Unbending character: how the removal of Cayo and Safonov's mistake helped Rostov win back two goals and defeat Krasnodar

In the 12th round of the RPL, two derbies took place at once.

In Moscow, CSKA hosted Dynamo, and in the south, Rostov met with Krasnodar.

And it attracted no less attention than the capital, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, matches between neighbors, as a rule, turn out to be interesting and spectacular.

For example, in the last meeting in Krasnodar, the hosts won a strong-willed victory, scoring two goals in three minutes - 2:1.

Secondly, the confrontation was extremely important from a tournament point of view, since before the game both teams were in the top 5, and Valery Karpin's wards were one point ahead of the opponent.

Success allowed them to return to second place in the table, catching up with Spartak, and closing the gap on the leading Zenit.

The team of Alexander Storozhuk, in turn, had the opportunity to catch up with the army team, who failed to beat Dynamo.

At the same time, the parties approached the key game with almost no losses.

For the hosts, only the injury of Khoren Bayramyan turned out to be truly tangible, since Alexander Selyava is not the main performer.

The place of the Armenian on the left flank of the attack was predictably taken by Roman Tugarev.

The guests, back in early September, were left without defensive midfielder Alexander Chernikov.

Temporarily replacing him is newcomer Kevin Lenini.

As a result, the match exceeded the wildest expectations.

Before referee Vitaly Meshkov had time to blow his whistle, Krasnodar opened the scoring.

Wards of Storozhuk put pressure on the defenders, and the fast Olakunle Olusegun got the opportunity to enter the operational space.

The Nigerian, not reaching the penalty area and taking advantage of Maxim Osipenko's confusion, struck low into the far corner, for which Sergei Pesyakov was not ready.

So the forward not only scored the fourth goal in the current draw of the national championship, but also became the author of the earliest in the history of the RPL - the ninth second.

The previous record belonged to former Spartak striker Emmanuel Emenike (tenth).

He also repeated the achievement of the championships of Russia.

In 1999, at a similar level, the footballer of Shinnik Alexei Bychkov hit the gates of Rotor.

Such an unsuccessful start could not but affect Rostov.

The team took a long time to recover and tried to improve the game.

In the first 20 minutes, the advantage was completely on the side of the opponent.

And when the yellow-blue seized the initiative, it often went to their detriment.

They were forced to go forward and reveal what their opponents used.

Daniil Glebov and Aleksey Shchetinin in the support zone often couldn't cope with the fast and technical Olusegun, John Cordoba and Eduard Spertsyan.

They easily penetrated between the lines and created problems for not the fastest central defenders.

On top of all the troubles, shortly before the break, Shchetinin was injured, who had to be replaced by Alexei Mironov.

By this time, the hosts have already missed the second.

And again, Krasnodar organized an exemplary counterattack.

Moreover, Matvey Safonov started it with a strong input of the ball into the game.

Then Spertsyan dragged the projectile to someone else's penalty area and completed a pass to Cordoba, and no one prevented the Colombian from punching into the far corner.

Moreover, a few minutes later, the guests could remove all questions in the next counterattack, but Sergei Pesyakov miraculously rescued his partners after Alexei Ionov shot from the bottom.

At the same time, it cannot be said that Rostov did not create chances.

The hosts landed more shots and could well score.

Of course, the main bet was made on corporate standards.

The Bulls allowed themselves to foul near the penalty area and gave chances to Daniil Utkin, who had an excellent shot.

However, in three cases, Matvey Safonov saved his team, and in one of the episodes, a bar played on his side.

Looking ahead, the midfielder scored nine shots that evening (all opponent players had 15), but did not score.   

In such a situation, any other team could have surrendered, but not the yellow-blue Karpin.

They returned to the field utterly motivated and immediately led the siege of other people's gates.

Especially actively they put pressure on the left flank of the defense, taking advantage of the frequent connections to the attacks of Christian Ramirez.

It was from this zone that the first goal came.

Denis Terentiev opened the defense, burst into the penalty area and rolled the ball under the blow of Utkin.

The opponent managed to block it, however, no one prevented Alexander Silyanov from finishing off the projectile into the net from close range.

So the defender turned out to be the shadow savior of the team, because a couple of minutes before that he knocked the ball off the “ribbon” of his own goal.

If Alexander did not do this, no comeback would most likely have happened.

And Rostov, which went forward with the support of the home stands, turned out to be unstoppable.

There was no doubt that he would at least be able to recoup.

The players, on the contrary, began to get nervous and make mistakes.

One of them cost the team a penalty.

And Cayo Pantalean again reminded himself of himself, who had previously made fatal mistakes.

This time, the defender in his own penalty area jumped into a dangerous tackle and slammed his spikes directly into the ankle of Nikolai Komlichenko.

Meshkov, without hesitation, pointed to the "point".

And Dmitry Poloz had no right to miss in such a situation - 2:2.

The striker converted the fifth penalty out of five this season.

And in terms of the number of penalties, Rostov is confidently leading with nine attempts, and the team did not use only two of them.

Having equalized the score and found themselves in the majority, the yellow-blues began to play with even greater zeal and, at every opportunity, tried to bring things to a blow.

However, for the time being, they were not lucky.

So, Utkin, from whom luck turned away completely, hit the post for the second time.

And then Mironov, taking advantage of Safonov's gross oversight at the exit, hit the crossbar.

And yet, Karpin's wards got their way 15 minutes before the final whistle.

It's a little disappointing that we managed to do this after another mistake by the goalkeeper.

Matvey rescues partners in almost every meeting and made eight saves in the Southern Derby (Pesyakov had two), but for some reason he faltered at the decisive moment.

"Number one" of the Russian national team did not cope with Mironov's not the strongest shot into the near corner, passing the ball under his armpit.

And the midfielder, who did not even get into the base, became an unexpected hero of this match.

Coming on as a substitute, he not only decided his outcome, but also scored his debut goal in the RPL.

True, Krasnodar also had a chance to escape in the end, but Ilzat Akhmetov, having made a beautiful pass, hit the post from outside the penalty area.

So "Rostov" once again demonstrated an incredible character that helps him fight for medals.

Southerners scored eight points in matches during which they were inferior in the long run.

According to this indicator, only Spartak (10) is ahead of them.

You can remember how they got away from defeat in the derby with Sochi, scoring twice in the end, or almost brought the matter to defeat in the confrontation with the red-whites, conceding the first.

And most importantly, in the second half, the team invariably adds, which indicates both willpower and good physical readiness.

Before the break, she scored a total of eight goals, and after - 15. Only Zenit (20) and Spartak (19) differed more in this segment.