Removal of Sobolev, doubles of Claudinho and Klasson, two passes of Kangwa: what will be remembered for the 17th round of the RPL

Zenit's amazing rescue

The 17th round of the RPL was held with a series of ambiguous referee decisions.

In several matches at once, the referees came to the fore and directly influenced the result.

The very first meeting between Zenit and Rostov set the tone.

In St. Petersburg, referee Alexei Matyunin was not afraid already at the ninth minute to assign a penalty to the hosts' goal for a foul by Dmitry Chistyakov on Pontus Almqvist.

And in the middle of the half, he scored a rather controversial goal of the Southerners.

Moreover, during the effective attack, two episodes at once raised questions.

First, Igor Kalinin held Claudinho with his hands before taking the ball from him in the center of the field.

And then Nikolay Komlichenko pushed Yaroslav Rakitskiy with his shoulder and sent a shell under the crossbar with a powerful blow from the penalty line.

It seemed that Matyunin, having watched the replay, would cancel the goal, but he pointed to the center, determining that there were no violations of the rules.

Despite the disastrous start, the Petersburgers made a comeback and won a draw.

To do this, the reigning champion was helped by Claudinho, who scored a double and brought the number of goals in the domestic championship to six.

In the first case, he succeeded in a magnificent shot at the rally in the far top corner.

And after the break, the Brazilian converted the penalty.

The penalty kick also turned out to be quite controversial, because the ball bounced off the chest into the hand of Almqvist, creeping in the tackle, but Matyunin this time took Zenit's side.

Spartak's paradoxical success

The fans were actively discussing the removal of Alexander Sobolev in the 32nd minute of the match between Spartak and Akhmat. The footballer received a direct red card for a violation that took place in the opponent's half. He already threw the ball past Igor Konovalov, but by inertia hit him with spikes in the shin, unable to stop. However, Vitaly Meshkov, with the assistance of his colleagues at VAR, left the red and whites in the minority. The attacker was leaving the field, swearing loudly, and almost broke the door to the under-stands. The episode turned out to be so ambiguous that even Grozny defender Andrei Semyonov stood up for the opponent, who considered the referee's verdict controversial.

By this time, Muscovites were leading with a minimum score. Viktor Moses scored the only goal from Sobolev's pass. Of course, remaining with ten men, the hosts gave up the initiative to their opponent and conceded in the third minute added to the first half. Daniil Utkin, rented from Krasnodar, found himself in one of the attacks in place of the central striker and, taking advantage of a smart transfer to the touch of Artyom Arkhipov, recorded his sixth goal of the season. 

After the break, the guests were closer to success.

They more often owned the ball and delivered almost twice as many shots, but in the end, the team of Rui Vitoria turned out to be more successful.

A rare counterattack led to a pass from the left flank by Roman Zobnin behind the center-backs and a not too strong blow from Quincy Promes.

Vitaly Gudiev had every chance to reflect it, but instead of staying on the goal line, he got out of them and did not have time to react.

So "Spartak" won the first victory in the RPL in two months. 

Dynamo's overwhelming advantage

Vladislav Bezborodov went even further in the Dynamo - Ufa meeting and showed the guests two straight red cards at once.

However, even the violators themselves did not have any questions to the judge.

First, Vyacheslav Krotov, in the opening of the confrontation, stepped on the ankle of Sebastian Szymanski and almost broke the Pole's leg.

The victim had to be replaced immediately, and his participation in the most important match with Zenit is in doubt.

And then Egash Kasintura thwarted Vyacheslav Grulev's clean one-on-one exit at the cost of a last resort foul.

The guests were nine in the 36th minute.

Surprisingly, even in this situation, they missed only twice.

Denis Makarov managed to open an account again, who less than a week ago noted a similar achievement in Kazan.

And shortly before the final whistle, the midfielder assisted Arsen Zakharyan.

The advantage of the blues and whites could have been much more convincing, as they struck 25 shots on goal.

But in a number of episodes "Ufa" was saved by Alexander Belenov.

And when he turned out to be powerless, the defenders backed up the line.

But the main thing is that Dynamo managed to take advantage of Zenit's misfire and cut the gap from the leader to two points ahead of a face-to-face meeting, which promises to be hot.

Strong-willed victory of Krasnodar in Sochi

It is no less important that the blue and white broke away from the main pursuer in the person of Sochi.

Vladimir Fedotov's team continues to be the main discovery of the RPL of the last two seasons and after the 14th round was second only to Zenit.

However, this was followed by a series of three matches without victories.

At first, the team, which was fighting for tickets to European cups, unexpectedly lost to Rubin, then lost points in the meeting with Ural and, finally, was left with nothing in the game with Krasnodar - 1: 2.

At the same time, the hosts did not look weaker than their principal rival.

The opponents delighted the fans with a bright double-edged game, in which everyone had a chance to excel.

In total, the players struck 32 shots on goal.

And according to the statistics of expected goals (xG), they should have scored more than five times.

However, it turned out only three times.

Everything was decided by the individual skill of individual performers. On the 19th minute, Mateo Casierra, after a magnificent throw from the depths performed by Danila Prokhin, beautifully threw the ball over Matvey Safonov, who had jumped out of the way. However, almost immediately Ibrahim Tsallagov kicked Eduard Spertsyan in his penalty area, and Sergei Karasev, having watched the replay, appointed a penalty, which was converted by Viktor Klasson. And at the very beginning of the second half, the Swede distinguished himself from the game. By the way, in the previous meeting with Khimki, he also scored two points on the goal + pass system (1 + 1).

In the time remaining before the final whistle, the hosts could repeatedly equalize the score, but Safonov acted beyond praise.

Shortly before the final whistle, the substitute Ivelin Popov was still able to upset him, but the judge justly recorded an offside position.

The only fly in the ointment for the guests was a direct red card to Grzegorz Krychowiak for a dangerous tackle in the leg of Joaozinho.

Arsenal's fraternal bunch

Also, after the 17th round, quite serious restructuring took place in the second half of the standings, because the victories were won by Ural, Nizhny Novgorod and Arsenal. For the Tula, it became the second in a row. After a sensational success at home in the confrontation with Lokomotiv, Miodrag Bozovic's charges on the road turned out to be stronger than their direct rival Khimki - 2: 1. For the team, this result is doubly valuable, since before that, in foreign walls, it scored only three points.

Moreover, the Gunners showed willpower after the ball missed closer to the break from Resiuan Mirzov. Interestingly, the midfielder had to interrupt the penalty kick, since the goalkeeper parried the first blow from the spot in violation of the rules. In the second half, the guests already had an overwhelming advantage. This was facilitated by the replacement of three opponents at once in the first half of the meeting due to injuries. Among them were two main central defenders Alexander Filin and Yegor Danilkin.

Taking advantage of the problems of the Moscow Region team in defense, Arsenal struck one blow after another and eventually achieved their goal.

The main hero of the confrontation was Kings Kangwa, who gave two assists in the second RPL match in a row.

In the first case, he helped to score a masterpiece ball by Zuriko Davitashvili, and in the second he assisted his older brother Evans.

In the 87th minute, the interaction of the Zambian midfielders brought the team a victory.

Not without removal in this match.

Shortly before the final whistle, the host defender Brian Idovu received a red card.