Dynamo's unfair misfire
"Dynamo" after a difficult victory over "Ural" at home lost to "Sochi" and significantly complicated their lives in the struggle for medals. Moreover, the result of the match can be called illogical. The Muscovites had the ball 70% of the time, made almost two dozen shots, but failed to score.
Moreover, starting from the 25th minute, they played in the majority, when Soslan Dzhanayev made a gross mistake on the way out. For some reason, the most experienced goalkeeper rushed into the struggle of Timofey Margasov and Denis Makarov and, realizing that he did not have time to stop the opponent according to the rules, grabbed him by the shirt. Referee Roman Galimov immediately showed the violator a red card. Under the eleven-meter came the reserve Denis Adamov. But Fortune didn't smile at blue and white at this point. Daniil Fomin, who had previously avoided misfires on penalties, failed to convert the second RPL of the season. And taking into account the final of the Russian Cup with Spartak, the unsuccessful series reached three meetings.
However, Adamov can also be called an expert in this part, because in the current championship he repelled the third blow from the "point", and two - in the match with Rostov, and only Georgy Gongadze upset him. Having caught the courage, Denis subsequently repeatedly rescued his teammates, in particular, he coped with a couple of powerful shots by Konstantin Tyukavin from outside the box.
And the Southerners managed to score twice with just three punches. First, Vanja Drkušić headed the ball on target. It is noteworthy that for the team of Kurban Berdiev, this goal was the first in this season of the RPL, scored after the submission of the standard. And then Artem Makarchuk and Luka Djordjevic ran away on the counter-attack, and the substitute Montenegrin from the front performed a perfect cross on his partner.
CSKA took advantage of a misfire from a competitor and climbed to a clean fourth place. This season, almost all the giants are experiencing difficulties in matches with Fakel, especially not away, but the army men were an exception. In the first round, they defeated the newcomer in the Premier League in Moscow, and now they were stronger in Voronezh - 2: 0. Already in the 21st minute, Fedor Chalov converted a penalty and extended the scoring streak in the national championship to three games. Along the way, with 13 goals, he came in third place in the race of scorers and is second only to Malcom, Quincy Promes (16) and Vladimir Pisarsky (14). And shortly before the final whistle, Ivan Oblyakov, who earned eleven meters, put an end to it, taking advantage of Anton Zabolotny's discount. And the Muscovites not only won the third victory in a row in the RPL, but also never conceded in this segment.
Humiliating defeat against Krasnodar
Approached Dynamo and Krasnodar, also fighting for a place in the top 5. Like CSKA, in the 21st round he met with the outsider - Khimki and did not experience any difficulties. Initially, it seemed that the southerners would have a hard time. The Moscow region team after the resumption of the season, although he scored only a point, gave a fight to Zenit and Rostov.
This time, however, Spartak Gogniev's charges resembled the worst of themselves. Midway through the first half, João Batchi opened the scoring with the full connivance of his opponents, and a few minutes later the hosts were also left without Vitaly Lystsov. The removal of the defender was controversial. Near his own penalty area, he knocked down John Cordoba, and the referee regarded the episode as a clear deprivation of the opportunity to score and showed a straight red.
In the second half, the visitors calmly passed the opponent's defense with the help of long passes over and over again. Not without the trademark blunder of Vitaly Gudiev. He gifted the ball to Cordoba on the penalty line and allowed the advantage to be doubled. Soon, the Colombian scored a brace and, taking into account the assist on Batchi, played the most productive match for Krasnodar (2 + 1). Also, newcomer Kadi Borges, substitute Nikita Kryvtsov and Oleksiy Ionov struck the away goal.
Sending six unanswered goals into the goal of the red and black, the southerners repeated the club record. With a similar score, they beat Ural in 2016. But the Khimsk team suffered the biggest defeat in history in the RPL. It is noteworthy that even after such a failure, Gogniev, under whose leadership the team won one victory in 19 matches, did not resign.
"If you get involved, you have to finish the job. Football is the result if there is no result. I can get up and leave, let another coach work. The last two games - I did not know that we would play ten," Match TV quoted the specialist as saying.
Lokomotiv's powerful take-off
"Lokomotiv" in the spring pleasantly pleases all football fans. For the winter break, the railwaymen went to the joint zone with only three victories. After the break, they added four more. Following Rostov, Akhmat and Krasnodar, Mikhail Galaktionov's former team Nizhny Novgorod was defeated - 4:0. The specialist himself became only the seventh in history to win four consecutive matches with the new team in the elite division of the national championship. The record belongs to Adamas Golodz and André Villas-Boas, who each won six victories.
The main hero of the confrontation was again Artem Dzyuba. After the meeting, he admitted that he was especially eager to upset the people of Nizhny Novgorod, since they refused his services in the winter. And in January, the club's general director Ravil Izmailov explained this by the reluctance to pay big money to the age performer. As a result, he scored a brace after half an hour of the game. First, the striker beautifully closed maxim Nenakhov's cross with his heel, and then from outside the box he accurately shot low into the far corner, taking advantage of Artem Karpukas' pass.
"Today I had to send a greeting to Nizhny Novgorod so that they could start understanding football... There were a lot of doubts, a lot of ugly things said. On the football field, everything was shown and proved, "Match TV quoted Dzyuba as saying.
The leaders of domestic clubs, who were afraid to take it, can only bite their elbows. Contrary to fears, the striker gives a result and scored six times in four league games. He also quickly played with Sergei Pinyaev and Maxim Glushenkov, who came from Krylia Sovetov. The latter failed to score on this day, but in the second round in a row the captain Dmitry Barinov scored. And in added time, substitute Anton Miranchuk put the point.
Zenit's difficult victory
In the next round, the Railwaymen will face Zenit. Of course, first of all, it arouses interest in the meeting of Dzyuba with his former team. And Muscovites approach it almost in the best condition. If they do not know their equal, then St. Petersburg were eliminated from the Russian Cup, and in the championship they lost to CSKA and almost gave points to Khimki. So the home match with ural, which has gained momentum, turned out to be difficult for them. The Blue-White-Blue, although they had an overwhelming advantage, could not upset the visitors. Courage was caught by Ilya Pomazun, who made four saves. I especially remember his rescue after Andrei Mostovoy's curled shot into the far corner.
Fortunately for Sergei Semak, the team was once again rescued by Igor Sergeev. Midway through the second half, the coach threw him into the fray in place of Mateo Cassierra, who traditionally missed a couple of chances, and seven minutes later the striker opened the scoring. Moreover, the short player scored with a header, ahead of the two-meter Silvije Begić in the struggle on the second floor. And in the end, the Russian scored a brace, closing a cross from the flank.
The forward can safely be called the joker of Zenit, because in the current RPL he scored five goals after coming on as a substitute and leads in this indicator. In total, he has eight goals. At the same time, Sergeev got into the first team less often than Cassierre, who has not yet scored in the national championship (10 against 11). And taking into account the meetings of the Cup of the country, Ivan with 12 effective blows in the team race of scorers is second only to Malcom (19).
Amazing record of "Rostov"
The main pursuer of St. Petersburg "Rostov" has his own signature weapon - a penalty. In the match against Torpedo, he scored for the 14th time of the season and set a new tournament record. And Nikolai Komlichenko, who earned eight of them, not only rewrote the internal achievement, but also repeated the best result of the top 10 leagues of the Old World. The same number is listed in the assets of Andrew Johnson, Neymar and Mehdi Taremi. True, it was not possible to implement this eleven-meter one. Previously, Yegor Baburin, who played for the southerners, parried Dmitry Poloz's shot from the "point". To top off all the troubles, a few minutes later Danil Glebov received a straight red. After watching the replay, the judges decided that the captain had stabbed the opponent's shin with spikes with a risk of injury.
At a difficult moment, the victory for the southerners was unexpectedly brought by the full-backs. At the end of the first half, Andrei Langovich curled the ball into the back nine from outside the box. And immediately after the break, Evgeny Chernov scored an equally masterpiece goal. With the outside of his foot from long range, he sent a shot into the far bottom corner with no chance for Baburin. It is noteworthy that for him this goal was only the second in his career in the RPL. After the final whistle, Valery Karpin joked that these charges do not hit someone else's goal like that even in training, and called their accurate shots an accident.
Torpedo's return goal was no less spectacular. David Karaev neatly placed the ball in the net from the half-circle of the penalty area. The Muscovites had plenty of time left, but the yellow-and-blue in the minority kept the necessary score and won the third victory in a row in the RPL.