The goal of 18-year-old Melyoshin, Sobolev's miss from the penalty spot: Spartak warmed up on the Wings of the Soviets before the derby with Zenit

The confrontation of the "former" and the return of Maslov

The group stage match of the Russian Cup between Spartak and Krylya Sovetov stood out for at least how many players were related to both teams.

In total, there were six players in the starting lineups who had experience playing for both clubs at various levels, and there could have been even more.

But Anton Zinkovsky, who moved to the red-and-white camp in the summer, retired for an indefinite period due to an injury, and one of the current leaders of the Samara team, Maxim Glushenkov, remained in reserve.

Many other key performers of the guests were also there, including goalkeeper Ivan Lomaev and midfielder Denis Yakuba.

And this allowed us to draw certain conclusions about the attitude of the team to the tournament.

But not only Igor Osinkin decided to carry out a solid rotation and leave several strong performers out of the base at once.

Guillermo Abascal also decided to give the reservists an opportunity to prove themselves and updated the squad by more than 50% compared to the meeting with Fakel.

Nikolai Rasskazov, Nikita Chernov and Maciej Rybus with Danil Prutsev came out from the first minutes, and the appearance of Pavel Maslov was especially significant.

The centre-back last started on April 21, 2021, and missed the previous season due to an injury.

And although it cannot be said that the Wings did not have any chances at all, Maslov's performance can be fully assessed as successful.

In an unusual scheme with two central players, he looked quite confident and only a few times gave his opponents relative freedom in the penalty area.

In one of these episodes, Vladimir Khubulov hit the crossbar from an acute angle.

The debut of the 18-year-old Melyoshin and the absence of Yezhov

In addition to Maslov, the figure of 18-year-old Pavel Melyoshin also attracted increased attention.

This season, he has already scored seven (5 + 2) points on the system "goal + pass" in the Youth Football League (YFL) and thus attracted the attention of Abascal.

And in order to place a talented striker on the field, the Spaniard even moved a little to the left of Alexander Sobolev.

And I didn't guess.

Even in the first half, the young football player showed great zeal and in one of the episodes he almost created a dangerous moment, breaking out from behind his guardian.

And in the very debut of the second, he opened the scoring by responding to the transfer of Daniil Denisov.

Thus, Melyoshin scored in the first match for the adult team and became the eighth youngest goal scorer in Spartak in the 21st century.

This bar obeyed him at the age of 18 years, five months and five days.

Zhano Ananidze (16 years, nine months, five days) remains the sole record holder for this indicator.

It is noteworthy that the Georgian midfielder also scored for the first time in the Russian Cup.

In 2009, he brought the red and white victory over Krasnodar.

It is noteworthy that the only goal of Spartak was scored after Yuri Gorshkov left the field, who in the near future may move to the capital team.

At half-time, he was replaced by Mateo Barac, who became one of the culprits of the missed ball.

It was he who did not prevent Denisov from performing an accurate pass to partner Meleshin, who ran out from behind.

As for another potential newcomer of the red-and-whites, Roman Yezhov, Osinkin decided not to show his face and left the winger in reserve.

Umyarov's unreliability and Sobolev's missed penalty

Abascal, in the second half, nevertheless released several more key players on the field, including Quincy Promes.

And in the context of the future derby with Zenit, this was very understandable.

The mentor probably wanted to give his stars game practice on the eve of one of the key championship meetings, and they confirmed that they were in great shape.

With their appearance on the field, the advantage of Spartak became colossal, and the score could well have been large.

Nevertheless, they failed to take advantage of their chances, and Roman Zobnin, who just left the bench, missed the most obvious one.

Tom had only to close the chamber of Leon Klassen from the flank, but failed to hit the target.

But if Promes and Zobnin had the opportunity to prove themselves only in the second half, then Alexander Sobolev was not allowed to rest before the confrontation with Zenit.

The ex-forward of "Wings" played all 90 minutes, but failed to hit the gates of the former club, although he was close to it.

In the 19th minute, the hosts got the right to a penalty, but a stunning save was made by Bogdan Ovsyannikov.

It is noteworthy that for the striker this miss from the point was the first after the transition to Spartak.

But if the appearance of Sobolev at the start for the match with Zenit seems to be practically a settled matter, then Nail Umyarov may well decide on a place at the start.

The point guard once again reminded that, under pressure from the opponent, he tends to make serious mistakes in passes, which can subsequently predetermine the outcome of the meeting - as happened in the derby with Dynamo.

This time, the footballer again “cut off” a couple of times at his own penalty area and helped the “Wings” organize two dangerous attacks.

And if Samarans had enough performance skills, everything could have turned out differently.