There was hardly any serious reason to believe that Sandro Schwartz would decide on a large-scale rotation of the squad in the derby with Spartak.
In the spring part of the season, Dynamo scored two major victories, and the coaching staff has already managed to see not only proven leaders, but also newcomers in action.
Fedor Smolov scored a goal both in the meeting with Khimki in the RPL, and in the match with Nizhny Novgorod in the Russian Cup, so his appearance at the base seemed to be a decided matter, as was the combination in the middle line.
In fact, the German specialist had to decide who to replace the disqualified Roman Evgeniev, as well as decide on the duo of wingers.
As a result, in the center of defense, the 20-year-old Saba Sazonov, as expected, was paired with Fabian Balbuena, otherwise the line-up practically did not differ from what came out from the first minutes in the previous championship game.
The only exception was the appearance of Guillermo Varela on the right flank of the defense.
In previous matches, this position was occupied by Sergei Parshivlyuk, but this time he unexpectedly ended up on the bench.
And it is not known what was the reason for this: the shape of the Uruguayan, the fatigue of the Russian, or his red and white past.
One way or another, in the last two matches with the former team, he spent a total of 52 minutes.
Spartak needed some rearrangements.
In the match with CSKA, Paolo Vanoli's wards looked far from the best, as a result of which an almost completely renewed squad entered the field in the Russian Cup.
And it worked.
Although the opponent was far from the highest level, the Italian specialist was able to draw certain conclusions from the confrontation with the Kuban.
Shamar Nicholson, who scored a hat-trick, and Zelimkhan Bakaev, who scored an assist, were transferred to the start, and Maximiliano Kofrie took the place in defense.
Ruslan Litvinov remained on the bench, who was played in the top three throughout the winter training camp.
At first it might seem that the bet on the Belgian was wrong.
Already at the 11th second, Kofriye hit Smolov in the face and earned a yellow card, but quickly rehabilitated.
The defender provoked a hard foul on himself by Vyacheslav Grulev and forced Sergey Karasev to show the yellow card again.
The arbitrator as a whole tried to stop any manifestations of rudeness on the field and mercilessly fined for any severe violation.
Therefore, it is not surprising that by the break one of the teams remained in the minority.
Toward the end of the half, Varela knocked down Bakaev twice in three minutes and went to the room under the stands, and on the replay one might get the impression that in the first episode the Uruguayan practically did not touch the enemy.
By this time, Spartak already had a comfortable advantage.
If in positional attacks the red-whites could not offer anything to their opponents, then they looked great on the opposite courses - largely due to the inspired play of Bakaev and Promes.
At the 26th minute, the Russian-Dutch duo made a smashing counterattack after the loss of Daniil Fomin.
Quincy threw Zelimkhan into the gap with a chic counter-pass, and he burst into the penalty area and shot.
The blow was not the most successful, but the ball ricocheted off Sazonov and bounced right on Nicholson's foot.
The overall Jamaican did not miss and scored the first goal in the RPL.
After 11 minutes, the second ball flew into the net of Anton Shunin's goal, and the main characters remained the same.
This time, Sazonov made a gross mistake in the center of the field, literally giving the ball to Promes, who recouped Bakaev and created a real masterpiece.
Quincey moved from the left flank to the center and from 25 m shot exactly into the far nine.
Thus, by the break, Dynamo was not only inferior in the score and had one player less, but also did not strike a single shot on target.
The hosts limited themselves to only a few adventurous breakthroughs by Grulev on the left flank, none of which led to a fully dangerous moment.
And when Spartak led and stepped back a little, the sharpness disappeared altogether.
Arsen Zakharyan looked especially faded.
At the end of the first 45 minutes, he could not boast of any successful strokes or key passes.
Perhaps all this together and pissed off Schwartz.
At the end of the half, he angrily uttered something to Karasev, behaved aggressively in the tribune.
During a flash interview with Christopher Martins, the exclamations of a German were clearly audible in the background, expressing dissatisfaction with either the removal of Varela, or the performance of the wards.
Emotions did not subside in the second half, and Schwartz was able to calm down a little only with the help of a “mustard plaster”.
But it is much more important that the behavior of the coach did not inspire the Dynamo players to fight.
They spent the second half no better, and even Konstantin Tyukavin, Clinton N'Zhier and Denis Makarov, who appeared on the field, could not revive the game.
The first dangerous moment at the gates of Selikhov appeared only in the 69th minute, when Zakharyan reminded of himself.
Arsene effectively dealt with Martins and shot from the penalty area, but the ball hit the post.
In total, in 90 minutes, Dynamo struck 11 shots, but only one of them hit the target.
17 minutes before the end of regular time, Nicola Moreau stretched Selikhov, but no more.
Ruslan Litvinov created a much greater threat to the gate.
The substitute defender did not notice the goalkeeper and went to the ball to the end, as a result of which he collided with a teammate.
In stoppage time, Spartak could bring the score to a large one.
The Dynamo defense advanced too high and launched two opponents behind their backs at once, but Promes was unable to realize a one-on-one approach.
The Dutchman rolled the ball into the near corner, but missed.
One way or another, the red-whites interrupted the opponent's six-match unbeaten streak in the RPL and won the first victory under the leadership of Vanoli.