The curse of the last minutes: how CSKA lost and Spartak missed the victory in the RPL

Slutsky's victory over the former team

The defeat of Dynamo against Zenit on Friday gave CSKA a chance to rise to a clean second place in the RPL standings.

To do this, the Muscovites had to beat Rubin on the spot.

And the army team came up to the confrontation as a favorite, because in the fall they gained a good move and won six victories in all tournaments with two draws.

Kazan, on the contrary, after a bright start got into a steep dive.

In the last nine rounds, they took three points only in a duel with the outsider Ural.

And for the hosts, the meeting of the 13th round in many ways became almost the last opportunity to keep up with the dense group of teams fighting for getting into the European cups.

And it so happened that at this difficult moment for the team, Leonid Slutsky met with his former team, in which he spent seven happy years, and with ex-ward Alexei Berezutsky, who began his coaching career at Vitesse under his leadership.

To top it all off, Kazan due to injuries could not count on the main striker Djordje Despotovich and the key central defender Philip Uremovich.

As a result, Oliver Abilgor had to descend into the defense, and Hwang In Byom - into the support zone.

The guests focused on neutralizing Khvichi Kvaratskhelia on the right flank.

He was held back by both Kirill Nababkin and Mario Fernandez.

It worked.

The Georgian practically did not receive the ball in the first half.

But “Rubin” on the opposite edge also managed to restrain Chidera Ejuka, who almost never found himself in situations when he had to beat the opponent one-on-one. The only thing, in the 13th minute, the Nigerian after throwing a partner opened the scoring, but the judge Vladislav Bezborodov justly canceled the goal because of an offside position at Anton Zabolotny who knocked down Georgy Zotov.

The rest of the teams turned out to be worthy of each other. The guests owned the ball a little more, but the defensive structure of Kazan more or less held out, although Khvan was not always perfect in destruction. In turn, when the opponents counterattacked, the army team sometimes rebuilt to form three central defenders and blocked the free space near their own penalty area. At the same time, Herman Onugha, who replaced Despotovich, was allowed to hit his goal three times with his head, but the striker's shots did not have enough accuracy.

After the break, the game finally opened up for a while. The teams slightly relaxed their control in the center of the field and launched a series of quick attacks. We immediately managed to create the first really dangerous moments. At Rubin, Soltmurad Bakaev shot under the crossbar from outside the penalty area, but Akinfeev calmly coped with the threat. Sead Hakshabanovich, after the wall with Onugha, directed the ball from the bottom to the far corner, but the goalkeeper was on top in this situation as well. CSKA responded with a shot by Fedor Chalov, who was parried by Yuri Dyupin.

In the middle of the second half, the game calmed down again.

The players began to run out of strength, and, as a result, their speeds dropped sharply.

In such a situation, replacements came to the fore.

But Slutsky, unlike Berezutsky, had practically no one to produce.

In addition to young performers and the not completely healthy Uremovich, he could only count on the universal Leon Musaev, Mikhail Kostyukov and Ivan Ignatiev, who was practically not getting practice.

For the army, the bench was much wider than the coaching staff used.

For example, the guests allowed themselves, for the sake of safety, to remove Maxim Mukhin, who received a yellow card, from the field during the break.

Then, instead of Chalov, Alan Dzagoev entered the game, called upon to establish the last pass.

And the place of tired Edzhuke was taken by young Vladislav Yakovlev.

However, all these castling did not help.

It seemed that the meeting was heading towards a draw.

But in the 91st minute, Rubin scored a goal that did not follow from the logic of the opposition.

Kazan played a corner, confusing the opponent's defensive formations.

This was followed by Hakshabanovich's serve from the right flank, which was closed by Kostyukov, who was not covered by anyone.

If in the match with Lokomotiv fate did not smile at the owners, and they were content with a draw, leading 2-0 during the meeting, this time they won the first victory in a month and a half.

At the same time, Slutsky, being in cramped personnel conditions, managed to carry out an effective replacement.

Moreover, after leaving the capital club, he does not lose to CSKA - two wins and one draw.

Vitoria's misfire in a confrontation with an outsider

Spartak and Rostov approached their match with a similar motivation.

After the departure of Yuri Semin, the Southerners won two victories in the last three rounds, including defeating Arsenal at home, and left the relegation zone.

Spartak, on the other hand, suffered a humiliating defeat from Zenit, conceding seven goals, and further moved away from the European Cup zone.

And taking into account the loss to Leicester in the Europa League, another misfire could not only let the red and whites go to the second half of the standings, but also put an end to the work of Rui Vitoria in Russia.

After the humiliating defeat in the derby of the two capitals, it was interesting what substitutions the Portuguese would make in the starting lineup. One of them was forced and read. After serving a suspension, Samuel Gigot took the place of the red-card Maximiliano Kofrie in the center of defense. The second castling was also expected by many. At the last line of the hosts, instead of Alexander Maksimenko, Alexander Selikhov appeared. The rest of the roster remained unchanged.

It seemed that this evening Muscovites would be eager to rehabilitate themselves in front of the fans and try to literally destroy the opponent.

The first minutes really turned out to be bold in their performance, but the guests quickly calmed and leveled the game.

They defended competently and did not leave space for the opponent, without which he has a hard time.

As a result, the activity of the red-and-whites in the opponent's half was reduced to throwing at Alexander Sobolev, who tried to perform not always successful discounts on Quincy Promes and Jordan Larsson.

It is not surprising that the only dangerous moment in the first half was created by Vitoria's charges after a corner kick.

Roman Zobnin hit with scissors from close range, but Maxim Osipenko stood in the way of the ball.

As a result, the team struck only two shots on the other's goal, none of which hit the target.

Rostov, like Zenit, tried to take advantage of the opponent's defense problems. Once the red and white made a gross mistake, for which they were almost punished by Dmitry Poloz. Georgy Dzhikia rose high and missed the projectile between his legs, and Ayrton did not have time to insure his partner. However, the forward, facing Selikhov, missed the target. And Alexander himself did not demonstrate reliability. In a couple of episodes, he hesitantly released the ball from his hands, and only by a miracle the southerners did not take advantage of this.

In the second half, Spartak looked more interesting. In many ways, Zelimkhan Bakayev came out to replace after an hour of the meeting, instead of the absolutely inert Larsson. A fresh footballer with his activity suppressed the opponent's defenders and helped his partners to feel self-confidence. He not only tried to come up with interesting moves in the opponent's half, but also lay in the tackles, working out in defense.

Gradually, the red and white took possession of the advantage and pushed the guests to the gate. Combinations started at Promes and Sobolev. Moses began to meet more often with the ball on the right edge. And Zobnin and Vyacheslav Litvinov did not allow “Rostov” to run away in counterattacks. However, one successful attempt by the yellow-blue almost passed. Poloz, taking advantage of Ayrton's gross mistake, could jump out one-on-one with Selikhov, but he flew out of the goal in time and deflected the ball with his chest, although at first there was a feeling that the goalkeeper played with his hand.

And literally in a couple of minutes the Muscovites seemed to have managed to put the squeeze on Rostov. The success of the hosts again brought the standard position. After filing the corner Litvinov with a deflection sent the projectile into the far corner without a chance for Sergei Pesyakov. There was not much time left before the final whistle, and the hosts behaved correctly and calmly. They fought for every goal, not allowing the southerners to make a heap, and even came close to scoring more. Vitoria, on the other hand, made timely replacements.

However, in the 95th minute, with four added, the red and white conceded.

Jikia brought the ball forward from his half.

The Rostovites took him and carried out a quick attack.

Osipenko carried the shell forward in the direction of Nikolai Komlichenko, who won horse single combat against Zhigo and threw Danil Glebov into the breakthrough.

Prior to that, Nikolai Rasskazov, who had acted perfectly, could not compete with his opponent in speed and allowed him to throw Selikhov, frozen in a half-position - 1: 1.

Spartak extended the losing streak in all tournaments to four matches.

And if "Zenith" the red and white lost on all fronts, then with "Rostov" offensively lost points in the last seconds.

At the same time, the team again demonstrated faded football, and the fans had even more questions for Vitoria.