Removal of Claudinho, refereeing Sidekov and a gift to Sergeev: what did the 14th round of the RPL remember?

Cassierra's incredible performance

The rise of Sochi to second place is one of the main surprises of the season.

Having lost a number of leading players in the summer, the team has only grown stronger.

And Mateo Casierra quickly helped to forget about Anton Zabolotny's departure.

The striker, who had previously played in Portugal and the Netherlands, still fully justifies the € 1.2 million paid for him. At the same time, the Colombian did not need time to adapt - he immediately began to score.

And in the last two matches, the legionnaire made a double at all.

Moreover, in a meeting with CSKA, the footballer scored twice in just three minutes.

Now he has seven goals in eight RPL games.

With these indicators, he shares the second place in the scorers' race of the tournament with Serdar Azmun, Artyom Dzyuba and Fyodor Smolov.

But Casierra did not stop there and gave two assists to partners, contributing to a crushing victory.

It is significant that the fast Hispanic with excellent scoring instinct is not only in the top 10 of the Premier League in average number of shots per match (2.8), but also occupies the seventh place in the number of key assists (2.1).

That is, Mateo does not pull the blanket over himself and is always ready to give a pass to his partner.

It is difficult to say how the season will develop for him in the future, but if the striker continues to score with the same regularity, he will change his registration already in the winter.

The fact that the forward is only 24 years old will help Sochi make good money on him.

A funny gift for Sergeev

Wings of the Soviets fans are also amazed in an amicable way. Returning to the RPL, the Samara team immediately earned the title of one of the most spectacular teams in the league. If in the summer she had problems with the set of glasses, then in the fall the mechanism began to work without interruption. In the last five rounds of the championship, the young team of Igor Osinkin won four victories, losing only to CSKA, and rose to sixth place. At the same time, the gap from the European Cup zone is only three points.

In the home match against Khimki, all the hosts' leaders were involved in the goals.

Called up to the Russian national team for the next qualifying matches for the 2022 World Cup, Ivan Sergeev earned and converted a penalty.

Another striker Vladislav Sarveli scored the sixth goal, and also helped Roman Yezhov, who got into the extended squad of the national team, to distinguish himself.

By the way, the duo of forwards for two scored 11 times in the championship, which is more than half of Krylia's goals.

Finally, the technical Anton Zinkovskiy delivered an effective serve to Sarveli.

In addition, Sergeev received a very original gift.

The Governor of the Samara Region Dmitry Azarov handed him an electric razor.

Thus, he reminded the footballer of his promise to get rid of his beard if invited to the national team.

According to Ivan, he intends to do so in the near future.

Dziuba's failed return to base

But Zenit's game in the match against Ural can be safely called the main disappointment of the tour.

It seemed that the leader, who had defeated Spartak and Dynamo in previous meetings, would leave no chance for an outsider.

In fact, Petersburgers in Yekaterinburg looked extremely dull and practically did not create dangerous moments.

Although they owned the ball 62% of the time, they scored, like the opponent, with only two shots on target.

The guests never figured out how to crack the rich defense of the hosts, and had their worst match in the current RPL season in terms of expected goals (xG) - 0.49.

Artyom Dzyuba showed absolutely nothing, to whom Sergei Semak this time entrusted a place at the base, paired with Serdar Azmun.

The experienced striker acted so inertly that he was replaced during the break.

And Claudinho at the beginning of the second half received a direct red card for a dangerous tackle to the shin of Arsen Adamov.

It is noteworthy that this removal for the Brazilian is his debut in his career.

A little earlier, Yaroslav Rakitskiy could have left the field ahead of schedule, but the referee Igor Panin did not show the Ukrainian a second yellow card for disrupting a promising attack, although he had every reason to do so.

So "Ural" has achieved only the fourth draw in the confrontation with the Petersburgers with 18 defeats.

In turn, the leader in the last six meetings in all tournaments won only two victories and allowed the closest pursuers in the national championship to reduce the gap to three points.

Abilgore's curious mistake

Rubin does not make its own fans happy either.

Kazan last season took fourth place and made it to the European competition.

They also started the current successfully and won three victories in a row at the start.

However, this was followed by an epic departure from the League of Conferences and a series of misfires in the national championship.

In the previous round, Leonid Slutsky's wards beat CSKA with a minimum score and, as it seemed, took the path of correction.

The assumption turned out to be deceiving.

In an away meeting with Rostov, the two-time Russian champion conceded five or more goals in the Premier League for the third time in his history - 1: 5. Staffing problems affected the actions of the guests in defense. In the absence of Ilya Samoshnikov, Philip Uremovich had to leave the flank, and Oliver Abilgor had to go down to the center of defense. As a result, both the support zone and the defense itself were a courtyard. Especially memorable was Abilgore's gross mistake at the beginning of the second half, when the Dane made a pass from his gate directly to Ali Sow. It all ended with a goal by Dmitry Poloz.

In 11 RPL matches, Rubin scored only two victories and gradually dropped to the middle of the standings.

On the other hand, after the departure of Yuri Semin, Rostov is gaining momentum.

Under the leadership of Vitaly Kafanov and Zaurbek Tedeev, the southerners scored seven points in the last three meetings and left the joint zone.

Danil Glebov, who was again called up to the Russian national team, also shows himself brightly.

A week ago, he won a draw in the confrontation with Spartak with a long-range shot, and this time he first assisted Sow, and then distinguished himself on his own.

Uncertain refereeing Sidekova

The metropolitan derby did not leave indifferent fans of national football.

Spartak and Lokomotiv presented a bright show and staged an uncompromising battle at Otkrytie-Arena.

However, one person clearly failed to cope with the degree of confrontation.

It's about the chief judge Ivan Sidenkov.

The young 37-year-old referee, who had previously worked in only 13 RPL meetings, received such an important appointment for the first time.

And already in the 35th minute, he made a rather controversial decision, showing Vyacheslav Litvinov a second yellow card for a sharp tackle in someone else's half of the field.

At the same time, a little earlier for a similar foul, Sidenkov did not kick Konstantin Maradishvili from the field.

Leaving "Spartak" in the minority and undergoing severe obstruction from the hosts, the judge lost his confidence and began to issue controversial verdicts one after another.

As if playing it safe, at times he felt sorry for the players.

In other episodes, he did not record violations at all, for example, when Ayrton stepped on the side of Girano Kirku on the side.

As a result, the game got out of Sidenkov's control.

An indicative moment: in 90 minutes, he recorded 35 fouls - a very high figure.

The judge also showed 11 yellow cards (this is his personal record in the Premier League), two of which turned into red cards.

The last one, after the final whistle, was received by Tin Yedvay.