Malcolm's poker, doubles by Dzyuba and Oblyakov, Safonov's mistake: what was remembered for the 25th round of the RPL

Highlights: Malcolm's first poker in his career helped Zenit defeat Krylia Sovetov. Artem Dzyuba's double allowed Lokomotiv to win a major victory over Khimki. Two accurate shots by Ivan Oblyakov brought CSKA three points in the confrontation with Akhmat. A blunder by Matvey Safonov prevented Krasnodar from beating Ural. Orenburg squeezed Nizhny Novgorod thanks to the goal of Stepan Oganessian.

Malcolm's first poker in his career helped Zenit defeat Krylia Sovetov, and Artem Dzyuba's double allowed Lokomotiv to win a major victory over Khimki. Two accurate shots by Ivan Oblyakov brought CSKA three points in the confrontation with Akhmat, and a blunder by Matvey Safonov prevented Krasnodar from beating Ural. Orenburg squeezed Nizhny Novgorod thanks to the goal of substitute Stepan Oganessian, and Sochi left no chance for Torpedo at home. What the 25th round of the RPL was remembered for is in the RT material.

Malcolm's benefit performance in Samara

In the 25th round of the RPL, Zenit took another step towards winning the fifth consecutive title, defeating Krylia Sovetov on the road - 5: 1. Moreover, the match unexpectedly began with a goal by Sergei Babkin. The young midfielder, who was loaned to Lokomotiv by Samara, first made an interception in the center of the field, and a few seconds later closed Roman Yezhov's cross from the flank. It is noteworthy that for him this ball was his debut in the championship of Russia.

There were no more reasons for joy among the fans of the Wings. Even before the break, the guests not only restored their balance, but also took the lead. First, Malcom converted a penalty awarded by Mikhail Ivanov after watching a replay for a foul by Glenn Bale on Daler Kuzyaev, and then Ivan Lomaev managed to miss Claudinho's weak shot between his hands from the edge of the penalty area. On top of all the troubles of the hosts, Bale at the end of the half received a second "mustard plaster" - for disrupting the attack.

In the second half, it was Malcolm's time. The wards of Sergei Semak in the majority frankly swaggered and, it seemed, sought to bring their striker to the blow. As a result, he scored three more times in just 20 minutes and scored the first poker in his career. It is curious that in the previous two cases, Zenit players also upset rivals in the RPL four times: Artem Dzyuba in 2021 and Alexander Erokhin in 2018.

In the current draw of the national championship, Malcom knows no equal. He leads both the scorer race (22) and the goal + assist system (29). Moreover, at this rate, he is able to set a new record for the number of goals scored per season in the Russian championship. Now he is held by Oleg Veretennikov with 25 effective shots. Seydou Doumbia scored more (28), but this happened in the 2011/12 transitional draw, which lasted more than a year.

Oblyakov's double in Grozny

CSKA achieved victory over Akhmat thanks to the inspired play of its leader. In the spring, Ivan Oblyakov with the transfer to the offensive line makes a result in almost every meeting. In Grozny, he scored the first double in his career in the RPL. Moreover, in both scoring episodes, the midfielder proved to be a real striker: first he finished off the ball into the net from close range, and then opened up in someone else's penalty area and, having received a pass from Konstantin Kuchaev, accurately shot into the far corner. Now, after the resumption of the season, he has nine points (5 + 4) in seven RPL matches. It is not surprising that the army team in this segment is almost unparalleled: after the defeat of Sochi, they won six matches and drew another game.

However, as in the previous round, it was not without hassle. In the 80th minute, substitute Mohamed Konate reduced the gap to a minimum, scoring the eighth goal in the current draw of the national championship. However, Sergey Tashuev's wards failed to escape, and in the time added by the referee allowed Maxim Mukhin to score his debut goal for CSKA and put an end to the match.

Thus, Grozny once again demonstrated that they are a convenient opponent for the army team. They suffered their 25th defeat in 33 head-to-head confrontations with only five wins and three draws.

Safonov's mistake in Krasnodar

Meanwhile, "Krasnodar" and "Ural" on the eve of important matches in the Cup of Russia broke up the world in the national championship - 1: 1. The draw rather benefited the guests. First, they broke a series of five defeats in the championship. Secondly, Viktor Goncharenko, for sure, was happy to put a bandwagon to the former team, which he left at the beginning of last year, although his work could not be called a failure.

Finally, Ural showed character, because already in the 13th minute the southerners opened the scoring after a corner. Kevin Lenini scored his debut goal for the team. However, shortly before the break, Alexander Yushin, taking advantage of Eric Bicfalvi's discount, fired a powerful shot from the edge of the penalty area.

Unfortunately, it was not without a blot from Matvey Safonov, who, it seemed, was obliged to parry the blow, but missed the ball into the net under his hands. The goalkeeper of the Russian national team regularly helps out his partners, but at the same time often allows himself scoring mistakes. Moreover, the effective blot in the game with Ural was his third of the season, and according to this indicator he leads together with Artur Nigmatullin, although the latter defends the colors of Nizhny Novgorod.

Hovhannisyan's exit in Orenburg

In turn, Nizhny Novgorod in the 25th round on the road failed to take points from Orenburg. Although the visitors needed a victory, for most of the meeting they acted as the second number and responded only with rare counterattacks.

The game could have gone completely differently if the referees had counted Artem Sokolov's goal in the 13th minute. However, Evgeny Turbin, even after consulting with his colleagues, did not cancel the decision of the side, which recorded a rather controversial offside. At the beginning of the second half, the referee, on the contrary, after watching the replay, did not record a foul of the last hope from Lucas Masoero and managed with a yellow card.

However, in the end, the outsider still missed, and Marcel Lichka made an effective substitution. He fielded Stepan Hovhannisyan, and just three minutes later he closed Lucas Vera's cross from the flank and scored his first goal in the RPL. After such a successful game, the president of the club Vasily Eremyakin even promised to buy the player from Spartak at the end of the season.

But Nizhny Novgorod castling on the coaching bridge has not helped much so far. Under the leadership of Sergei Yuran, the team won only one victory - over Krylia Sovetov, and lost to Dynamo, Krasnodar and Orenburg. The fans were clearly waiting for more. On the other hand, almost all the rivals were of a high level.

Joaozinho's milestone in Sochi

In another team fighting for survival, Torpedo, the change of coach turned into tough personnel decisions. A few days before the meeting with Sochi, Josep Clotet suspended Ilya Kutepov, Ravil Netfullin and Yuri Zhuravlev from training with the base. According to media reports, the Spaniard was dissatisfied with the level of discipline in the team, and he allegedly removed the latter for smiling in training.

One way or another, in the next match of the national championship, this did not help the Muscovites. They failed the game and made only one shot on target, which turned out to be a goal. The southerners, on the other hand, gladly took advantage of the opponent's problems and interrupted a three-match series of defeats in the RPL, and also gained the upper hand for the first time after replacing Kurban Berdyev with Dmitry Khokhlov.

Moreover, the fate of the confrontation was determined by experienced players. Joaozinho opened the scoring in the seventh minute, and shortly before the break he made an effective pass from a corner to Kirill Kravtsov. This helped him overcome the bar of 100 points in the RPL (40 goals + 61 assists). Artur Yusupov for the first time in his career made two assists in one match of the Premier League. Finally, substitute Kirill Zaika removed all questions about the winner with a beautiful blow. As part of the black-and-white, another reservist Mikhail Kaimakov recorded the prestige ball as an asset.

Revenge of Dzyuba Talalaev

Another outsider of the tournament - Khimki - suffered a crushing defeat from Lokomotiv (1: 5). Despite the final score, Andrei Talalaev's wards looked quite decent for most of the meeting. In the first half, they conceded only from the penalty spot, which was converted by Anton Miranchuk, but they themselves did not use several profitable chances. Above all praise in the confrontation with former partners acted Ilya Lantratov. However, in the 60th minute, it was still struck by Alexander Rudenko.

Of course, it was not without the goals of Artem Dzyuba. The forward failed to upset CSKA in the last round, but a week later he scored a double. It is important that he scored both of his goals at the right moments. First, he doubled the advantage of the railwaymen after a corner, and then realized a one-on-one exit and again increased the gap in the score. Thus, in eight RPL meetings, the striker scored eight goals and assisted his partners four times. Only Malcom scored a similar number of points (12) after the resumption of the season in the national championship.

At the end of the match, the red-blacks were forced to go forward and open up, which was used by the fresh forwards of the opponents. Ivan Ignatiev, who recently did not rule out leaving the club due to lack of practice, distinguished himself for the first time since October last year. And Wilson Isidor, who had recovered from injury, scored a goal for the second round in a row after entering the field from the bench.