Strong as a "bull": "Krasnodar" leaves for the winter leader of the RPL

Krasnodar's nil-nil draw with Lokomotiv put an end to the first part of the Russian championship. After 18 rounds, the density at the top of the table is very high: there are only four points between the leaders Krasnodar and Zenit St. Petersburg and the top-five finishers Dynamo and Lokomotiv Moscow. In the middle of this group sits Spartak Moscow, two points off the top. "Krasnodar" leaves the leader, taking advantage of the home defeat of "Zenit" from "Akron" Togliatti (1:2), the winning goal in which the former captain of St. Petersburg Artem Dzyuba scored. "Spartak and Dynamo ended the year with home victories: the Red-Whites defeated Pari Nizhny Novgorod (3-0), while the White-Blue defeated Khimki (4-1).

"Krasnodar" - "Lokomotiv"

Not long ago, these two teams were Zenit's main rivals in the fight for gold. But to the face-to-face match they are approaching on the decline. Both teams suffered a defeat at the hands of Spartak: "Lokomotiv" lost the derby with a score of 2:5, and "Krasnodar" was beaten at home - 0:3. They were also spoiled by Khimki, who first drew their home game with Krasnodar (2-2) in the final minutes and then beat Loko away (3-1).

That could have cost the Bulls and the Railwaymen a chance to compete with Zenit for the gold medal, but the Blue-Belo-Blues themselves left their rivals with opportunities thanks to two home defeats in December. However, Krasnodar and Loko did not use these misfires to take the lead. They also let Spartak and Dynamo get close.

Winter session: how the last round of the RPL will be held in 2024

"Krasnodar" will play with "Lokomotiv", "Zenit" will host "Akron", "Spartak" will meet with "Pari NN", CSKA will go to "Fakel"

The match in Krasnodar took place on the evening of December 8 and became the last in the RPL in 2024. And both participants were in dire need of a win to improve their positions. "Loko" made some radical changes in the starting lineup. The main goalkeeper Ilya Lantratov, who had been unconfident in recent matches, gave way to Anton Mitryushkin. Nyamsi, a defender who had made mistakes, sat on the bench. Also, Timur Suleymanov, not Dmitri Vorobyev, came on as a forward. Vorobiev started the season efficiently and played constantly from the first minutes, while Suleymanov came on as a substitute for the last 15-20 minutes of games. But after the unsuccessful game in the last rounds Dmitry sat on the bench.

The first half was hard fought with Krasnodar's territorial advantage, but there was only one dangerous moment. And it was created before the break by Loko, when Alexey Batrakov tried to throw the ball over the goalkeeper Stanislav Agkatsev's shoulder from the penalty line, but he managed to clear the ball from under the crossbar.

In the middle of the second half, Batrakov created another dangerous moment when he crossed to Dmitri Barinov, who shot well into the near corner. But Agkatsev saved Krasnodar again. Toward the end of the game, the Bulls had the advantage. In the final minutes they could have been awarded a penalty, when the ball hit Maxim Nenakhov's hand in the Loko penalty area. But when watching the video replay, referee Vasily Kazartsev saw that a few seconds earlier a home team player had fouled, and awarded a penalty in favor of the visitors.

The teams never scored in this match. "Krasnodar" equalized on points with "Zenit" and ahead of him on additional indicators, leaving for the winter break leader. "Loko" is four points behind the leaders.

"Zenit" - "Akron"

After Zenit unexpectedly lost at home to Samara's Krylia Sovetov (2:3) a round earlier, it seemed that Sergei Semak's wards would not step on this rake a second time before the winter break. Moreover, Akron, for all its success in its debut season (the team is in the top ten of the RPL), performed poorly against all the top clubs, failing to pick up a single point in games with them, and more often than not losing outright.

For example, two games against Zenit ended in this way - an away game in the Russian Cup (1:5) and a home game in the championship (0:5). However, in late summer Akron managed to beat the champion at home in the Cup on penalties (5:4) after a 1-1 draw in regulation time. But in the end, that game did not prevent Zenit from finishing first in their group.

Dzyuba didn't play in that game: he joined Akron only at the beginning of the fall. And until last weekend, he hadn't been able to make a full appearance against Zenit, for whom the 36-year-old forward played from 2015-2022, winning the Russian championship four times and having the best years of his career.

Artem missed the return cup match in St. Petersburg due to squad rotation. And in the October match of the championship he was substituted in the 5th minute due to injury. But in the last match against Zenit Dzyuba was able to play at full strength. The match was also important for Akron goalkeeper Alexander Vasyutin, a native of St. Petersburg who was under contract with Zenit back in the spring.

Akron took the lead as early as the 19th minute thanks to a goal by Stefan Lonchar. Quite quickly Andrei Mostovoi equalized. But closer to halftime, something happened for which there was a lot of interest in the match: Dzyuba scored in St. Petersburg against his former club. He defiantly did not celebrate the goal, but he received a whistle from the St. Petersburg stands.

After the break, Vasyutin proved himself by making several saves. The score remained unchanged: Dzyuba's goal was the game-winner. This allowed Akron to secure ninth place.

- It's not the first time Dzyuba has scored against his former teams," said former Russian national team forward Dmitry Bulykin in a conversation with Izvestia. - He scored against Spartak in Zenit, and this season he has already scored against Rostov, for whom he also once played and whose head coach Valeri Karpin is now working. It is known that Artem has a difficult relationship with him. And now he scored for Zenit. In many ways, Dzyuba's attitude played a role in this victory, although we must emphasize the entire Akron team, which played collected, at the limit of their abilities. It's not the first time that Zenit has noticed inertia in the game, especially in the performance of its leaders, primarily Claudinho. That's why it won't be easy for the Petersburgers in the spring, although they still have a good chance to win the championship. But it's nice that, like last season, at the time of the winter break nothing is clear about the future winner of the championship gold medals.

"Spartak vs. Pari Nizhny Novgorod

Since mid-autumn, the Red and Whites have accelerated incredibly, winning victory after victory in the championship. As a result, they are back in the championship race, although two months ago it seemed that then the gap from the leaders was not recoverable. Interestingly, it was with an away win over Pari Nizhny Novgorod (2-0) that Spartak's rise began. Next, Dejan Stankovic's charges confidently won the derby against CSKA (2-0), and then alternately defeated Akron (4-0) at home with Lokomotiv (5-2) and Krasnodar (3-0) away.

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

Leaders of the Russian Football Championship lost points in the last round

Pari NN, which is in crisis, also got a big score, although by halftime Viktor Goncharenko's wards held a 0-0 lead. But they quickly fell apart midway through the second half, allowing Theo Bongonda, Manfred Ugalde and Esekiel Barco to score within 11 minutes. Ugalde strengthened his lead in the RPL scorer's race with 15 goals in 18 games. And Spartak picked up their sixth win and moved closer to the leaders.

- We're not thinking about this winning streak, and we're not thinking about the fight for the championship at all, which is why we're winning all the time," Spartak defender Nikita Chernov told Izvestia. - We play with maximum dedication and try to fully fulfill the coach's instructions in every game. With "Pari NN" we did the same, so we overcame the difficulties of the first half, when we couldn't score. In the end, we managed to bring it to a big win. And we are glad that we managed to have such a stretch. Now the main thing is to continue to play like this and win after the winter break.

There were also five more matches in the last 18th round. Rubin Kazan managed to defeat Dinamo Makhachkala 3:2, losing 0:2. Dynamo Moscow defeated Khimki at home (4:1). "Rostov defeated Krylia Sovetov (3:1). CSKA Moscow won an away victory over Fakel Voronezh (1:0). And in a battle of the last two teams out of the relegation zone, Grozny's Akhmat defeated Orenburg at home (1-0). The season in Russian soccer will resume in early March.