Two goals in five minutes, Dzhanaev's blunder and Norman's weak debut: how Sochi inflicted the first defeat on Dynamo in the RPL season

Positive dynamics of Sochi

For the wards of Vadim Garanin, the match of the ninth round of the Russian Championship was of the utmost importance.

Up to this point, the current RPL silver medalist has already managed to suffer three defeats and once tied, as a result of which he was seven points behind the leading Zenit.

And in the event of another failure in the confrontation with a strong opponent, he could not only fall behind the leading group, but sign his own uncompetitiveness.

And it is all the more remarkable that Dynamo, a team that the southerners knocked out from the second line at the end of the 2021/22 season, could have crossed out Sochi from the list of the main contenders for medals, and in a rather rude manner.

In the final round, Christian Noboa and company defeated the Muscovites with a score of 5:1.

And in the first minutes it might seem that Sochi is still kryptonite for Dynamo.

Already by the 11th minute, they hit the gates of Anton Shunin twice, and this is not counting the canceled goal of Nikita Burmistrov due to offside.

The defense of the Muscovites could not do anything with the opponent's attack and was literally bursting at the seams, even the recently acquired Roberto Fernandez and Nicholas Marichal, who first started the meeting in the first team, did not help.

Moreover, it was the Uruguayan who showed himself not in the best way in the episodes with goals scored by both Georgy Melkadze and Christian Noboa.

In the first case, he did not have time to intercept, and in the second he lost the riding fight and contributed to the development of the attack.

True, this does not detract from the merits of the hosts, who looked great at the start of the match.

But then everything went back to normal.

Sochi approached this tour in the status of a team that was most wasteful of its own moments.

In terms of expected goals, they ranked first in the league (18.05), but in actual goals they were only sixth (14).

And in the second half, the hosts never bothered Shunin, although they delivered seven shots on goal.

And if it were not for the extremely weak performance of Dynamo, everything could have turned out unsuccessfully this time as well.

Dzhanaev's return

Wards Slavisha Jokanovic still managed to reduce the backlog in the long run, but there was practically no merit in this.

For most of the match, the Sochi residents steadily followed the requirements of the mentor and tried to leave their third of the field exclusively through a short pass.

And at the end of the first half, it let them down.

Soslan Dzhanaev, who made his debut this season, decided to demonstrate his own dribbling at the goalkeeper's border and presented the ball to Denis Makarov.

And thus, he made me once again think about how logical his appearance at the base together with the young Denis Adamov, who was recognized as the best football player of the team in August, was.

True, on this his mistakes were exhausted.

In the second half, Dynamo managed to push the opponent to the goal, but still failed to restore parity.

Substitute Matthias Normann, who only a few days ago joined the White and Blue team, scored the only shot on target.

And although the efforts of the Norwegian was not to take, it is hardly possible to highly appreciate his game.

The midfielder made the wrong decisions, practically did not share the ball, and in general did not look like a football player who is in perfect condition.

One way or another, Sochi kept the victory and, along the way, interrupted an extremely unpleasant series.

In the previous eight rounds, Garanin's wards invariably conceded in the final 45 minutes.

Dynamo problems

However, this did not stop Norman from getting 6.9 points and entering the top three most highly rated guest players according to WhoScored.

Only defender Fernandez (7.0) and Arsen Zakharyan (7.2) earned a higher mark, although in the case of the latter, this is more likely due to the total amount of work done and how often partners involved him.

However, the former brilliance in the actions of the young midfielder was clearly not felt.

The current season is still not going well for him, there may be several reasons for this.

Here is a radical change in style after the arrival of Jokanovic, and a failed transfer to Chelsea, which could not but affect the emotional state of the athlete.

And while it seems that he has not been able to completely move away from this.

It was from his zone that the second goal of Sochi was scored, and he himself missed a sure chance to excel.

Other representatives of the attacking line failed to support Zakharyan.

Vyacheslav Grulev and Konstantin Tyukavin for two touched the ball only 29 times and looked extremely faded, as a result of which they left the field during the break.

Luka Gagnidze also kept them company, although in his case this decision was not so logical.

In the first half, the Georgian midfielder scored three key passes, but the mentor's decision can be explained by faith in the star Norman.

Denis Makarov, although he was quite active, was too often distracted by disputes with the referee.

Even Fyodor Smolov, who had at his disposal a whole time, could not save the situation.

The Dynamo striker has only recently recovered from an injury and is clearly not in the best shape yet.

The same can be said about Daniil Lesov, who dropped out of the squad, and the recently acquired Elazar Dasa has clearly not yet settled into the new team.

As a result, Dynamo suffered their first defeat in the RPL under the leadership of Jokanovic and once again made them talk about the shortcomings of the playing style that the Serb actively instills in his wards.

The Muscovites clearly lack slenderness in defense to play number two.

And if in the confrontation with Spartak they were lucky not to concede a couple of goals before the break, then in this case luck was on the side of Sochi.