The devastating return of Dynamo
The transition of Fedor Smolov to Dynamo became one of the main transfer events of the winter.
The striker returned to the team in which he began his career to help her become the champion of the country.
Forward from the first match began to work out the money spent on him.
In a difficult away meeting with Khimki, it was he who opened the scoring shortly before the break.
The football player entered the penalty area from the left flank, moved to the center and shot low into the far corner.
Thus, Smolov scored the first goal for the blue and white since May 2011, when he hit the gates of Krasnodar.
After the replacement, Fedor left the field with a satisfied smile.
He was warmly greeted by the fans, who unanimously began to chant: “Fedya!
Fedya!
And already without him, the Muscovites in the end brought the matter to defeat thanks to the goals of Sebastian Szymanski and Daniil Fomin and won a major victory in the fight for the championship.
However, in the end it was not the Dynamo players who came to the fore, but the chief referee Kirill Levnikov, who showed three red cards: two to the hosts, one to the guests.
Moreover, the referee made the decision to remove the players from the Moscow Region team only after watching the replays.
Both Philip Dagerstol and Lawrence Anwon Nicholas received direct reds for dangerous play against opponents at risk of injury.
And among the Muscovites, Roman Evgeniev left the field ahead of schedule for two yellow cards.
Victory of Nizhny Novgorod over a direct competitor
Not without deletions and in the battle of outsiders "Nizhny Novgorod" - "Ural".
Ekaterinburgers, like Khimki, finished the game with nine players.
First, in the 55th minute, the second yellow card was received by lateral Kirill Kolesnichenko, and in the 77th minute by defender Leo Goglichidze.
In his penalty area, he did not keep up with Richie Ennin, who made a well-timed dash, and knocked the Canadian down.
The penalty was converted by Nikolay Kalinsky, although Ilya Pomazun was close to parrying his shot.
The goalkeeper rented from CSKA did everything for the guests to score points.
He has seven saves to his credit.
However, the wards of Igor Shalimov did not realize their moments with an equal score.
The hosts, even in the absence of the ill head coach Alexander Kerzhakov, won a second victory in the last three rounds of the RPL.
And their unbeaten streak is four meetings.
Such results allowed the debutant of the elite division to leave the zone of joints.
Vanoli's unsuccessful debut
And in the central match of the 19th round, Spartak and CSKA met.
The red-and-whites in the debut meeting under the leadership of Paolo Vanoli more often possessed the ball (56%) and hit more on goal (14 vs. 8), but were defeated - 0:2.
They clearly lacked sharpness in the final phase, because only two shots hit the target.
Igor Akinfeev coped with one of them, who did not allow Roman Zobnin to score and played his 295th match in his career to "zero" at the club level.
The rookies of the army team also performed superbly.
For example, Jorge Carrascal participated in the goal of Baktiyor Zainutdinov, and also made four successful dribbling attempts, surpassing everyone in this indicator.
And Yusuf Yazici opened the scoring with the same earned standard immediately after the break.
It is noteworthy that the red and blue scored in the derby with a direct free kick for the first time since April 2012.
Then Zoran Tosic upset his principled opponent.
CSKA also beat Spartak twice in the national championship for the first time since the 2015/16 season.
Moreover, the red-whites last went without goals in two meetings with the red-blues in a single national championship draw in 1997.
Then both confrontations ended in a draw - 0:0.
In general, the ten-time champions of Russia in the last five matches with the army team in the RPL suffered four defeats.
Unexpected hero "Sochi"
If Sochi lost points, CSKA could rise to third place in the standings, but this did not happen.
The southerners in a difficult match at home put the squeeze on the outsider Arsenal (2:0) and retained their place in the top three.
And the main character of the meeting was a football player, from whom, it seemed, nothing was expected.
Victorien Angban moved to Russia from Metz last year for €4.1m but has so far only disappointed fans.
The adaptation of the Ivorian, who played at Chelsea, was delayed, and in the first part of the season he had to be content with the role of a substitute.
However, in the first game of the new year, the midfielder got his chance and took advantage of it one hundred percent.
First, Angban at the beginning of the second half finished off the ball with a header after Anton Kochenkov's save, scoring his debut goal in Russia, and then earned a penalty kick, which was converted by Artur Yusupov.
Tulyaks did not manage to break through Denis Adamov.
The eminent newcomer Djordje Despotovic, who came on as a substitute after the break and did not deliver a single blow, did not help them either.
So the guests suffered from Sochi for the third defeat in a row and failed to leave the joint zone.
Impressive comeback "Akhmat"
But Akhmat, taking into account the forced postponement of the matches of Krasnodar and Lokomotiv, managed to climb into the top 5 and reduce the gap from the European Cup zone to three points.
The home victory over Ufa was the fifth for Grozny in the last six rounds of the RPL.
And she was given to the wards of Andrei Talalaev with great difficulty.
In added time to the first half, the outsider unexpectedly opened the scoring.
Moreover, Oleg Ivanov, who played eight years in the capital of the Chechen Republic, assisted Yuri Zhuravlev.
However, after the break, the hosts managed to make a comeback.
Aleksey Sukhoi appointed another, third penalty on the tour, with the help of VAR.
Alexander Belenov was close to parrying Igor Konovalov's shot from the spot, but the ball treacherously rolled over the line after his save.
A newcomer Alexander Troshechkin brought three points to the team.
The midfielder entered the field shortly before the final whistle, and in the 84th minute hit the opponent's goal with his head - 2:1.
Champion's character of "Zenith"
The tour ended with a real “thriller match” in St. Petersburg.
Zenit, after the crushing victory of Dynamo, also needed to score three points in order to return to a clear first place.
And the current champion played the confrontation with Rubin with a serious advantage (58% of possession and 27 shots on goal).
However, in the first half the score was never opened.
Yuri Dyupin, who made a total of seven saves, acted above all praise.
In stoppage time, Vendel still scored a goal, but referee Yevhen Kukulyak, after watching the replay, canceled it due to a small offside position from Yuri Alberto, who was lying on the lawn.
But immediately after the break, Sergei Semak's wards finally broke through.
They did not have time to return to the field, as they nevertheless led.
Alberto corrected for an unsuccessful episode and hit his head perfectly.
Thus, he chalked up a goal in his debut game in the RPL.
Literally right there, another Latin American, Claudinho, earned a penalty, which Aleksey Sutormin confidently converted.
The position of Kazan seemed hopeless, but the guests managed to make an unexpected comeback.
And the main character in their composition was the newcomer Vitaly Lisakovich, bought in the winter from Lokomotiv.
At first, he confidently realized a one-on-one exit with Daniil Odoevsky, and in just six minutes he equalized the score.
Big questions at this moment arose for the young goalkeeper, who failed to reflect the ball flying next to his left foot.
However, the Zenit players did not let go of their hands, and in the time added by the referee they nevertheless achieved their goal.
Once again, a rookie came to the fore.
Ivan Sergeev entered the game in the end, and in the 92nd minute he decided the fate of the confrontation.
After Wendel's cross, the striker sent the projectile into the net with his calf muscle - 3:2.