The fiasco of Lokomotiv, the standard of Fakel, doubles of Promes and Sobolev: what did the 12th round of the RPL remember

Fakel Performance Standards

"Zenith" in the current season, if it loses points, then only in matches with teams fighting for survival.

In the 12th round, the trend, which was marked by draws with Khimki and Akhmat, continued.

Wards of Sergei Semak did not look so convincing and parted ways with Fakel - 1:1.

Voronezh once again proved to be a storm of authority.

At the home of the Central Stadium of the Trade Unions, they are able to give battle to anyone.

Dynamo had to be content with a peaceful outcome here, and Lokomotiv was completely defeated.

At the same time, the main weapon of the team is set pieces, thanks to the successful draws of which they managed to score almost half of the goals - 7 out of 16. According to this indicator, Dmitry Pyatibratov's wards are in the lead.

So they opened the gates of Petersburgers after a corner.

And Georgy Gongadze upset the favorite again.

The striker spends his debut season in the RPL, but in addition to Zenit, he has already scored CSKA and Dynamo.

As part of the guests again excelled Malcolm.

For the Brazilian, this goal was the eighth in the national championship, and in the scorer race he caught up with Eduard Spertsyan from Krasnodar.

Only Quincy Promes and Christian Noboa are ahead of them.  

Zinnbauer's last fiasco

If Fakel pleasantly surprises its fans, Lokomotiv, on the contrary, deserves the title of the main disappointment of the season.

Given the strong transfer campaign, it was assumed that the team would qualify for medals, but they are fighting for survival.

Nevertheless, despite the setbacks, head coach Josef Zinnbauer retained his post.

The management trusted the specialist and preferred to first dismiss his assistant Marvin Comper.

But the patience of the bosses finally snapped after a devastating defeat from Sochi, which became the fifth in a row with a goal difference of 3:13.

And how could it be otherwise if the team dropped to 14th place in the standings.

The railroad workers never sank so low on this stretch.

Before that, the worst result was 11th place in the 2016/17 season with 12 points in the asset.

The beginning of the defeat in the south of the country was put by a magnificent goal by Christian Noboa.

After the filing of Sergei Terekhov, the Ecuadorian handled the ball with his chest and sent it to the far corner with the second touch.

Now, the 37-year-old midfielder has nine goals on his account, and only three separate him from repeating his personal performance record in the RPL.

In the second half, another experienced performer showed himself brightly.

Before that, Joaoozinho, who had not scored in the current season, came on as a substitute and scored a double.

And another reservist, Vladislav Sarveli, put an end to the time added by the referee.

Immediately after the end of the confrontation, the capital club announced the departure of both Zinnbauer, under whose leadership the team lost more than half of the meetings, and sports director Thomas Zorn. 

Unusual celebration of Sobolev

Spartak under Guillermo Abascal demonstrates not only bright attacking football, but also the presence of character.

Indicative in this regard were the last two matches with the teams "Paris Nizhny Novgorod" and "Wings of the Soviets".

In both, the Muscovites missed first, but found the strength to turn the tide of unsuccessfully developing meetings.

It is not surprising that they lead the RPL in terms of the number of points scored in games in which the teams were inferior in the score - 10. The closest pursuer is Rostov - 8. Moreover, in three cases, the red-whites eventually achieved victory.

We managed to do it in the 12th round.

Roman Yezhov's goal in the sixth minute really cheered up the hosts.

They could not recover for a long time, but the partners were once again rescued by Quincy Promes, who delivered an accurate blow in stoppage time to the first half.

And after the break, Alexander Sobolev, who scored a double, really turned on.

The striker not only upset the former team, but also became the first Spartak player in 23 years to score in six fights in a row.

The forward was also marked by an unexpected celebration - he gestured at an imaginary VAR screen and hit it with his head.

The Muscovites really had reasons for dissatisfaction with refereeing, because in the first half of the meeting the referee canceled a goal by Georgiy Jikia, and in the second he counted Amar Rakhmanovich's goal and allowed the guests to level the score.

Promes put an end to the confrontation.

The Dutchman scored twice and also assisted Ruslan Litvinov.

The legionnaire is doing everything to lead the team to medals.

He continues to lead both in the tournament scorers race (11) and in the goal + pass system (11 + 5).

At the same time, the midfielder approached the mark of 100 goals for Spartak - now he has 95 of them.

Orenburg winning streak

Orenburg also managed to win a strong-willed victory.

This time, Akhmat suffered from the wards of Marcel Lichka.

In the 28th minute, the hosts allowed Mohamed Konate to score, but in the second half of the meeting they answered him with two of their own goals.

Orenburg residents who have risen to the elite this season are not only pleasantly surprised, like Fakel, but are also located in the first half of the standings.

In the last four matches of the RPL, they won three victories with one defeat, and also beat Dynamo in the National Cup.

The rise of a modest team would not have been possible without Vladimir Sychev.

The striker, who spent his debut season in the Premier League, who played in the Crimean championship a few years ago, scored the seventh goal in the championship in a meeting with Grozny.

Two more appear on his account in the Cup.

Timur Ayupov also unexpectedly showed bombarding qualities.

The midfielder scored a decisive blow in the match from an acute angle and extended the scoring streak in the championship to three games.

And newcomer Lucas Vera gave the fourth assist.

According to this indicator, the Argentine is second only to Malcolm and Promes in the RPL.

New leaders of "Ural"

Also, with the onset of autumn, the Ural is gaining momentum.

Back in August, the team was in last place in the table, and now they even left the junction area.

Castling on the coaching bridge helped the Yekaterinburgers to rise.

With Viktor Goncharenko, they won three victories in the last four rounds over direct competitors (Torpedo, Lokomotiv and Khimki).

And Alexey Kashtanov, who had not even played at the FNL level, unexpectedly became the team's joker.

In the match with the red-blacks, it was he who opened the scoring in the fourth minute with a neat shot into the near corner and extended the scoring streak in all tournaments to three meetings.

Another newcomer, Lazar Randzhelovich, also completely came to court.

The Serb in the confrontation with the railwaymen scored two points according to the “goal + pass” system (1:1), and a week later upset Ilya Lantratov.

But Khimki did not benefit from the change of coach.

Under the leadership of Sergei Yuran, they started the season well and after four games they had seven points.

Moreover, it was even possible to disperse the world with Zenit.

But led by Nikolai Pisarev and Spartak Gogniev, the Moscow Region team collapsed to the penultimate line.