Intrigue revived: the goalkeeper scored into another's goal and saved Dynamo from defeat

Dynamo Moscow goalkeeper Igor Leshchuk's goal in the last minutes of the away match against Akhmat Grozny (1:1) beautifully completed the program of the 17th round of the Russian Football Championship. For the first time in the history of our national championship, a goalkeeper scored from the game in the opponent's goal. This goal is especially valuable because it saved the Bilo-Syni from defeat and allowed them to get a little closer to the leading group, most of the inhabitants of which lost their matches over the weekend.

We're talking about Zenit St. Petersburg, Krasnodar and Lokomotiv Moscow. Spartak Moscow took the best advantage of the situation, defeating Krasnodar 3-0 and escalating the medal race to the limit. Now there are five teams competing for them. The distance between first and fifth place is only seven points.

Goalkeeper's goal

The match between Akhmat and Dynamo took place on Monday night and was the last match of the last round. For the Blue and Whites, the weekend offered a good chance to share third place with Spartak and Lokomotiv, and to be just five points behind Zenit. To do that, they needed to win in Grozny.

But Akhmat also found themselves in a must-win situation, as they were stuck in the relegation zone, while their rivals Fakel Voronezh and Khimki picked up points at the weekend. And while Voronezh were limited to a 0-0 away draw with Dinamo Makhachkala, the Moscow Region club won away against Lokomotiv Moscow (3-1) and increased their lead over Grozny.

In the end, they were close to victory thanks to Maxim Samorodov's first-half goal from Daniil Utkin's gorgeous pass. But in the final seconds of the match an episode unprecedented for Russian soccer happened. "Dynamo got the right to a corner kick at the other team's goal. As it often happens, to save the game, in such situations the goalkeeper runs into the other team's penalty area.

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Igor Leshchuk won the battle on the near post after Bitello's cross and tried to make a back of the head cross into the goalkeeper's box, but in the end the ball flew up and fell straight into the goal - for some unknown reason Akhmat goalkeeper Giorgi Shelia did not catch it in the air, because he did not see that it was flying over the goal line.

- Apparently, Leshchuk wanted to scoop the ball onto the far post, but it turned out so that the ball flew high up," former Dynamo striker Dmitry Bulykin commented on the episode to Izvestia. - And what happened next with Shelia is unclear to me. Either the stadium spotlight shone in his eyes at that moment, or Giorgi himself lost concentration. Everything is very unclear, but the goal was original.

It should be noted that after the goal Leshchuk played well at his goal when he saved Dynamo in one dangerous moment, which almost ended with the loss of the draw so unexpectedly earned. Igor saved his team several more times during the game. A round earlier he also made several crazy saves in the away match with Fakel (1:1), showing that he is capable of competing for the place of the main goalkeeper, which he was last season, but stopped being in the summer, when Dynamo signed Andrei Lunev, who missed the last two matches of the championship due to health problems. That draw puts Dynamo two points behind Spartak and Lokomotiv Moscow. "Akhmat" loses four points to the zone of transition matches, which is closed by "Fakel".

- "Dynamo" should have won at the expense of class, but both the match with "Akhmat" and the match with "Fakel" failed the Bilo-Syni in terms of quality of play, so the two away draws can still be considered a success, - added Dmitry Bulykin. - As always, Dynamo lack something and lose points against outsiders. Yes, it is clear that it was a hard flight (because of bad weather the plane with Dynamo landed in Makhachkala, from where the team got to Grozny by bus. - Ed.), but if the guys want to fight for the first place, they should win such matches with a good score. And so the level of Dynamo now is not championship level. But our level in the championship has already dropped in general - it is all the more interesting to watch when outsiders cause problems to the leading group, which happened in the last round.

Density at the top

The 17th round turned out to be rich in sensations. The original top three lost their matches at home. Krasnodar's crushing defeat to Spartak was still to be expected, given the recent momentum of the Red-Whites. The victory over the Bulls was their fifth consecutive win in the league.

Even Lokomotiv's misfire in the match against Khimki was predictable, given the crisis that the Railwaymen have fallen into in the last week and a half, first losing a 2-5 derby to Spartak in the league, and then being knocked out of the RPL Way of the Russian Cup by Dynamo Moscow in the return quarterfinal match, which was lost 0-1 in regulation time. Given the fact that Loko won the first game 2:1, they had to shoot penalties, in which Dynamo were stronger (4:3).

But the main sensation was Zenit's loss to Samara's Krylia Sovetov (2:3), who all last fall seemed doomed after a long winless streak.

- If we had really strong teams at the top, I wouldn't believe that, for example, Dynamo could still compete for the championship," said Dmitry Bulykin. - But in the current reality, I quite admit that the Bilo-Syni will take seven points from Zenit. Remember how Zenit and Krasnodar played in the end of last season, when they lost ground and allowed themselves to catch up with Dynamo, who seemed to have lost their chances for gold a month before the end of the championship. But it turned out that the Bilo-Syni could have finished first and had a good chance to do so a round before the end. We can assume that now they can fight for first place, if Zenit continues to play the way they did with Krylia.

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"Zenit" after 17 rounds has a one point lead over "Krasnodar" and five points over "Spartak" and "Lokomotiv". It is possible that the matter goes to the intrigue in the fight for gold, which was last spring, when for the first time in a long time the champion was determined only in the last round. And three teams - Dynamo, Zenit and Krasnodar - claimed the final first place on the last day of the tournament. As a result, the St. Petersburg club took its sixth consecutive championship.

- This tour reminded of last season, when Zenit and Krasnodar were losing, Dynamo somehow gained points and came close to them. In the end, everyone got to the point where Dynamo almost won gold. Something similar may happen in the coming spring, - says Dmitry Bulykin. - Perhaps Spartak or Lokomotiv will take advantage of the leaders' misfires rather than Dynamo. But in any case, Zenit are not so strong right now that they can confidently beat everyone in a row and secure their championship three or four rounds before the end of the tournament. That's why we enjoy the intrigue in the RPL, where nothing is clear in every round, when an outsider can beat the leader. Of course, the level of teams now is such that it would be sad if they played at international tournaments. But the current intrigue is good for the spectators. Let's hope that it will remain for a long time and in spring the champion will be determined only in the last round again, like last time.

The 18th round, which will be the last in the calendar year 2024, will take place next weekend.