Extravaganza of Promes, duplicates of Suleymanov and Noboa, Utkin's standard with Komlichenko: what did the third round of the RPL remember

Convincing start of "Spartacus"

It was difficult to assume that Spartak, after the fiasco in the Super Bowl match with Zenit, would start the new RPL season so confidently.

And it's not just about another change of mentor, which by default takes time to rebuild and adapt, but also about the constant rumors about the possible departure of legionnaires.

Partly added to the pessimism of the fans and a draw in Grozny with "Akhmat", even if it was obtained by ten, but revealed the vulnerabilities of the "new" team.

However, the wards of Guillermo Abascal scored two impressive victories - over Krasnodar away and Orenburg at home.

Thus, for the first time since 2009, they scored four goals in two meetings of the national championship in a row and set a performance record at the start of the championship - nine goals in three rounds.

On the one hand, success in the game with a newcomer to the elite division should not be overestimated.

On the other hand, earlier Spartak regularly experienced difficulties just in matches with opponents of this caliber, including twice losing to Orenburg in 2019.

This time the hosts removed all questions already in the opening.

By the 13th minute, Christopher Martins Pereira and Alexander Sobolev hit Evgeny Goshev's goal twice.

And in both cases, after sheds from the left flank of Quincy Promes.

Shortly before the break, the Dutchman scored himself, closing in contact with Daniil Khlusevich's cross.

And already at the end of the meeting, he scored a double, finishing off the ball into the net after he did not convert a penalty.

The attacking midfielder was deservedly recognized as the best at the end of the evening, since he scored four points in one game according to the “goal + pass” system for the second time in his career and for the first time in the RPL.

In addition, he came out on a clean third place in the race of the top foreign scorers in the Premier League.

Only Brazilian Wagner Love and Iranian Serdar Azmun are ahead of him (85 each).

Wise substitutes for Galaktionov

The success of Spartak is especially significant against the backdrop of misfires of other metropolitan giants in confrontations with opponents inferior in class.

Fakel and Pari NN parted ways with Dynamo and CSKA respectively, however, they did it at home.

Separately, it should be noted Nizhny Novgorod, who, under the leadership of Mikhail Galaktionov, turned into a thunderstorm of authorities.

In the first round they stopped Lokomotiv.

But if in that match the Volzhans were left with ten men already by the 28th minute, fought back all the remaining time and miraculously avoided defeat, then this time they completely deserved a draw.

They turned out to be better in many key indicators - shots (20:13), shots on target (5:3) and corners (4:1).

It is gratifying that even having conceded twice in the first half, they did not fall apart and managed to make an impressive comeback.

Good substitutions helped.

22-year-old Timur Suleymanov showed himself especially brightly.

The trainee of the railway workers, who previously had one ball in the RPL, scored a double in 26 minutes.

Moreover, an assist in the episode with the second goal was given to him by another player who entered the game from the bench - Dmitry Stotsky.

But the “joker” of CSKA Anton Zabolotny did not take advantage of his chance.

In the end, even with an equal score, after the transfer of Vladislav Yakovlev, he could hit an empty corner from a few meters, but managed to send the ball past.

So the army team lost their first points in the current RPL draw and lost their sole leadership.

Strange interpretation of violations in Yekaterinburg

In general, the reporting tour turned out to be rich in doubles.

Six people hit the opponents' gates twice each, including Krasnodar footballer Eduard Spertsyan.

And in both cases, he converted a penalty.

True, at least one of them turned out to be rather controversial.

Judge Vladimir Moskalev pointed to the "point", believing that Ilya Pomazun knocked down Alexei Ionov.

But the replay shows how the victim began to collapse even before contact.

At the same time, in the third minute, he did not appoint a penalty kick to the southerners' goal in a more obvious situation, when the ball hit Sergei Borodin's outstretched hand.

Of course, the residents of Yekaterinburg were dissatisfied with the work of the referee and turned to the ESC RFU.

And the president of the club, Grigory Ivanov, linked the decisions of the referees with the appearance after the match with Spartak in the refereeing room of Sergei Galitsky.

However, mixed verdicts do not change the fact that another great match at the start of the season was played by Spertsyan.

In addition to the goals, he managed to perform an effective feed on Borodin from a corner.

All of Eduard's balls also came from set pieces: three from penalties and one from a free kick.

This allows him to share the lead in the scorer race with Fedor Smolov, and also to be on the first line in the “goal + pass” system (4 + 1) along with the same Smolov (4 + 1) and Promes (3 + 2).

Spectacular return of Noboa

And the oldest author of the double was 37-year-old Christian Noboa.

According to the RFU, the best football player of the last RPL season hit the Akhmat gate twice and helped Sochi win a major victory - 2: 1.

For the Ecuadorian, these goals were doubly valuable, as he remained on the bench in the first two rounds.

The new head coach of the southerners, Vadim Garanin, explained this by not the best condition of the ward.

In response, he emphasized that he did not understand why he did not fall into the base.

In the confrontation with Grozny, the veteran entered the field from the first minutes and in practice proved that he should not be in the reserve.

First, he converted a penalty, and immediately after a break in touch from outside the penalty area, he sent the ball into the far corner.

At the end of the meeting, the midfielder could not resist the hairpin to the mentor.

“They said that I'm not ready, I'm fat, old, slow ... Look.

Am I ready for all 90 minutes?

No.

I don't know why, but I didn't play two matches.

Let's see what happens next, ”Noboa said on Match TV.

One way or another, the southerners, under the leadership of Garanin, scored six points out of nine possible at the start of the season, having been defeated only by CSKA.

In fairness, Akhmat could well and even had to get a draw in Sochi, but there was not enough luck, this is not counting two canceled goals due to offside and the removal of head coach Andrei Talalaev before the break.

Effective combination of "Rostov"

"Rostov" at the start of the season is led forward by the pupils of "Krasnodar" Daniil Utkin and Nikolai Komlichenko.

The wards of Valery Karpin do not get everything, but the standard positions of the duet help out.

In the matches with Dynamo (1:1), Lokomotiv (2:2) and Khimki (1:0), the striker invariably excelled after the midfielder's free kicks.

So in the meeting with the Moscow Region team, the connection worked.

Before Utkin, he assisted partners from standards in three rounds of the RPL in a row, defending the colors of Anji Mubarak Boussufa in 2012.

It is curious that Utkin in the previous RPL draw rarely helped his colleagues to score, but he distinguished himself more, especially with direct free kicks.

But in the new season, he has already given as many assists as in the entire past.

And over the past decade, four players have managed to score so often with a head: twice Artyom Dziuba (2015 and 2021), Kevin Kuranyi (2014), Alexander Erokhin (2014) and Vladimir Ilyin (2017).

Komlichenko, along with Spertsyan, are the players who hit the opponents' goal in all matches of the Premier League 2022/23.