Misfire "Zenith", Glushenkov's extravaganza and Safonov's super saves: what did the 1st round of the RPL remember, in addition to the matches of the capital's giants

Missed Zenith points

One of the main events of the opening round of the Russian championship was the misfire of Zenit, who failed to take three points in the match with Khimki.

Sergei Semak's wards scored an early goal, but in the second half they noticeably slowed down and subsequently not only lost in the number of shots (7:8), but also conceded six minutes before the end of regular time.

Neither the newcomers who appeared during the meeting - Zelimkhan Bakaev and Mateo Cassierra, nor the lifesaver Alexander Erokhin helped the Petersburgers to take the lead again.

Thus, for the first time since 2016, the blue-white-blues failed to start the season with a win.

Six years ago they parted ways with Lokomotiv (0:0).

And this is especially curious, because then Artyom Dzyuba also did not enter the field, who scored three goals and one assist in the next five starting meetings of the RPL season for blue-white-blue.

But if at that time the future leader of the team was unavailable due to a knee injury, then this time he was no longer listed in the Zenit squad.

And this also allows us to draw certain analogies with the 2016/17 championship, because it was in front of him that the St. Petersburg residents were left without the main star - the Hulk and were forced to engage in perestroika.

So far, there are no prerequisites for the fact that the departure of the Russian striker will provoke the same crisis in the team, and the reformatting process will take two years, because the gap from competitors is too great.

But the wake-up call still sounded.

And it is extremely curious how Semak will react to it.

Namely, whether he will be able to do without a footballer who regularly “made a difference” at the level of the national championship, and achieve results. 

Powerful start Glushenkov

But if at Zenith the departure of the long-term leader has not yet been reflected in the best way, then the Wings of the Soviets pretended not to notice the loss of a number of important performers.

In the summer, Samarans released Anton Zinkovsky and Vladislav Sarveli, as a result of which Maxim Glushenkov not only got more playing time, but also tried on the role of one of the team's leading players.

And so far, the additional responsibility has only benefited him.

In a meeting with Orenburg, he chalked up three points according to the “goal + pass” system (2 + 1).

And this despite the fact that for the entire last season he scored nine (7 + 2).

And the authoritative portal WhoScored rated his performance at 9.7 points.

In addition to him, only Jorge Carrascal from CSKA earned more than nine (9.1).

In general, the Wings attack group left a very pleasant impression.

In addition to Glushenkov, Roman Yezhov and Sergey Pinyaev showed themselves great.

The first scored a goal and a pass, and the second, although he did not score points for performance, developed his attacks well and created several dangerous moments for his partners.

The most obvious of them was not realized by the same Glushenkov, when he missed the target from a few meters.

However, this did not stop them from beating Orenburg with a score of 4: 2 and leading the RPL standings.

Confident victory for Sochi

As for the former players of Krylia Sovetov, Sarveli scored in the first match for the new team.

It took him 37 minutes to open the scoring for Sochi and help the silver medalists of the past season to get the better of Premier League debutant Torpedo.

Thus, the southerners became one of the two representatives of the top six following the results of the last championship, who managed to justify their status and score three points in the first round.

In addition to them, only CSKA managed to do it, which is headed by their former mentor Vladimir Fedotov.

Surely, many expected that the departure of the coach would cause a crisis in the team.

However, Sochi performed very confidently and not only scored three times, but practically did not allow Torpedo to create anything dangerous.

Muscovites lost only 0.4 expected goals (xG) - more modest figures for Pari NN (0.36) and Ural (0.17).

And the misfire of Vanya Drkusic helped to soak the score for the nominal owners - in the 51st minute he hit the ball into his own net. 

Miracles of Safonov

In turn, Krasnodar decided to follow the example of Zenit, Dynamo and Lokomotiv, giving themselves a hassle in the confrontation with an opponent inferior in class.

The hosts conceded already in the 10th minute, by the end of the first half they bounced back and took the lead thanks to the spectacular balls of Alexei Ionov and Eduard Spertsyan, but could not strengthen the advantage.

In stoppage time, a penalty was awarded to the Fakel gate for handball, but John Cordoba hit the post.

And the choice in favor of the Colombian initially looked very strange.

Last season, he approached the point three times, but was accurate only once.

Apparently, this broke the wards of Oleksandr Storozhuk so much that they failed the second half.

Let them surpass the guests in the total number of shots, but they hit the target six times less (1:6), and had no chances to score at all.

What can not be said about the "Torch".

Already at the beginning of forty-five minutes, they took advantage of the oversight of the opponent's defenders and restored parity, and after that they had several opportunities to create the main sensation of the tour.

Matvey Safonov interfered.

In total, the goalkeeper made five saves, and in the end he reminded why he was the first number of the Russian team.

At first, he did not allow Khyzyr Appaev to realize a one-on-one exit, and then he made a miracle save after Oleg Dmitriev's shot from the goalkeeper's line.