Day of defeat: Spartak and Sochi scored seven unanswered goals against Krasnodar and Rostov at the RPL Winter Cup

Batyrev's discovery and Terentyev's removal

The second round of the RPL Winter Cup opened with a confrontation between teams that started the competition with defeats.

Sochi lost to Krasnodar, and Rostov lost to Spartak in a penalty shootout.

After that, they were eager to return to the victorious rails and, in addition, to gain the upper hand in the South Derby.

At the same time, both coaches seriously shuffled the lineups.

In particular, Kurban Berdyev threw into battle Soslan Dzhanaev, Artyom Makarchuk, Amir Batyrev, Vladislav Sarveli, Luka Dzhordzhevich and Nikita Burmistrov.

Got his chance and Artyom Meshchaninov.

He was sent off in the previous game, but the organizers decided to cancel the suspension in order to give the team the opportunity to fully prepare.

In turn, Valery Karpin left a number of leaders in reserve: Maxim Osipenko, Daniil Glebov, Daniil Utkin, Khoren Bayramyan and Nikolai Komlichenko.

This could not but affect the actions of his wards, who completely failed the first half.

Opponents, on the contrary, acted almost perfectly.

With losses, they immediately turned on high pressure and immediately regained the ball.

And their work instantly paid off.

By the 17th minute, Sochi was leading 2-0.

Especially in their composition, Batyrev must be singled out.

The 20-year-old midfielder took a place in the support zone along with the most experienced Christian Noboa and left a very pleasant impression for the half of the meeting allotted to him.

Born in Canada, the football player did a huge amount of work in the center of the field, collecting successful tackles and interceptions.

It was thanks to him that the opponent did little in front.

Moreover, he dispersed the attacks of the team, and practically did not allow marriage in the transfers and tried not only to pass to his neighbor, but to aggravate.

It is significant that Batyrev's pressure helped the partners to score both goals.

First, he promptly joined in the pressure at someone else's penalty area and forced Alexei Mironov to give the ball to Djordjevic.

The Montenegrin immediately gave it to Burmistrov, who fired an accurate shot.

And then Amir intercepted another inaccurate transmission of the unlucky Mironov and threw Sarveli into the gap.

The episode ended with Djordjevic shooting between the legs of Sergei Pesyakov.

Pleased with other players of the Sochi attacking group.

Sarveli on the left flank pulled Denis Terentiev and contributed to his removal shortly before the break.

The defender earned the first card just for a foul on the pupil of Chertanovo.

The football player started up and after only three minutes got the second one.

Terentiev tried to take the ball away from Makarchuk, but did not have time and hit his ankle with spikes.

The long-awaited goal in the team was also marked by Djordjevic, who has not yet scored in official matches. 

Rostov, on the other hand, did not succeed either in defense or in attack.

In the first half, the yellow-blue scored only a few long-range shots.

A couple of times Mironov managed to hit the target, but Dzhanaev calmly dealt with the threat.

After the break, the course of the game did not change much, although Karpin, by agreement of the rivals, got the opportunity to replace Terentyev with another player.

Plus, after an hour, he threw all the leaders into battle.

However, it was too late to escape, because shortly before that, Sarveli brought the matter to a rout.

Vladislav closed Makarchuk's cross from the flank and put an end to a spectacular combination.

Thus, Berdyev won the first victory at the head of Sochi at the RPL Winter Cup and at the same time upset the former team.

Rostov not only suffered a debut defeat in regular time in 2023, but also conceded the first goals.

However, Karpin was not very upset by this fact.

Sochi looked fresher in pressure?

No, that is absolutely not the problem.

We just played wrong, that's all.

Replenishment in the break?

Sochi residents came up and offered to play on an equal footing, which is normal.

We've always done this at camps.

What does the defeat 0:3 at the training camp mean?

Nothing at all.

It's even good.

It’s better to lose in one match, ”Karpin said on Match TV.

Zinkovsky's masterpiece and the return of Spertsyan

The coaching staffs of Krasnodar and Spartak also carried out a serious rotation of the composition.

For example, Vladimir Ivic, compared to the first round meeting, threw six new performers into battle.

Perhaps the main event was the return to service of Eduard Spertsyan, who had recovered from injury, and took the usual position of the “tens”.

Newcomer Moses Kobnan is on the right side of the attack, and 18-year-old graduate of the club academy Alexander Koksharov is on the edge.

Guillermo Abascal, for the first time, released at the base Alexis Duarte, acquired in January, who made up a duet in the center of defense with George Jikia.

It is curious that he was the only legionnaire in the base.

The remaining ten people represented Russia.

Including the young Pavel Melyoshin, who scored three goals in the RPL and the Cup of the country this season, got a chance.

The young striker, located on the left flank of the attack, once again justified the mentor's trust.

It was he who opened the scoring in the 22nd minute.

However, the fans should also thank Alexander Sobolev, who forced Yegor Sorokin to make a mistake.

And then Melyoshin picked up the ball and from the radius of the penalty struck very close to the bar.

In general, the Muscovites had an overwhelming advantage in the first half.

They had the ball and carried out one attack after another.

At the same time, the southerners did not at all try to be included in the pressure.

They were forced to act in a manner not typical for themselves: retreat to their half and defend themselves.

It is not surprising that Duarte and Jikia had almost no work for such a game.

On the other hand, the red-whites could repeatedly develop an advantage.

So, in the opening, the same Melyoshin ran away to a rendezvous with Stanislav Agkatsev, taking advantage of his partner's excellent cutting pass, but failed to outplay him.

And shortly before the break, Sobolev, after Daniil Denisov's serve from the flank, slightly missed the target with his head.

In the second half, Ivic threw almost all the leaders into battle, and Krasnodar even managed to regain the initiative and create a couple of chances.

At the same time, the southerners were forced to open up, which went into the hands of their opponents, who almost completely renewed the roster.

Particularly successful was the replacement of Anton Zinkovsky.

That evening, he did everything so that the fans would not remember Quincy Promes, who remained in Moscow.

To begin with, the midfielder created an incredible goal-masterpiece, which actually put an end to this confrontation.

He burst into the penalty area from the right flank, beating Junior Alonso.

Following Anton moved to the center, bypassing three more opponents like skittles along the way, and delivered an accurate blow.

In the end, Zinkovsky helped Spartak achieve defeat.

First, he took advantage of an unsuccessful pass from Cayo Pantalean to throw Shamar Nicholson into the gap, and then earned a penalty for Balde Keita.

The Senegalese, who served a suspension for an anti-doping rule violation, scored his second goal in 2023.

Earlier, he hit the gates of AGMK.

The return of Christopher Martins Pereira, who had recovered from injury, was also a pleasant event for the fans.

Luxembourger got at his disposal the last 15 minutes.

The red-whites, on the other hand, won the second consecutive victory in the framework of the RPL Winter Cup and came close to winning it for the third time.

To do this, they need to beat Sochi in the last round, at least in a penalty shootout.