Farewell defeat: Spartak lost to Sochi in the 18th round of the RPL

The away match of the 18th round of the Russian Premier League against Sochi was special for Spartak. This is due to the possible resignation of head coach Rui Vitoria in the near future. Judging by media reports, the Portuguese will not be saved even by reaching the 1/8 finals of the Europa League from first place from the group with Napoli and Leicester. Therefore, many fans no longer had any doubts that another specialist, Paolo Vanoli, would prepare the team for the resumption of the season. The footballers of the capital's team in this situation could only express their support to the mentor with their play. A victory in Sochi after a successful trip to Warsaw to Legia would have left the club's management fewer reasons to change the coach.

Vladimir Fedotov's charges had their own important motivation.

In the last three matches of the national championship, they scored only one point, having suffered losses from Rubin and Krasnodar, and lost several positions in the standings.

But their success in the 18th round guaranteed them a return to the top three.

True, during the warm-up, the hosts suffered a serious loss.

The top scorer of the team, Mateo Cassierra, was injured and was unable to enter the field.

His place was taken by Maxim Barsov.

But the staffing problems of the guests were not resolved either.

To top it all off, two key performers, Ayrton and Alexander Sobolev, earned disqualifications in the match against Akhmat.

In their absence, Vitoria decided to mirror the opponent's scheme with three central defenders.

At the same time, the place on the left flank was taken by the more attack-oriented Alexander Lomovitsky.

Ahead, as in Warsaw, there is a trio of Quincy Promes - Zelimkhan Bakaev - Mikhail Ignatov, in which there was no place for the nominal forward Georgy Melkadze.

The first half turned out to be unsuccessful for Spartak.

The team frankly failed in the segment before the conceded ball.

She seemed to have not fully recovered after a difficult trip to Poland.

Muscovites operated at extremely low speeds and were unable to move from defense to attack.

The opponent easily blocked all the addressees of the programs in his own half and did not leave space, trying to meet the guests as closely as possible.

Of course, the lack of clean attackers also affected.

If in Warsaw Zelimkhan Bakaev had the opportunity to break into the free zones, since Legia was forced to go forward, then Sochi was in no hurry.

And as expected, the tenth number of the red and white was not able to fight on equal terms with the powerful central defenders of the opponent.

The southerners, in the absence of Cassierra in the attack, also turned out a little.

For a long time, the game was played mainly in the center of the field.

Gradually, however, Fedotov's team began to build up pressure.

Selikhov had to bail out his partners several times.

I especially remember his save after hitting Sergei Terekhov.

In the middle of the half, the owners were also seriously lucky.

They earned a promising free kick, and Mikhail Ignatov, who was standing in the wall, played after Joaozinho's shot with his arm extended to the side.

Chief referee Sergei Ivanov did not immediately appoint a penalty, but after watching the replay, he pointed to the "point".

The 11-meter kick was confidently realized by Christian Noboa.

He neatly sent the ball down the center, while the goalkeeper jumped into the right corner.

Only after missing, "Spartak" finally woke up and wound up.

Muscovites raised the pace a little and immediately managed to create problems for their rivals.

The southerners were forced to cuddle up to their own goal and, with great difficulty, kept the minimum advantage in the score to the whistle for the break.

The flanks started to work, Lomovitsky also began to connect more often forward along the left edge. This made it possible to fulfill a number of standard provisions. And at the end of the first half, the guests almost bounced back. Promes had two good points. First, he escaped to a rendezvous with Denis Adamov, breaking through from an acute angle, but he parried his shot with his foot. And then the footballer from the Netherlands tried to send the ball to the near top nine, but again failed to beat the young goalkeeper.

In the second half, the guests' advantage became overwhelming. They were in possession of the ball all the time and pressed the opponent almost into his penalty area. Sochi had to focus exclusively on defense, since the team had no counterplay at all. And Fedotov, preparing for a long siege from the opponent, made a replacement in the top three of the central defenders during the break. The place of Danila Prokhin, who received a yellow card, was taken by Rodrigao.

It turned out to be not easy to hack the southerners, who were built on their third of the field in two lines.

The red and whites first of all tried to find gaps on the semi-flanks where Promes and Bakaev operated.

At the same time, Quincy often found himself at the forefront of the attack.

But the ten-time champions of Russia still lacked a man to complete the attack.

This can explain the castling of Ignatov on Melkadze.

The striker may not be in the best shape, but he should have had enough strength for half an hour.

It became very difficult for Sochi after the optional removal of Noboa.

The hosts lost the ball during a rare counterattack, and the Ecuadorian, trying to stop Promes, who was running ahead, stepped on Achilles with spikes.

Ivanov, without hesitation, showed the violator a straight red card.

He didn't even try to argue with the referee.

After that, actually one team remained on the field.

Vitoria went all-in and sent Gigot to the attack.

Spartak switched to a 4-4-2 formation, but with their full complement (with the exception of Selikhov) they crossed the middle of the field.

The guests began to create moments.

So, Rodrigao cleared the ball off the line with his head after Moses hit, and Adamov barely coped with Djikia's long-range shot.

To the credit of the exhausted southerners, they defended themselves competently and selflessly.

I remember the moment when Kirill Zaika, at the last moment in the tackle, brought the ball out from under Melkadze, who was already ready to send it into the net.

On finishing, Gigot almost hit the target, after which he demanded from the referee to appoint a penalty.

Then the famous football principle “if you don’t score, you score” worked. The southerners launched a counterattack and broke the opponent's defensive line in several passes. After a magnificent cutting pass into the penalty area, Zaika made a cross to an empty net almost from the front. Substitute Ivelin Popov, having distinguished himself in a meeting with the former team, did not restrain his emotions.

And in the last minutes "Spartak" conceded the third goal and remained with ten men.

Maximiliano Kofrie knocked down Nikita Burmirstrov in his own penalty area, and Ivanov pointed to the point for the second time.

This time the penalty was converted by Artur Yusupov.

So Sochi won and finished the year in third place in the standings.

And the red and white were defeated in, possibly, the last match under the leadership of Vitoria and went on a break in the ninth line, 15 points behind the leading Zenit.