suffered the second defeat in a row, and in the last six meetings of the championship they won only once, beating the outsider of the championship "Ural".
There is a serious decline after a good start to the season.