Kings of counterattacks: how Rostov beat Dynamo in the 16th round of the RPL, inflicting only four shots on goal

The confrontation between Rostov and Dynamo in the 16th round of the Russian Football Championship was extremely important in terms of the fight for medals.

The southerners, who experienced an unsuccessful period in October, could significantly improve their position in the standings if they won.

They had the opportunity not only to climb to third place, but also to close the gap from Spartak and Zenit, who had made misfires.

In turn, Dynamo, which had gained a good move, was eager to win a fourth victory in a row in the championship and return to the top 5, catching up with CSKA in addition to the yellow-blues, which sensationally lost to Pari Nizhny Novgorod.

At the same time, the rivals, for sure, managed to get a little tired of each other, because the current meeting was already the fifth for them in 2022.

Two matches in the RPL ended with the same score 1: 1, and in the Russian Cup the teams exchanged victories.

Fortunately, they approached the next game with almost optimal lineups.

The only thing Muscovites could not help the main goalkeeper Anton Shunin, who was recommended to take a break due to fatigue, and injured central defender Roberto Fernandez.

They were expectedly replaced by Igor Leshchuk and Nicholas Marichal Perez, respectively.

And in the support zone of Slavish Jokanovic, in the fourth round in a row, he released 20-year-old Alexander Kutitsky.

Valery Karpin could count on all the strongest and, compared to the meeting with Akhmat a week ago, made only one castling.

The place of Alexei Mironov in a couple of insiders was taken by a fully recovered Kirill Shchetinin.

Of interest was the head-to-head confrontation between forwards Fedor Smolov and Nikolai Komlichenko, who scored 15 goals for two in the current RPL season.

It was especially important for Komlichenko, because until recently he played for the blue and white, but the club did not renew the expiring contract with the player in the summer.

However, in the first half, the attacking hosts practically did not meet with the ball.

The only thing is that he earned a few fouls on himself, one of which ended with the presentation of a yellow card to Denis Makarov.

Rostov started the match actively, but rather quickly gave the initiative to Dynamo.

More precisely, it was taken into their own hands by the rivals themselves.

They weaved combinations in the other half and tried to stretch the saturated defense through the flanks, where Zakharyan and Smolov moved to help the high-rising Diego Laxalt and Elazar Dasa, as well as Mumi Ngamalyo and Denis Makarov.

When losing, the blue-whites included high counter-pressing, as in the best fights under the leadership of Sandro Schwarz, and most often regained the ball.

And even if they managed to get out from under him, Kutitsky, who won most of the martial arts in the support zone, did not allow the owners to develop attacks.

True, things rarely came up to dangerous moments at the gates of Sergei Pesyakov, although the guests struck nine blows.

Almost all of them were executed from a long distance and only two of them hit the target.

The yellow-blues, although they were forced to defend, did it compactly and did not leave free zones.

As a result, the blue-and-white almost did not penetrate into someone else's penalty area.

The rare moment when they succeeded occurred at the end of the half.

Jokanovic's wards, after drawing a standard at their gates, fled to the counterattack, and Makarov, having received a pass from Smolov, missed the near corner a little.

As for Fedor, he scored a couple of inaccurate shots from long range.

But the yellow-blue before the break never disturbed Leshchuk.

Firstly, they hardly penetrated into the final third.

Secondly, Saba Sazonov and Marichal acted ideally in the center of defense.

It was curious how Karpin would react during the break to the game of his charges, but he did not make any changes.

The hosts in the second half were forced to act strictly on defense with minimal chances of success.

At the same time, they no longer had so much strength to keep rivals at a distance from the gate.

Muscovites attacks reached someone else's penalty area, and the hosts were forced to literally fight back.

Increasingly, attacks on Pesyakov's possessions also took place.

Makarov's shot turned out to be especially dangerous after a corner kick, when the ball hit the goalkeeper's face, who could hardly have saved the team if he flew a little to the side.

It seemed that the blue-and-white goal was a matter of time.

Karpin made his first change only in the 63rd minute.

He removed the inert Roman Tugarev and threw Mironov into battle.

At the same time, Shchetinin rose to the right flank of the attack, and a fresh player took his place in midfield.

And after only a few minutes, Kirill opened the scoring from a new position in the attack during a rare counterattack.

However, a huge merit in this belongs to Komlichenko, who, after taking out from his own half, made Marichal make a mistake and immediately cut out an excellent pass to his partner.

Tom had only to accurately punch into the corner.

Jokanovic immediately responded with a triple substitution to freshen up the attack line.

Instead of Makarov, Ngamalyo and Smolov, he released Daniil Lesovoy, Vyacheslav Grulev and Konstantin Tyukavin.

However, it seemed that the goal was too serious a shock for the guests, because they really did not manage to organize the finishing bulk.

Finally, everything became clear after the exact blow of Danil Glebov in the end.

The second effective pass was made by Komlichenko, and the midfielder in the penalty area shook Laxalt and beautifully spun the ball into the far corner without a chance for Leshchuk.

It can be said that the football player made himself a gift, because just a few days ago he turned 23 years old.

However, the intrigue in the confrontation remained until the end, since Tyukavin managed to distinguish himself after coming on as a substitute in the second RPL match in a row.

He was assisted by another fresh striker Yaroslav Gladyshev.

But the white-and-blues didn’t have enough strength for more, and in the time added by the referee, they could rather have conceded.

Rostov managed to win, inflicting only four shots on target, and climbed to third place in the standings.

Moreover, he reduced the gap from Spartak to one point and from Zenit to seven.

Dynamo not only suffered an illogical defeat, but also lost Zakharyan, Makarov and Laxalt due to the enumeration of mustard plasters on the eve of the meeting with Khimki.