Tripled the race: how the RPL leaders conducted the next round
Zenit achieved a minimal victory over the scandalous Khimki thanks to Luciano's goal (1-0). Next is a trip to Dynamo Moscow, which can seriously affect the championship race. The gap between the blue-white-blues and the leading Krasnodar is two points again. The Bulls are holding their own: after the failure in the last round, they were able to beat Akhmat (3:1) and remain the favorite of the championship. Spartak snatched the victory from Akron (3:2) and is five points behind the leader. CSKA lost important points in the match with Krylia Sovetov (1-1) and is now three points behind the red and white. In six days we will have a derby between these clubs. With a major victory over Paris NN (3-0), Lokomotiv interrupted an unsuccessful series and held on to the leaders.
An important answer
Krasnodar played against Akhmat after the defeat in St. Petersburg. For the black and green, this is a historically uncomfortable opponent, the last victory of the hosts in the championship dates back to July 2020. After that, there were humiliating 0:5 and last year's 0:1, when Krasnodar's hopes for the title actually died. It's a long—standing story - a month ago, the team from Chechnya, by no means the main team, knocked Murad Musayev's team out of the Russian Cup (1:2)! Even now, Sergey Tashuev's team demonstrated from the very first minutes their willingness to play with the favorite on opposite courses.
Krasnodar lost such important figures as Olas and Chernikov due to the disqualifications. The level of readiness of the Tormen remained unclear. Obviously, the Brazilian's class is higher than that of his compatriot Cayo, but Tormen was injured at the February training camp and has not played since. Perhaps he didn't have enough tone when Melkadze flew into Samorodov's cross and leveled the score.
Before that, at the end of the first half, Cordoba scored his tenth league goal. The Colombian expertly set up Ibishev's body, already in the penalty area he caught Gundry on a feint and sent the ball under the crossbar. A real masterpiece, because otherwise Shelia couldn't score. Earlier, the goalkeeper made some impressive saves, especially memorable when he pulled the ball out of the corner after Spertsyan's header.
Only Eduard scored his goal anyway — he executed the penalty spotlessly. And Petrov, who replaced Olasa on the left, took a mini-rematch from Samorodov. It was his pass that met the hand of a Kazakhstan national team player in the penalty area, and the VAR tip led to the appointment of an eleven-meter penalty. And Lenini's goal just two minutes later became a control shot. The Bulls scored an important three points and continue to lead the standings.
Red and white comeback
After the failure in the last round (1-2 against Dynamo Makhachkala), Spartak's head coach Deyan Stankovich surprised twice in a week. First, the minimum rotation in the Cup of Russia. Against Ural, which is more important to solve the problem in the FNL, there was almost a foundation. And it feels like I've received a clear signal: go and get better for losing to Dynamo Makhachkala.
The line-up at Akron was even more shocking. Although most of the changes were forced: Maximenko was injured, which allowed Anointing to make his debut. Denisov, who had gone through the cards, was replaced by Zobnin. And Levi Garcia put Ugalde back in reserve.
Surprisingly, even such a shake-up did not save. Spartak started 0-2 against Rubin and Dynamo. And, it seems, he did not draw any conclusions at all. Yes, the opening five minutes in Samara turned out well: Bongonda and Marquinhos burned out the flanks, Barko cleared space in the middle, Martins connected qualitatively, and Zobnin competently dispersed attacks and gave out a decent volume. Two or three approaches really looked promising.
The problem is that the Akron didn't take any damage at all. He defended without any problems, moved the ball away from his goal and created the first super moment by checking the Anointing. And then Dzyuba turned on. He scored a penalty, which he earned in the fight against Umyarov. He added an assist to Pestryakov and set up Vasyutin for a save from the penalty spot.
We note that 0:2 in the first half is already a classic from Spartak in the second part of the season. There were no such problems in the fall. It's strange that the concentration deficit doesn't fill up for so long — everything is not hopeless in the game. In Samara, this was instantly confirmed: Marquinhos and Bongonda famously ran out on the counterattack and reduced the gap, and Barko had to compare before the break.
But the trend has continued here: the second undefeated penalty in two rounds (this time from the main performer) is another reminder that the team is mentally out of order. But when necessary, he gathers and joins the game.
Ugalde and Solari came out in the second half, Spartak rebuilt and achieved the main thing: they did not break down due to Barko's mistake and quickly scored 2:2. Yes, thanks to an own goal, but, firstly, Bongonda hung in such a way that there were several contenders for the second goal, and secondly, there were other approaches too It was enough.
There were 30 minutes left to put the squeeze on Akron (with the help of substitutions, the individual qualities of the players, or the banal bulk). It seemed like there was plenty of room for such a game. But Spartak performed everything in the best traditions of the genre: he made it to the very end, created a moment and a half (we note the appearance of Nikita Massalyga) and buried the remnants of the nerve cells of the fans and the coaching staff.
There was a clear feeling that before the second penalty, assistant Nenad Sakic was clearly shouting into the radio: "Go away!" But Barko was already standing with the ball, who was not afraid to shoot again (risking becoming an antihero). He also paused, waiting for Vasyutin to jerk to another corner. 3-2 after 0-2 by the 29th minute and Spartak still has a chance of winning the championship.
Minimal, but confident
What a high-profile last week turned out to be for Khimki! On April 15, the club fired the coaching staff headed by Franck Artiga — they say the management did not like that the Spanish specialist publicly supported the players, who have been delayed for a long time. The players staged a boycott and ignored training on the field — instead, they spent only ten minutes on the simulators. Magomed Adiev, who was appointed instead of Artiga, worked with the double.
This continued until April 18, and it was unclear which train would arrive in St. Petersburg. As a result, RPL President Alexander Alaev acted as a savior-negotiator: after his intervention, the main clip of Khimki resumed the normal training process — two days before the match with Zenit. Adiev didn't have time to make major changes at all, and it's unclear how to motivate the team in its current state with vague prospects for the future.
For St. Petersburg, the situation is very clear: Krasnodar and Spartak scored their points, and they really need them to fight for the championship. Therefore, there was no question of any underestimation. Moreover, the blue-white-blues are slowly starting to turn on — a confident victory over the bulls is proof of this.
Zenit quickly took control of the ball and began to weave lace around Kokarev's possessions. It took a little over 20 minutes to find the keys to the defense of Khimki. The individual actions of Glushenkov helped, who decided to strike from a position that was not the most obvious. After his shot, the ball hit the defender and flew to Luciano — the Argentine solves such episodes with great pleasure, as he has already proved earlier. The perfect precision shot from the summer turned out!
Khimki conceded quickly enough (considering their game plan), but it couldn't be said that they looked completely hopeless. For example, even before the episode with Luciano, the red-blacks dangerously played the standard and hit the Latvian's goal post. So Zenit understood perfectly well that it was necessary to ensure a more comfortable advantage in the score.
The blue-white-blues created a lot of dangerous moments. Cool breakthroughs on the flanks were made by Mostovoy, Pedro and Henrique, Glushenkov missed the target from the 11-meter mark, Luciano Gondu had a one-on-one dash (although they later recorded an offside). Khimki managed not to miss a full bag and went on a break at 0:1.
In the second half, Zenit began to increase the pressure. At the very beginning, Enrique had two killer approaches: first, Luis missed a right-handed pass, and then landed in Jikiya's chest after a heel pass from Glushenkov. The hosts failed to score, however, a confident victory for Semak's team: possession of the ball was 66% to 34% in favor of Zenit, and there was a multiple advantage in shots — 20 against 4 for Khimki.
In the same round, Lokomotiv interrupted an unsuccessful series of three matches without a win — Paris NN was beaten 3-0. This allowed the "railwaymen" to stay behind the leaders and not lose their theoretical chances of winning medals. Dynamo Moscow defeated Rubin (3:1), Rostov prevailed over Fakel (2:0) with a fairly equal game, and Orenburg turned out to be stronger than Dynamo Makhachkala (2:1).
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
