Successful transfer of Shunin

Dynamo continues to fight with Zenit for the championship.

In the spring, the blue-and-whites do not always show bright football, but they consistently score points.

The victory over Akhmat was their fourth in the last five rounds.

And experienced players play a key role at the end of the season.

It was their actions that helped Muscovites score important three points.

Goalkeeper Anton Shunin rarely came to the fore, but at the right moments he rescued partners and recorded his 102nd meeting at zero in the Lev Yashin Club credit.

But if the captain's saves are no surprise, then the assist was a revelation.

In the end, he took out Konstantin Tyukavin one on one with Vitaly Gudiev from his own half.

Shunin is the first goalkeeper to make an assist in the RPL in more than two years, since March 2020.

And the decisive goal was scored by another veteran Fedor Smolov.

The 32-year-old striker has once again demonstrated that his acquisition from Lokomotiv is the right decision.

This goal for him is the fifth after returning to Dynamo in all tournaments and the 11th in the current season of the national championship.

Now the striker shares third place in the race of scorers of the tournament with Artyom Dzyuba and is second only to Dmitry Poloz (12) and Hamid Agalarov (16). 

Saving blow Nikitin

But CSKA de facto dropped out of the championship race.

Until recently, it seemed that the army team could throw down the gauntlet to Zenit and Dynamo, but the six-match winning streak in the RPL was replaced by a three-match losing streak.

Moreover, they lost points in confrontations with outsiders - Ural, Khimki and Ufa.

In Bashkortostan, the wards of Alexei Berezutsky completely missed the victory in the 95th minute.

Moreover, their own pupil Alexei Nikitin upset them.

The defender spent all his childhood at the Youth Sports School of CSKA, but did not get a chance in his native team.

Pushing Sergei Ignashevich and the current coaches of the red and blue Bereztsuk brothers turned out to be unrealistic.

Years later, he took revenge on them.

And at first the football player was marked with a minus sign.

In the 89th minute, he failed to clear the ball from the "line" after a shot by Mario Fernandez.

It seemed that the favorite would not miss three points in such a situation.

However, in stoppage time, the guests were in for a huge disappointment.

The hosts staged a final assault, and tall Nikitin went to someone else's penalty area.

After Dmitry Kabutov's rebate, Alexey left no chance for Igor Akinfeev and ruined his anniversary, because the current game was the 700th goalkeeper for CSKA.

And for "Ufa" this shot was the only one on target. 

The long-awaited goal of Dzyuba

Meanwhile, Zenit defeated Ural and kept a three-point lead over Dynamo - 3:1.

Brazilian football players again became the main characters in the composition of the Petersburgers.

Claudinho did not convert a penalty in the debut of the meeting, but was the first to finish.

Newcomer Yuri Alberto scored the sixth goal for the team in all competitions and gave an assist.

And Malcolm assisted a compatriot.

Dzyuba put an end to the confrontation, to whom Sergei Semak at the base this time preferred Ivan Sergeyev.

This clearly benefited the veteran, because he scored just five minutes after coming on as a substitute and interrupted an eight-match goalless streak in the championship.

It is curious that the ball of prestige of Yekaterinburg residents turned out to be the fruit of the interaction of two former Zenit performers.

Oleg Shatov made a discount on Yuri Zheleznov, and he delivered a stunning sweeping blow to the far nine from outside the penalty area with no chance for Mikhail Kerzhakov.

But "Ural" once again proved that it is a convenient opponent for blue-white-blue.

In 23 matches, they have not suffered a single defeat with 19 wins and four draws, and won all 11 at home.

Controversial decisions of Kazartsev

If Alberto brightly manifests himself in Zenit, then another newcomer shines in Lokomotiv - Wilson Isidore.

The purchase of a young striker, who practically did not receive practice at Monaco, for € 3.5 million initially raised questions.

However, the legionnaire quickly removed them with his game.

In his debut match of the Cup of Russia, he failed to excel, but in the future he regularly hit the gates of opponents in the RPL.

The key meeting of the tournament with a direct competitor in the fight for Sochi medals was no exception.

It was only thanks to the attacker that the railroad workers avoided defeat and did not allow the southerners to win - 2:2.

Shortly before the break, he converted a penalty, which he himself earned.

Judge Vasily Kazartsev consulted with assistants at VAR for a long time, but nevertheless ruled that Danila Prokhin knocked his opponent down.

Isidor confidently outplayed Soslan Dzhanaev from the point.

And at the beginning of the second half, the forward, having correctly opened in someone else's penalty area, from close range moved the ball into the net and equalized the score for the second time.

Thus, Wilson's scoring streak in the championship is already six rounds, in which he scored seven goals.

In parallel, the Frenchman repeated Yusuf Yazici's record for newcomers to the RPL.

He also shares first place in the team scorer race in the national championship with Smolov, who left for Dynamo.

But after the final whistle, perhaps no less than the forward, Kazartsev was discussed.

After an hour of play, he showed direct red cards to Jan Kuhta and Rodrigao.

The Czech, rising from the lawn, leaned his knee on the opponent's chest, and he kicked him in response.

And in the first half, the referee, after watching the replay, did not appoint a penalty for Alexis Beck-Beck's foul on Mateo Casierra.

These decisions forced the owners to apply to the RFU ESC.

Gross mistakes of Safonov

The good news for Lokomotiv was the defeat of another contender for medals - Krasnodar.

The away match against Krylya Sovetov turned out to be one of the worst of the season for the southerners and they deservedly ended up with nothing - 0:2.

Moreover, the wards of Alexander Storozhuk had problems in all lines.

They possessed the ball a little more, but practically did not create dangerous chances.

The guests were honored with only two shots on target and showed the worst expected goals (Xg) in the last couple of seasons - 0.21.

At the same time, they regularly failed in defense and did not have time to return to their own half, which the Samaras enjoyed using with pleasure.

Even the usually reliable goalkeeper Matvey Safonov was grossly mistaken.

His participation in the meeting was in doubt due to the transferred coronavirus, but he nevertheless entered the field and made two gross mistakes.

First, the goalkeeper played unsuccessfully at the exit and allowed Vladislav Sarveli to score the eighth goal in the current RPL draw.

And after the break, he failed to cope with a shot into the near corner from outside the penalty area from Maxim Glushenkov.

Important goals by Komlichenko and Poloz

Rostov, like Krasnodar, was left without a number of leading foreign players in the spring, but this did not prevent the team from gaining a good momentum.

In many ways, the rise was facilitated by the return to the post of mentor Valery Karpin.

With him at the head, the yellow-blues scored 13 points in the RPL out of 18 possible and moved away from the relegation zone.

And in the last three rounds they won at all.

It was possible to extend the series in a difficult away confrontation with Arsenal - 2: 1.

The outsider gave the guests a fight and was close to achieving a positive result.

However, the defenders of the "gunners" did not cope with the opponent's attackers.

Nikolai Komlichenko opened the scoring in the tenth minute and scored in the third meeting in a row.

And in the 87th minute Dmitry Poloz scored the decisive goal.

It seemed that the ball was scored in violation - the effective attack began with a tough selection by Denis Terentiev - but the referee counted it.

The striker, with 12 goals, climbed to a clear second place in the race of the tournament scorers.

Now he is second only to Agalarov (16).

And in general, the Russian strikers had a shock tour, because in addition to Poloz and Komlichenko, Smolov, Tyukavin, Dziuba, Alexander Sobolev, Sarveli and Glushenkov hit the goal.

Moreover, all of them, with the exception of the last one, were called up to the national team at different times.