Chalov's double, Promes' misfire, Safonov's blunder and Yuran's revenge: how the Russian Football Championship ended

The crash of "Rostov" in Moscow

In the central match of the final round of the RPL, the contenders for medals CSKA and Rostov met. The second-placed CSKA team was also satisfied with a draw, if Spartak did not beat Krylia Sovetov, but the southerners needed to score three points. It seemed that the fans at the VEB Arena would witness a heated confrontation.

However, in fact, the intrigue died in the first half. Already in the ninth minute, the guests themselves "brought" the ball when they unsuccessfully played it from their own goal. As a result, Daniil Utkin, after a pass from Sergei Pesyakov, actually brought Jesus Medina to a rendezvous with the goalkeeper. Soon Pavel Kukuyan, after watching the replay, awarded a penalty for a foul by Alexander Selyava, who stepped on the foot of Fedor Chalov. The victim himself realized the 11-meter.

Then the red-blues calmly distinguished themselves twice more. First, Willian Rocha sent the projectile into the net after a corner. Yegor Golenkov tried to insure Pesyakov, but only tweaked the ball on target. And then Chalov closed the cross from the left flank and scored a double. This allowed the striker with 19 goals to finish the championship in third place in the race of scorers. He was just one accurate shot behind Quincy Promes and four behind Malcolm.

In the second half, the Muscovites calmly kept the difference in the score that suited them. However, it was not without a couple of fly in the ointment. In the 78th minute, Evgeny Chernov struck Igor Akinfeev with an insidious low shot and did not allow him to keep a clean sheet. And at half-time, due to injury, Konstantin Kuchaev was replaced. The midfielder did not even manage to leave the field on his own. However, this did not prevent CSKA from winning RPL silver medals for the first time since 2018.

Rescue of the "Wings of the Soviets" in Samara

"Spartak" approached the match with "Wings of the Soviets" with heavy losses in the squad. In addition to the injured and disqualified Alexander Sobolev, Alexander Selikhov and Alexis Duarte were out of action. And captain Giorgi Dzhikiya and forwards Shamar Nicholson and Balde Keita remained on the bench. As a result, Promes was at the forefront of the attack, and Ruslan Litvinov and Nikita Chernov formed a duo in the center of defense.

Despite the personnel difficulties, Guillermo Abascal's wards missed a lot of chances in the first half. Promes alone had some amazing chances. For example, after his dribbling shot into the far nine, Evgeny Frolov helped out. Twice the racks came to the aid of the goalkeeper. Mikhail Ignatov hit the crossbar in the opening, and Anton Zinkovsky hit the crossbar shortly before the break.

However, the hosts also responded with counterattacks and disturbed Oleksandr Maksimenko. What is his spectacular save after Sergei Babkin's shot from outside the penalty area into the far nine. Passions gradually ran high. After one of the tough joints, Dzhikiya on the edge entered into a dispute with the chief referee Alexei Amelin and received from him first a yellow and then a red card.

Immediately after the break, Igor Osinkin's charges unexpectedly opened the scoring. Moreover, Benjamin Garre's goal turned out to be spectacular. The Manchester City graduate left Roman Zobnin, and already in the penalty area threw the ball between two rivals thanks to a successful ricochet. Then he worked the projectile under the left and accurately shot into the far corner.

But the Argentine himself soon almost deprived the team of the advantage when he accidentally played with his hand, throwing himself under the shot of Christopher Martins Pereira. After receiving a hint from the assistants, Ameline went to the monitor and pointed to the point. However, Promes managed not to convert the second penalty in a row. The Dutchman shot into the left corner at a convenient height, and Frolov saved the team.

Having caught courage, he made a few more saves and allowed the Samara team to finish the RPL season on the 12th line and avoid participating in the joints. The excellent actions of the reserve goalkeeper are especially surprising from the point of view that he sat on the bench for almost the entire championship. However, in the end, due to the injury of Evgeny Lomaev, he took a place at the last turn and scored two "crackers". "Spartak" was not very upset because of the defeat, as it remained in third place.

Fakel's defeat in St. Petersburg

The Wings managed to climb to the 12th position thanks to the defeat of Fakel from Zenit. Initially, the Voronezh team had few chances of winning, which they needed in order to avoid getting into the joints, despite the fact that St. Petersburg again did without the help of a number of leaders.

However, they still had an overwhelming advantage and controlled the ball 63% of the time, almost not allowing opponents to organize counterattacks. However, the hosts did not create too many chances, and when they managed to penetrate into someone else's penalty area, Ilya Svinov acted above all praise.

But in the end, the team of Sergei Semak, according to the established tradition, scored. Gustavo Mantuan burst into the penalty area from the left flank and rolled the ball from the front under the blow of Alexander Erokhin. The Brazilian in the blue-white-blue should be highlighted especially, because with the departure of his compatriots, he leads his partners: in the last three rounds, the midfielder scored four points (2 + 2).

The 13th place was eventually taken by Nizhny Novgorod, which, as expected, left no chance at home for Khimki to lose their chances of saving - 2: 0. The opponent's goal was struck by Dmitry Stotsky and Kirill Gotsuk. But the head coach of the hosts, Sergei Yuran, had his own motivation - to beat the former team, from which he was fired in the summer of 2022 under extremely strange circumstances.

In the joints, he will meet with Dmitry Parfyonov, who heads the "Motherland". Fakel, on the other hand, will face off against Yenisei.

The defeat of Dynamo in Orenburg

A little intrigue remained in the fight for seventh place, which in a face-to-face meeting in the last round was challenged by Orenburg and Dynamo. Unfortunately for Blue-and-White fans, even the dismissal of Slavisa Jokanovic did not allow them to improve their position in the table at the end of the season. The defeat of Torpedo was followed by defeats from Lokomotiv and Orenburg. Only if the team gave battle to the railwaymen, then the wards of Marcel Lichka lost meekly.

Already in the sixth minute, Bryan Mansilla opened the scoring with a beautiful shot and forced the opponents to open up and go forward. The owners only needed this. If it weren't for Ihor Leschuk, they could have brought the score to a big one in the first half. However, shortly before the break, Dmitry Vorobyov still doubled the advantage. And in the 75th minute, Lucas Vera added an accurate shot to the assist.

Thus, Orenburg repeated its best result in history in the RPL. In 2019, they also became the seventh. But this season, Lichka's team took third place in terms of the number of points scored at home (33).

Dynamo, on the other hand, eventually dropped to the second half of the table, since Lokomotiv pressed him from eighth place, expectedly beating Torpedo - 3: 1. The outsider defended successfully in the first half and even missed a few good chances. But in the second half, the red-greens did not leave opponents a chance. Yegor Baburin was upset by Nair Tiknizyan, Sergey Pinyaev and Wilson Isidor. The Frenchman scored in the seventh match in a row after coming on as a substitute and set an RPL record since at least 2009.

Rescue of Krasnodar in Grozny

The confrontation between "Akhmat" and "Krasnodar" for getting into the top 5 turned out to be very spectacular. In order to stay in the fifth position, Grozny did not need to concede, and they coped with their task not without the help of the guests. In the 66th minute, Vladimir Ivic's charges opened the scoring. Ilzat Akhmetov and John Cordoba broke into the opponent's penalty area, and the latter, having received a pass from a partner, shot at an empty net. For the Colombian, this goal was the 14th in the final draw of the national championship.

However, the bulls did not lead for long. Soon the grossest blot was made by Matvey Safonov. The main goalkeeper, who returned to the start after a couple of matches, received a pass from a teammate and tried in the style of Manuel Neuer to beautifully remove Islam Alsultanov, who jumped in the tackle, but miscalculated. As a result, the ball bounced to Ivan Oleynikov, who brought Vladislav Kamilov to strike.

Safonov finished the RPL season with four scoring errors and became the worst in this indicator. Now Ivic will have to rack his brains over who to entrust with a place at the turn in the final of the Cup of the country: the reservist Stanislav Agkatsev, who has shown himself great, or the unstable first number.

Moreover, soon Matvey missed another curious ball, although he could not help. After Oleynikov's shot from outside the penalty area, the ball ricocheted off the defender's foot into the opposite corner. But Krasnodar escaped defeat in added time, and the short Olakunle Olusegun hit the other side's goal with a header.