Stylish take of Suleymanov
Pari Nizhny Novgorod can safely be called one of the main discoveries of the first third of the season in the Russian Premier League.
The summer replacement of Alexander Kerzhakov by Mikhail Galaktionov remained misunderstood by many fans, but so far the team is performing better than last season.
After nine rounds, she is on the eighth line in the table with 12 points, while a year ago she was tenth from 11th in the same period.
In the last four rounds of the national championship, Nizhny Novgorod won three victories with one draw.
In the meeting with Akhmat, they were lucky to some extent.
First, Hamid Agalarov slipped while performing a penalty kick and hit the ball in his leg, because of which the goal was canceled.
And then Giorgi Shelia went far out of the goal and unsuccessfully knocked the ball into the field, which Timur Suleymanov immediately took advantage of, launching a “parachute” behind the goalkeeper from an acute angle.
However, in the second half, the Volzhans once again showed character.
Having missed from Yuri Zhuravlev at the end of the hour of confrontation, they forced the hosts to capitulate twice within three minutes.
First, Suleymanov closed a cross in touch at the far corner, crowning the chic slalom passage of the Angolan winger Milson, and then Kirill Gotsuk was the first to respond to the submission from a free-kick by Nikolai Kalinsky.
The willpower and physical readiness of Galaktionov's wards is truly amazing.
This season, the team was inferior in seven RPL meetings out of nine, but managed to score six points in them.
Moreover, in the second halves, Pari NN scored 14 goals out of 16. According to this indicator, the club is second only to Zenit.
As for Suleymanov, in the last national championship he scored only once, and in this - already five.
A student of Lokomotiv under Galaktionov, he started as a reservist and a “joker”, but quickly made his way to the base.
In addition, the Volga residents unwittingly contributed to the second coaching resignation in a row.
In the last round, after playing with them, Fakel's mentor Oleg Vasilenko was fired, and in this round, Akhmat's helmsman Andrei Talalaev was fired.
Never before at the start of the season, the leaders of the RPL clubs have changed specialists at the head of the teams so often - in 35 days seven have already left their posts.
Goncharenko's first victory
In Yekaterinburg, the first clarification of relations in the direct departure zone took place.
"Ural" and "Torpedo" came to the match, having only one point in the asset and coaching resignation in the liability.
The winner got the opportunity to significantly improve the position in the table, and the loser risked finally sinking to the bottom.
As a result, the hosts still got the precious three points, debut under Viktor Goncharenko.
It is symbolic that at a difficult moment the team was again led by its long-term leader Eric Bikfalvi.
The Romanian has been playing for Yekaterinburg since 2017 and during this time has become their main star.
So he decided the outcome of the key confrontation almost alone.
20 minutes before the end of regular time, he delivered an accurate shot into the far corner from the penalty semicircle, and then skillfully closed the canopy from the flank with his head - 2:0.
This helped the striker overcome the bar of 50 goals for Ural in all tournaments.
Moreover, now he is four accurate blows behind the best scorer in the history of the club, Mikhail Mysin (55).
Moreover, he usually hit the gates of opponents in the second division.
Also in the composition of the hosts, it is necessary to note the young goalkeeper Nikita Alekseev, who played only the second match for the main team and his debut in the RPL.
At the beginning of the second half, he broke the rules in his own penalty area, but parried the shot from the “point”.
It was his save that gave the partners confidence and helped them snatch victory in the end.
Successful debut of Pyatibratov
The change of coach benefited Fakel as well.
In the very first match after the departure of Vasilenko, the team, led by acting coach Dmitry Pyatibratov, won a debut victory in the current national championship draw.
Moreover, she became the first for her in the elite division in almost 21 years.
It is not surprising that the Voronezh got three important points at home.
At the Central Stadium of Trade Unions, they parted ways with Ural and Dynamo, gave battle to Spartak, although they conceded four goals after the break, and now they beat another metropolitan giant - Lokomotiv.
The hosts showed an enviable implementation, because with an expected goal score of 0.83 (xG) they scored twice.
And to open an account shortly before the break helped draw the standard position.
And at the beginning of the second half, Irakli Kvekveskiri doubled the advantage of the team.
Lokomotiv managed to hit the opponent's goal even with an equal score, but Girano Kerk's goal was canceled due to offside.
True, at the very beginning of the meeting, the referee Vladislav Bezborodov did not appoint a penalty to the Fakel gate for hitting the same Kerk on the penalty line.
One way or another, the railway workers suffered their fourth defeat with only two victories in the championship and are located a point away from the joint zone.
It is possible that if their results do not go smoothly, after Marvin Compper, Josef Zinnbauer will also retire.
Goal extravaganza in St. Petersburg
From the match "Zenith" and "Orenburg" in the Northern capital, initially they did not expect a stubborn struggle.
Firstly, the wards of Marcel Lichka play extremely unsuccessfully with the giants.
In the summer, they already suffered major defeats from Spartak (1:4) and Lokomotiv (1:5).
Secondly, blue-white-blue for the Orenburgers is a historically inconvenient opponent: all six of their previous face-to-face meetings ended in victory for the favorite.
However, such a defeat was difficult to imagine.
In many ways, the outcome of the confrontation was decided by the failed debut performed by the guests.
In the first 20 minutes they conceded three times, after which they fell down.
The hosts began to act for their own pleasure and were not going to feel sorry for the opponent.
In total, they scored five times in the first half, and three more times after the break.
The main hero of the meeting unexpectedly became far from the most productive footballer in the team of Sergei Semak - Wendel.
In the previous two seasons for Zenit, the Brazilian scored only six times in all competitions, and last Sunday he reached this bar in two months from the start of the new one.
He was the first to open the gates of Alexei Kenyaykin and set the final score on the scoreboard, simultaneously scoring his debut hat-trick in his career.
His compatriot Malcolm also showed himself brightly, scoring three points in the “goal + pass” system (2 + 1) and coming in second in the tournament in this indicator.
One of the balls performed by the Latin American turned out to be a masterpiece.
Having processed the projectile with his chest, he sent it into the net with a blow through himself.
As a result, the hosts scored the biggest victory in the history of the club.
Previously, they beat opponents five times with a difference of seven goals.
For example, in 2018, in the second leg of the Europa League qualification, Dynamo Minsk was left out of work (8:1).
But in the history of the RPL, there have been larger defeats.
The record is held by the meeting between Sochi and Rostov, which took place in 2020 (10: 1), and the confrontation between Lokomotiv and Uralan in 2000 (9: 0).
Orenburg's mentor Marcel Lichka didn't choose any expressions after the final whistle.
He called the game performed by the wards a kindergarten and admitted that he was ashamed of the team.
At the same time, he took the blame for the embarrassment and complained that the opponent had demonstrated "the highest level."