Confident tread of CSKA

In the second round of the RPL, two metropolitan giants at once, CSKA and Spartak, had to play with strong teams from the south of Russia.

Of particular interest was the confrontation between the army team and Sochi, because Vladimir Fedotov, who led the red and blue in the summer, was waiting for a meeting with the former team, which he brought to silver last season.

Moreover, at his previous place of work, he managed to quite successfully oppose CSKA.

In five matches, his wards turned out to be stronger three times with one draw and the same number of defeats.

Now the specialist, after a confident victory over the Urals, was waiting for a truly serious test.

Compared to the first meeting, he, as expected, did not make a single change in the starting lineup, not looking for good from good.

But Vadim Garanin had to make a change.

The place of the injured Cyril Zaika on the right flank of the defense was taken by the nominal midfielder Nikita Burmistrov.

Also, the guests unexpectedly opted for a scheme with two forwards - Vladislav Sarveli and Georgy Melkadze, in order to have more opportunities to break into the opponent's saturated line of defense.

However, by and large, they never found a way to do this, although they had a little more possession of the ball - 58%.

The army team in their own half acted carefully and practically did not leave free zones.

Opponents constantly had to do everything in tight time pressure.

From here, only two shots on target and only one real dangerous moment.

At the end of the first half, Melkadze, after a perfect transfer from Burmistrov, ran away to a rendezvous with Igor Akinfeev, but he promptly reduced the distance and rescued his partners.

Ahead, the red-blues, as in the match with Ural, turned on high pressure and forced the Sochi players to make mistakes.

As the main sore points in the formations of the southerners, they chose half-flanks.

The hosts' players moved to the edges, creating overload in these areas, and thanks to clear combinations, they brought each other to the operational space.

Particularly useful in such a game were technical Jorge Carrascal and Jesus Medina.

The first one recorded five successful dribbling attempts, and the second four.

Not surprisingly, it was the Latin Americans who became the main characters of the meeting.

The Paraguayan opened the scoring in the 36th minute, running away to a rendezvous with Denis Adamov after a perfect cutting pass from the Colombian.

And at the very beginning of the second half, Carrascal scored already.

Having received the ball on the left flank, he easily left Sergei Terekhov, burst into the penalty area and accurately shot into the near corner.

Adamov, who had not played the best match, failed to save again.

Illustrative statistics: the hosts hit the target three times - and all three shots were effective.

But his counterpart not only perfectly coped with his direct duties, but also in this episode he performed an excellent take-out on a partner from his own half of the field.

For Akinfeev, this is the first assist in his career since 2010, when he helped a colleague score in the confrontation with Terek.

He also spent the anniversary, 300th game to zero as part of CSKA.

Well, in stoppage time, the referee put an end to Medina, who hit an empty corner after a cross from the young forward Vladislav Yakovlev, who came on as a substitute.

Thus, the army team is guaranteed to remain in first place in the RPL standings.

Under the leadership of Fedotov, they not only show bright football, but also scored 100% of the points, scoring five goals and never conceding.

And next week, the Muscovites will be able to extend their successful streak in the away match against Pari NN.

The first victory of Spartak under the leadership of Abaskal

But Spartak did not start the season very well.

In the first round, the Muscovites were almost defeated by Akhmat and were saved only in the very end thanks to a beautiful long-range shot by Victor Moses.

Next, they were waiting for a no less difficult test - an away confrontation with Krasnodar.

Before him, Guillermo Abascal did not change the scheme, but made several changes in the starting lineup.

For example, the disqualified Maciej Rybus on the right flank of the defense was replaced by the nominal midfielder Daniil Denisov.

In the support zone, the choice was made in favor of the trio Roman Zobnin - Ruslan Litvinov - Christopher Martins Pereira.

And Alexander Sobolev, Quincy Promes and Mozes acted in the attack, while Anton Zinkovsky remained in the reserve.

So the guests wanted to make it as difficult as possible for the opponent to advance to their own penalty area, especially through the central zone.

Not without experiments and Alexander Storozhuk.

In the absence of Yegor Sorokin, the duo in the center of defense was young Sergey Volkov and Sergey Borodin.

And in the midfield line from the first minutes there was a newcomer Mihailo Bagnac, who only a few days ago signed a contract with the club.

The start of the match is completely left to the hosts.

They took the ball under their control and began to weave signature combinations in the opponent's half, trying to break open the defense of the guests.

Olakunle Olusegun was especially active in their line-up, boldly going to outplay and causing a lot of trouble to his opponents.

However, it rarely came to blows.

I remember only a long-range shot of the same Olusegun, with which Alexander Selikhov managed not without difficulty, and a few corners.

But for the time being, Spartak did not succeed at all.

The attacking three actually turned out to be cut off from their partners, and Promes, in order to receive a pass, was forced to retreat to his own half.

Sobolev, on the other hand, was marked only with a yellow card for a foul on Alexander Chernikov and an elbow in the face of Vyacheslav Litvinov, for which he could well have received a second yellow card.

It is not surprising that in such a game everything was decided by the standard position, and this time luck smiled at the Muscovites.

After filing a corner and rebounding from John Cordoba, Zobnin sent a projectile into the net in touch with a rebound from the lawn.

Immediately, the southerners were let down by the impulsive Chernikov.

In the fight against Moses in the center of the field, for some reason he slapped his hand in the neck.

Despite the fact that the Russian only slightly touched the opponent, he began to roll on the grass in pain.

However, Kirill Lenikov had a reason to remove the violator, and he kicked him off the field.

To the credit of the red-whites, they ideally took advantage of the gained advantage and did not give the opponent a chance to save.

After the break, Krasnodar was forced to go forward and open up.

In such a situation, the experimental line of defense of the hosts coped with their work even worse.

Muscovites, on the other hand, regularly ran into dangerous counterattacks.

Already by the 52nd minute, all questions about the outcome of the confrontation were removed.

First, Promes, taking advantage of Khlusevich's cross from the left flank, elegantly worked the ball under his own blow and sent it into the net.

And then Zobnin, after an excellent pass from Sobolev, beat Safonov and rolled the ball into the goal.

At the last moment, Borodin tried to take him off the line, but only became the author of an own goal.

A certain semblance of intrigue was revived thanks to a rather controversial penalty kick against Spartak.

Denisov interrupted the canopy of Christian Ramirez with his face, but a projectile hit him in the arm.

Levnikov, after watching the replay, pointed to the point.

And Eduard Spertsyan confidently converted the 11-meter shot.

But Storozhuk's wards, who acted in the minority, had no real chances to reduce the gap to a minimum.

Finally, everything became clear after the red-whites scored another counterattack in the 83rd minute.

This time Safonov was upset by Moses, who scored in the second round of the RPL in a row.

So the red-whites not only defeated Krasnodar on the road, but also won their first victory under the leadership of Abaskal.