Maradishvili's goal through himself, Sychevy's hat-trick in 32 minutes and Torpedo's helplessness: what did the 2nd round of the RPL remember

Ideal actions of "Zenith" in defense

The first match of the new RPL season was extremely unsuccessful for Zenit.

The current champions in the confrontation with Khimki acted carelessly, as if expecting victory to come into their own hands, and as a result they lost points.

After that, in the game of the second round with the “Wings of the Soviets”, the Zenit team had to prove that there were no problems with the mood.

And already after half an hour of the meeting, they hit the gates of others three times.

Although two goals were scored from the penalty spot, the appointment of both penalty kicks did not raise any questions: Alexander Kovalenko obviously played with his hand, and Denis Yakuba knocked down Malcolm during the corner play.

It is important that the wards of Sergei Semak, having achieved a comfortable advantage in the score, did not slow down and continued to move forward, although they could no longer upset Ivan Lomaev.

Also indicative turned out to be their game in defense.

If in the second half of the match with Khimki they could have conceded more than one goal, this time they did not allow the guests to do anything.

In 90 minutes, Samarans delivered only two inaccurate shots, and only one of them was from outside the penalty area.

Quite eloquent is the indicator of expected goals xG - 0.11.

In fact, Daniil Odoevsky had no work that evening.

Total bad luck for Lokomotiv

But Lokomotiv, after a draw with Pari NN, broke the world with Rostov - 2: 2.

At the same time, the red-greens, following the results of two rounds, clearly deserved more.

In the first match, they struck 27 shots at the opponent's goal, but hit the target only once.

In the second, there were significantly fewer shots, but the same number of shots hit the target - six.

But some amazing saves were made by Sergey Pesyakov.

If Lokomotiv misses a lot of chances, then its rivals, on the contrary, are marked by an enviable implementation.

The wards of Mikhail Galaktionov scored once with an xG of 0.36, and the team of Valery Karpin scored twice with 0.90.

In addition, the red-green players themselves create problems for themselves.

For example, in the confrontation with Rostov, two unnecessary yellow cards (for a foul in the center of the field and a skirmish with an opponent) were earned by Alexis Beka-Beka.

As a result, he will miss the most important game of the next round with Zenit.

And in the 88th minute, a rough blot was made by Daniil Khudyakov, who played unsuccessfully at the exit and allowed Daniil Utkin to hit an empty target.

True, in stoppage time by the referee, fortune smiled on Muscovites when Konstantin Maradishvili, taking advantage of Dmitry Zhivoglyadov's serve from the flank, scored an incredible goal with an overhead kick.

An unexpected hero of "Orenburg"

The match "Orenburg" - "Ural" did not arouse much interest among outside fans, but unexpectedly presented an incredible story and a new hero.

The first half passed in a double-edged fight with almost no chances, although the Yekaterinburg defender Leo Goglichidze received a direct red card for disrupting the attack.

To realize the numerical advantage helped the substitution at half-time Vladimir Sychevy.

The forward only had 18 seconds to break into the penalty area, remove the opponent on the backswing and carefully shoot into the far corner.

Then he closed the chamber partner and doubled the advantage of the hosts.

And in the 77th minute, the striker put an end to the confrontation with a powerful shot under the crossbar and scored a hat-trick.

Sychevoi became only the sixth player in the history of the Russian championships who managed to score three times after coming on as a substitute and the first since 2017, when Evgeny Markov, who played for Tosno, set the same achievement.

A few years ago, Sychevoi could not even think about playing in the RPL.

A native of Simferopol, he played in the Crimean championship, while working as a waiter and storekeeper.

In an interview, he noted that after a serious knee injury, he did not rule out that he would not become a professional football player.

However, in 2020, one of the breeders who visited the peninsula appreciated his game.

Soon, the forward joined the outsider of the Irtysh FNL, and then went on a promotion to Orenburg.

He was not known for high performance and scored only seven goals in all competitions last season.

Therefore, the head coach of the team, Marcel Lichka, after the final whistle in the meeting with Ural, compared the career of the ward with a Hollywood movie.

Faded start "Torpedo"

Orenburg won the first victory, Fakel gave battle to Krasnodar and Akhmat, but the third RPL rookie, Torpedo, is still disappointing.

In matches with Sochi and Dynamo, Muscovites suffered two defeats with a total score of 1:7.

They share the last line in the table with Ural, becoming the worst team in terms of the number of goals conceded.

The only goal of the black-and-whites was recorded as a liability by the Sochi defender Vanja Drkusic, who hit his own goal.

So far, the wards of Alexander Borodyuk seem absolutely not ready for the RPL.

In almost every metric, they rank among the worst: possession - 12th (44.6%), shots - 10th (11.5 per game), shots on target - 12-14th (3.5) , won horse martial arts - 13-15th (7.5).

The main problem is that the team is understaffed for the Premier League.

Goalkeepers Vitaliy Botnari and Yegor Baburin did not save (both missed between the legs once).

Defenders do not cope with the movements of opponents.

This was especially felt in the meeting with Dynamo, where Fedor Smolov, Arsen Zakharyan and others looked much faster.

Even switching to a three-central scheme did not help.

In the support zone, voids regularly appear, and there are not enough creatives in front who could deliver the ball to someone else's penalty area.

As a result, all hope remains on David Karaev and Muhammad Sultonov, who cover the flanks.

At the forefront in both matches in the starting lineup was 20-year-old Maxim Turishchev, who had played only 57 minutes in the RPL until the current season.

But Borodyuk trusts him more than Amur Kalmykov and Igor Lebedenko.

The next three matches will be decisive for Torpedo, in which they will meet with Krylya Sovetov, Khimki and Orenburg.

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