Third Middle East: the first spring tour intensified the championship intrigue in the RPL

Following the results of the 19th round of the Russian Football Championship, triple power reigned in the Russian Premier League (RPL) standings. Spartak Moscow took advantage of the misfires of Krasnodar and Zenit St. Petersburg, who were leading before the winter break, and equaled them in points. Moscow's Lokomotiv and Dynamo, who are still competing for medals, are four points behind the leaders — they lost points following the results of trips to Makhachkala and Rostov-on-Don. And Artyom Dzyuba repeated Alexander Kerzhakov's record for goals in the RPL.

Zenit – CSKA

It's rare for a match without goals to last almost the entire 90 minutes in one go. But Zenit and CSKA managed to please the audience with a high level of fighting and a lot of chances at each other's gates. The St. Petersburg club was unable to use its star newcomer Luis Enrique, who was not even included in the application due to micro-injury.

And after the first hour of the game, Serbian midfielder Sasha Zdelar, who belonged to CSKA two weeks ago, came on as a substitute. However, he could not help his new team. The army team put up a strong resistance to the reigning champion and took away his points (0-0), complicating the fight for the seventh gold in a row. However, this draw is not helping the red-blue team very much yet.: They're still sixth. They are separated from the top three by eight points, and from the top five by four.

— A natural draw, — Dmitry Khomukha, a former Zenit and CSKA midfielder, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — It was a double-edged game, the teams created chances, but the implementation failed them. The Army team has improved significantly over the winter break: head coach Marko Nikolic has shifted them to a four-defender game, and there are more people in the attack. And it's starting to bear fruit.

Spartak – Orenburg

Spartak's head coach Dejan Stankovic did not change the squad, which helped the team to win six in a row before the winter break. As a result, the star newcomers — Levi Garcia and Pablo Solari — entered the field only towards the end of the meeting. By this time, the red and white had already led 1:0. Orenburg, which is deep at the bottom of the standings, adequately resisted in the first half, but at the beginning of the second Manfred Ugalde opened the scoring.

And already in stoppage time, Solari doubled the advantage of the hosts in the opening match, who won their seventh victory in a row (2-0) and rose to the top, equaling Krasnodar and Zenit on points. Orenburg is six points behind the penultimate place. And it is still unclear how he can save himself from relegation to the first league.

— I am glad that we managed to win, — Spartak defender Srdjan Babic told Izvestia. — It was a difficult match, but the main thing is that we scored three points. Now it's important to continue this winning streak in order to fight for the championship. We believe that we can take the gold, but for this we need to play every match as efficiently as possible.

Dynamo – Rostov

The Blue and White team acquired their leader, midfielder Danil Glebov, from Rostov two weeks ago. And it so happened that he played his debut match for Dynamo at the stadium, where he played for six years. Glebov ran away from the meeting without substitutions, but did not show anything bright.

However, this concerned his entire team. Rostov had an overwhelming halftime advantage and it was only by coincidence that they did not score a single goal during that time. Dynamo almost got the victory out of thin air when substitute Daniil Fomin opened the scoring in the 77th minute. But five minutes later, Mohammad Mohebi regained his balance and reduced the match to a 1-1 draw. Rostov is still seventh, while Dynamo is four points behind the leaders.

— A draw in the match is quite logical," Sergei Kiryakov, a former Dynamo Moscow striker, said in a conversation with Izvestia. — Both teams fought with all their might, but did not show great quality of play. This is quite natural for the first spring meeting, when the participants are just getting used to the tournament rhythm after training camps.

Attention restart: what to expect from the second part of the RPL season

The fight of five teams for gold, seven candidates for relegation and Rostov without Karpin

Danil Glebov, according to the expert, did not do anything in the match, he tried, but did not create acute situations in front.

— Perhaps it was because he played against his former team and somehow got psychologically hooked, Kiryakov suggested. — Rostov showed that Valery Karpin's recent departure from the team did not affect her. After all, he laid a very serious foundation at the last training camp and in previous years. Moreover, emotionally, the team clearly wanted to prove that they could succeed without their former head coach. Therefore, the inertia from his work will still be preserved. But in three or four rounds it will be over and there may be problems.

However, Kiryakov noted that the current head coach, Spaniard Jonathan Alba, knows the team, he has worked with Karpin for a long time and may well somehow support the line that was before.

Nizhny Novgorod – Akron Betting

In its debut season, the Tolyatti club unexpectedly confidently gained a foothold in ninth place and built up a good lead over competitors in the fight for survival. Nizhny Novgorod residents are located next to the zone of transitional matches. But over the winter, they have intensified with a number of bright newcomers.

And these recruits helped Paris NN by scoring both goals against Akron early in the second half. First, Vyacheslav Grulev scored from Alexander Koksharov's pass. And then Koksharov himself doubled the advantage of the hosts.

The guests responded only with a goal scored by Artyom Dzyuba. The star striker scored his 233rd goal in official matches, repeating Alexander Kerzhakov's Russian record.

— We won due to a lot of desire and more chances created, so the success is well deserved," Nikita Medvedev, goalkeeper of Paris NN, told Izvestia. — We deserved to win this match more. We showed good pressure and dedication. Over the winter, we have gained more understanding of how to play offensively. Due to this, the team spends less time on defense than before. We showed this in the first match of the spring against a competitor. But we cannot stop at this victory. We have 12 finals this spring. We won the first one, leaving 11.

Commenting on the year of Dzyuba, Medvedev noted his role as a key player for Akron, from whom danger always emanated.

— The opponent spent most of the time playing it with overhead gears. But we generally dealt with it. It was the first time in my career that I conceded a goal from Dzyuba. It's good that it didn't stop us from winning. And I wish Artyom to break the record: he deserves it," said the Paris NN player.

Loko and Krasnodar draws

The first match after the break took place on February 28. In it, Dynamo Makhachkala quickly took the lead in the home match against Lokomotiv, but the Railwaymen escaped defeat due to Dmitry Vorobyov's goal at the end of the meeting. The draw (1-1) led to the fact that, together with Dynamo Moscow, Loko is four points behind the top three. Makhachkala residents dropped to 13th place, in the zone of transitional matches.

They were ahead of Paris NN, as well as Khimki, who beat Voronezh Fakel at home (1-0), which is now stuck in the penultimate place in the direct relegation zone. Akhmat Grozny got out of there, winning a strong-willed victory over Rubin Kazan. In turn, Krasnodar missed the chance to single-handedly lead the standings, having drawn with Samara Krylia Sovetov (1:1) at home.