Yazydzhi's goal from a free kick, Zainutdinov's kick from afar and Akinfeev's save: how CSKA beat Spartak in the 19th round of the RPL

This season, the Russian football championship resumed unusually early - on February 26.

Moreover, the main derby of the country took place on the first game day.

For the first time in the 100-year history of the confrontation between Spartak and CSKA, their paths crossed in the last month of winter.

This confrontation was also special because the red-whites approached it radically updated.

In December, Rui Vitoria was replaced by Paolo Vanoli on the coaching bridge, and seven players joined the team.

However, only one of them got into the starting lineup for the match of the 19th round of the RPL - the defensive midfielder Christopher Martins Pereira.

Nikita Chernov, Danil Prutsev, Daniil Khlusevich and Shamar Nicholson remained on the bench.

The company of the Luxembourger in the center of the field was Nail Umyarov and Roman Zobnin.

In defense, Vanoli decided not to deviate from the scheme of three central defenders and, in the absence of the suspended Maximiliano Cofrie, sent the universal Ruslan Litvinov to help George Jikia and Samuel Gigot.

On the flanks are Ayrton and Victor Moses.

Finally, Quincy Promes and Alexander Sobolev were on the attack.

But CSKA threw all four of its new legionnaires into battle: Jean-Philippe Gbamen, Jesus Medina, Jorge Carrascal and Yusuf Yazici.

The Ivorian is located in the support zone, the Turks are in the position under the striker, and the Colombian and Paraguayan are in the place of insiders.

All of them were called upon to supply Anton Zabolotny with balls.

In defense, Aleksey Berezutsky, like his colleague, relied on a formation with three central defenders, and the trio with Igor Diveev and Yaka Biyol was formed by Bruno Fuchs, who performed well at the winter training camp.

The first half of the derby turned out to be quite chaotic.

Such matches in Russia are usually called spring matches, speaking about the low level of functional readiness of football players.

Indeed, the desire in the actions of the players of both teams was more than enough, but the rate of marriage and errors went off scale.

But it made the meeting more interesting and spectacular.

Unlike the match of the first round, when the opponents were closed in defense, this time they tried to look for gaps in someone else's line of defense, and did not sit out in their own half of the field.

At the same time, both teams tried to catch each other on counterattacks when free zones formed.

CSKA owned a little more ball, but visually the advantage remained on the side of Spartak.

The red and whites tried to quickly deliver the ball to Sobolev, who was called upon to win the horse fight and drop the ball to partners.

Surprisingly regularly connected to the attacks of Pereira, who was not at all limited to destruction.

The hosts also tried to create an overload on the right flank, taking advantage of the shortcomings of the nominal midfielder Ivan Oblyakov.

Even Litvinov periodically moved here.

Actually, his connection helped create the most dangerous moment before the break.

At the end of the half, he led his opponent away, and Promes, after Moses' cross from the penalty line, hit the post.

CSKA also tried to achieve superiority in midfield.

Carrascal, Medina and Yazici, who regularly rises to them, delighted the fans with excellent technique and a high passing culture.

Jorge was especially good, who regularly left Pereira in the right inside zone.

In one of the episodes, this led to a dangerous blow performed by the Colombian, which Alexander Selikhov coped with not without difficulty, in the other, to a transfer to Yazici and another shot from outside the penalty area.

Nevertheless, closer to the equator of the half, the red-whites managed to add reliability in the support zone and calm the situation.

Competently they closed the only striker Zabolotny.

Before the break, he practically did not touch the ball and interacted poorly with new partners.

Separately, it is necessary to say about the behavior of Vanoli.

The Italian showed in his debut game in Russia that in terms of impulsiveness he is not inferior even to Domenico Tedesco.

Before the match started, the coach threw off his jacket in anger, although the temperature was below freezing.

And a little later, left dissatisfied with the mistake of one of the wards, he threw the bottle on the lawn.

At the very beginning of the second half, the specialist received another reason for negative emotions.

No sooner had the meeting resumed as Yazici earned a dangerous standard close to someone else's penalty area.

And not in the best way again proved to be Pereira, who broke the rules on the opponent.

The Turk, on the other hand, showed an excellent ability to carry out such positions.

With a perfect soft kick from his left foot, he sent a projectile over the wall into the near nine without a chance for Selikhov.

Now Spartak had no choice but to go forward.

Having conceded, the team switched to a scheme with two central defenders in possession.

Litvinov actually took a place on the right edge, and Mozes rose higher.

The hosts tried to undermine the saturated defensive line of the guests, but it was not so easy to do so.

Biyol, Diveev and Fuchs had a great derby and won most of the duels.

The only episode when they did not cope with their task occurred after an hour of play.

Zobnin, using a thin pass from Promes, broke into the free space between Baktiyor Zainutdinov and Diveev, but failed to transfer Akinfeev.

Igor competently reduced the distance and parried the shot.

CSKA's counterattacks looked no less dangerous.

One Carrascal several times, thanks to his amazing technique, ran to other people's gates, but he lacked a little luck.

Vanoli soon refreshed the line of attack, throwing Nicholson and Jordan Larsson into the fight instead of Sobolev and Zobnin, but this did not bring much dividends.

And in the 79th minute, the army team finally removed all questions about the outcome of the confrontation.

Once again, Carrascal showed himself remarkably well.

He dragged the ball to someone else's penalty area, removing two opponents, and completed the transfer to fresh Chidera Ejuka.

He redirected the ball to the left Oblyakov.

Ivan made a pass to Zainutdinov, and he hit the near bottom corner with a neat shot from outside the penalty area.

After that, the game was actually done.

In the end, Spartak finally switched to a scheme with two central defenders, and Nicholson even missed a dangerous moment.

However, it was too late to save the team.

To top it off, she lost Zhigot due to an injury, who had to be changed to Ilya Kutepov in stoppage time.

CSKA won the second victory in the derby in the current RPL draw and continues to fight for medals.

And the magnificent game of the newcomers of the army team gave their fans a reason for restrained optimism.