Controversial refereeing and fatal mistakes of Ayrton: how Krasnodar defeated Spartak in the 15th round of the RPL

Before the central match of the 15th round of the RPL between Krasnodar and Spartak, the positions of the head coaches of both teams, Viktor Goncharenko and Rui Vitoria, could hardly be called stable.

Both clubs have experienced serious difficulties lately.

The southerners suffered three defeats in a row in all tournaments, without scoring a single goal in these meetings, and flew out of the Russian Cup.

The Reds and Whites have not won at all since the beginning of October, when they took away three points from Grozny.

After a major defeat from Zenit, the matches with Rostov and Lokomotiv ended in a draw and dropped into the second half of the RPL standings.

Their rival, who had already significantly moved away from the European Cup zone, could also get there.

Thus, it was vital for both specialists to achieve success in the reporting duel in order not to be on the verge of retirement.

Among other things, Muscovites faced staffing problems. Three midfielders missed an important exit at once: Ruslan Litvinov was serving a suspension for sending off in the derby, and Roman Zobnin and Jorrit Hendrix were injured. In this situation, Vitoria was forced to make a choice in favor of the duet of midfielders Nail Umyarov - Mikhail Ignatov. He also unexpectedly launched both Alexander Sobolev and Jordan Larsson. The last time they entered the field together from the first minutes in the game against Rostov, they did not impress. The Swede as a whole gives out a weak season, and therefore for him this match became a chance to prove his necessity to the coaching staff.

Goncharenko, however, could not rely only on the long-injured Alexander Martynovich, Wanderson and Yuri Gazinsky, so the composition of the hosts turned out to be predictable.

Is that John Cordoba returned to the start, who unexpectedly started the meeting with Dynamo in the reserve.

From the first minutes it became clear how Spartak would try to achieve success.

The red and white gave the initiative to the opponent and relied on fast attacks based on the high-speed Larsson, Quincy Promes and Victor Moses.

No sooner had the game started than they almost scored, easily passing someone else's support zone.

Larsson made a discount under a blow to Sobolev in the penalty area, but he missed the ball.

However, such sharp attacks were rare among the guests, and Grzegorz Krychowiak and Alexander Chernikov in most cases managed to insure their partners.

Cope with Moses with the support of teammates on the left flank and the nominal midfielder Tonny de Villena.

But the pressure of the owners became more and more serious.

For the time being, Vitoria's wards defended compactly and did not leave any free zones.

Only Ayrton fell out, who regularly went ahead and did not always have time to fulfill his direct duties.

After one of the mistakes, the Brazilian even received a portion of harsh criticism from Jikia.

And in the 16th minute, the southerners took advantage of the first failure of the opponent.

Spartak did not have time to come back after an unsuccessful corner kick and had to watch the opponent run away into a quick attack.

The key transfer to someone else's penalty area was performed by Eduard Spertsyan, who easily rocked the same Ayrton.

Remi Cabella was left without tutelage and rolled the ball into an empty net for Cordoba.

Having conceded, "Spartak" was forced to go forward, but the team still did not succeed in attacking.

The positional offensive often slipped into passes on the wrong side of the field without the slightest attempt at exacerbation.

Even Ignatov did not find interesting solutions for the development of the offensive.

But sometimes the red and white still penetrated between the opponent's lines and created problems for him.

So, after an excellent pass from Sobolev, Larsson tried to escape from two defenders and got a leg from de Villena.

Aleksey Sukhoi did not appoint a penalty, and colleagues at the VAR did not consider the episode, since it took place outside the penalty area.

The pivot foot hit by the representative of the Netherlands was inches from the line.

But at the end of the first half, the referee still pointed to the 11-meter mark.

Ignatov on the left flank easily left Sergei Petrov on the front and forced him to break the rules.

The Krasnodar footballer tried with all his might to restrain the midfielder, but he clearly overdid it and dropped him on the lawn.

Sobolev's first blow was repelled by Matvey Safonov. Alexander, having paused just before the shot, fired weakly at a height convenient for the goalkeeper. However, the assistant on the line told Sukhoi that Chernikov ran into the penalty area before the strike. After that, the judge gave the guests a second chance. This time Sobolev turned out to be accurate and equalized the score. So the Muscovites managed to recoup, although before the break they did little. Of course, the referee's verdict aroused indignation among the hosts, and Goncharenko even received a card a couple of minutes later. The specialist did not give the ball to Sobolev when he tried to enter it from behind the side, for which he was punished.

The incident did not affect the owners in any way.

Returning to the field in the second half, they again seized the initiative and pushed the opponent to the goal.

But Spartak also ran away on occasion in counterattacks, which looked even more dangerous.

For example, Promes, after transferring Sobolev from the right flank from the penalty line, struck just above the far nine.

And then Alexander himself did not hit the empty target from an acute angle.

Perhaps, both one and the other could have scored, but Krasnodar was lucky.

Ayrton again let down the red and white.

In his own penalty area, he let go of Alexei Ionov from behind and grabbed his hand to prevent one-on-one.

Sukhoi pointed to the "point" without hesitation.

Krykhovyak took the penalty for the southerners and confidently converted it, breaking through the bottom in the center.

Goncharenko immediately made a double substitution, refreshing the right flank.

Instead of Petrov and Ionov, Urosh Spaich and Viktor Klasson appeared on the field.

However, the team had problems on the opposite side, where Moses over and over again easily walked away from de Villena and carried out dangerous serves into the penalty area.

The problem was solved only with the transfer of Klasson to this zone.

In turn, Vitoria, 20 minutes before the final whistle, went all-in and exchanged Maximiliano Kofrie for Nikolai Rasskazov.

Red and white moved to a 4-4-2 formation, and Moses was able to concentrate fully on the attack.

This segment turned out to be the best for the Muscovites in the entire match.

They completely seized the advantage and forced the opponent to retreat.

After a corner, Sobolev was even close to leveling the score, but de Villene took the ball out of the line.

However, the ending still remained with Krasnodar.

The hosts managed to move the game away from their gates and did not allow the opponent to organize even a semblance of a finish bulk, although Zhigo went ahead in the red and white, who was replaced by Umyarov in the center of defense.

But in the end, the southerners could score.

After filing the corner, Chernikov rebounded under the crossbar, but Selikhov made a miracle save.

The final whistle signaled Krasnodar's victory.

But "Spartak" extended the losing streak in the RPL to five matches and came even closer to changing the coach.

After another failure, Vitoria's position was seriously shaken, although it cannot be said that his players failed the game.