War and Peace: how Rubin interrupted Spartak's winning streak
The goal against Samara Krylia Sovetov in the match of the 20th round of the Russian championship was the 234th in official games for striker Artem Dzyuba. He broke Alexander Kerzhakov's record for this indicator. Akron, thanks to its star's goal, was able to win 2-0 and gain a foothold in the middle of the standings. Meanwhile, Spartak Moscow's seven-match winning streak was interrupted. He lost away to Rubin Kazan with a score of 1:2. The red-and-whites let Krasnodar and Zenit St. Petersburg go ahead, having scored away victories over Pari Nizhny Novgorod (3:0) and Voronezh Fakel (2:0), respectively. They also allowed Dynamo Moscow to get closer to themselves, who defeated their Makhachkala teammates (4-0).
Rubin — Spartak
After seven consecutive wins, Spartak has made a serious bid for the championship. Moreover, according to the results of the last round, the red-whites equaled the leaders Krasnodar and Zenit in points. But both competitors won their matches in this round. And the wards of Dejan Stankovich were opposed by the unyielding Rubin, who confidently gained a foothold in the middle of the table.
Spartak had a strong transfer campaign this winter, buying midfielders Pablo Solari and Levi Garcia for €30 million. But as in the game of the last round against Orenburg (2-0), and in the match against Rubin, Stankovich did not release them from the first minutes, preferring to rely on the squad first, which helped the team to successfully spend the second half of autumn.
However, very quickly the Kazan club showed that the initial plan of the Muscovites was not working. Already in the 1st minute, the hosts could have opened the scoring, but Bogdan Jokic, who went one-on-one with the goalkeeper, could not beat Spartak goalkeeper Alexander Maksimenko. But by the end of the first half hour of the meeting, Rubin led 2-0 — Mirlind Daku scored both goals from Ruslan Bezrukov's passes.
Only after that, Spartak began to actively attack and had a territorial advantage almost until the end of the match. Before the break, the visitors earned a penalty, converted by Ezequiel Barco. In the future, they were prevented from equalizing the score either by Rubin goalkeeper Evgeny Staver, or by a very dense Kazan defense. In the second half, the red-whites made a triple substitution, among others releasing Solari and Levi. But it didn't help.
Rashid Rakhimov's team ran well into counterattacks several times and could have scored more, making the ending less stressful for themselves. And in the 75th minute, due to a scuffle, the referee Kirill Levnikov removed Daka and Spartak defender Alexis Duarte from the field. As a result, Rubin retained the victory, and Spartak is now three points behind the first place.
— Rubin's absolutely deserved victory, — Andrey Chervichenko, the former owner of Spartak, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — It may seem that the red and white had the advantage, but they began to do so only after the second goal in their own goal. As a result, Spartak created tension, but they couldn't do anything ahead. And he created problems for himself by playing weak defense. In my opinion, the team is facing a winter transfer campaign, when no one was acquired for defense, but they spent €30 million. And I also understand the €10 million acquisition of Solari — I like this player. But to give €20 million for Levi... It would be better to distribute this money to two good defenders. Otherwise, Spartak now has such a passageway at the back, with which it is impossible to win the championship. Even with a good attacking game, which the red-whites have, there is no doubt, is well-placed.
Krylia Sovetov — Akron
The Samara Region derby would have no special status compared to other matches of the tour if it had not been held under the sign of Dzyuba's probable record. But a week earlier, Artyom scored a goal in an away match against Pari Nizhny Novgorod and equaled Kerzhakov. Akron lost that match (1:2), and Dzyuba said after the game that scoring the ball did not cause much emotion because of the defeat. At the same time, he expressed hope to score a record goal for Krylia, but in such a way that he would bring victory.
This was especially important not only because of the principled nature of the confrontation with the neighbors in the region. The fact is that Krylia are also Akron's neighbors in the standings, as they follow the Tolyatti team and complete the top ten. In the first round after the winter break, the Samaritans managed to draw away with the leader of the championship Krasnodar (1:1)
In the derby, Dzyuba quickly did what the audience expected of him. Already on the 9th he opened an account. Artyom marked his record by taking off a game T—shirt, under which there was a T-shirt with the inscription "Samurai has no goal, there is only a way." As a result, Akron controlled most of the match, and in the end Stefan Lonchar doubled the advantage of Tolyatti, who eventually increased the gap from the transition zone to seven points. Krylia has a one-point lead over her.
"I can only congratulate Artyom on this record and wish him to continue to perform at the RPL level and delight the audience with goals, especially since this season shows that he is still quite capable of this,— Valery Nepomnyashchy, the former head coach of Tom, said in a conversation with Izvestia. Dzyuba was playing. — 15 years ago, when we worked with him in Tomsk, I will not dissemble, I could not have imagined that he would achieve such a record. At that time, for him to score 10 goals in one championship was considered a success. But later, due to his hardworking and professional attitude, Artyom achieved phenomenal progress and consistently high levels.
According to Nepomnyashchy, by nature Dzyuba is a person who perceives any difficulties as a challenge and motivation to perform as well as possible. Due to this, he was successful in Tom, Rostov, Tula Arsenal, Zenit, Lokomotiv, the Russian national team, and now Akron.
— Except that Dzyuba didn't fully open up at Spartak due to lack of trust, - the expert believes. — It is especially pleasant that the record goal helped his team to win an important victory. In general, Dzyuba's role in the success of Akron is very huge — the leadership of the Tolyatti club acted very wisely by signing a contract with Artyom. And this helps him to stay confidently in the middle of the table after two thirds of the championship in his debut season in the RPL with good chances to keep his registration in the elite without any problems.
Dynamo (Moscow) — Dynamo (Makhachkala)
The Dagestani club resumed the season with a 1-1 home draw with Lokomotiv Moscow. Moreover, Hasanbi Bijiyev's team could have won, but they allowed their opponent to equalize at the end of the match. Because of this, they dropped into the transition zone. And they made life even more difficult after the defeat from their Moscow teammates.
Dynamo Moscow team failed the previous match with Rostov. The Donskoy club had a total advantage, but did not realize a lot of chances, allowing the blue and white to take home a 1-1 draw. Due to injuries, Marcel Lichka's team could not play such leading players as main goalkeeper Andrei Lunev, defenders Diego Laxalt, Nicolas Marichal and Milan Mastorovich, as well as midfielder Luis Chavez. And this is not to mention the leader of the Dynamo attack Konstantin Tyukavin, who suffered a cruciate ligament injury in the match against Rostov and was out for at least six months.
Nevertheless, these losses did not prevent the Muscovites from achieving victory quite calmly. Igor Leshchuk, who replaced Lunev, made several difficult saves and played without conceding goals, while El-Mehdi Mauhub, Yaroslav Gladyshev, Daniil Fomin and Fabian Balbuena each scored. This helped Dynamo Moscow to get closer to the top three — the gap from Spartak was reduced to one point.
— It's still difficult to say what led to this defeat, to single out any one reason, - Ilya Kirsh, defender of Dynamo Makhachkala, told Izvestia. — Probably, individual defensive mistakes affected us — we underplayed or ran out of time. Although we were very seriously preparing for this match, such defensive flaws are unacceptable. And they led to a rout.
CSKA Moscow — Khimki
CSKA Moscow went on a winter break in sixth place, seriously lagging behind the top five. The Army team started the spring part with an away draw with Zenit (0:0). The fact that they scored a point in St. Petersburg with high-quality play was pleasing, but it did not bring the red and blue closer to the competition.
And the home match with Khimki almost distanced them from them. The Moscow region club resisted for most of the meeting. In the first half, he even had chances to score someone else's goal. In particular, Ilya Berkovsky's shot hit the crossbar. But CSKA dominated most of the game. Khimki were saved several times by goalkeeper Nikita Kokarev, but even he was powerless in the last minutes of the match when, after a cross from a corner by Miralem Pjanic, Willian Rocha sent the ball into the far corner of the goal.
CSKA snatched the victory (1-0) and moved closer to Lokomotiv Moscow, which closes the top five, lagging behind it by two points. But the gap from the third line is five points.
"It's a shame that we didn't hold out for just a few minutes — CSKA put the squeeze on us," Khimki midfielder Butta Magomedov told Izvestia. — We endured and tried, but the opponent's class affected us. Unfortunately, we cannot be satisfied with either the result or the game. We defended ourselves all the time, pressed ourselves against the goal. In the first half, we still had approaches to the CSKA goal, but after the break we sat down specifically at our own goal, the army pressed us. You can't play like that.
Fakel — Zenit
In the last two championships, the Voronezh club took away points at home from the champion, achieving a 1-1 draw both times. This time he also resisted Zenit, but with less success. Luciano Gondo opened the scoring in the 17th minute. After 20 minutes, Fakel remained in the minority due to the removal of Vyacheslav Yakimov.
In the 57th minute, Matteo Cassierra doubled Zenit's lead. And on the 74th, the main scandal of the tour occurred - St. Petersburg midfielder Wendell received a red card for an indecent gesture. He gave the audience the middle finger. After the match, his team's head coach, Sergei Semak, said it was a reaction to racist chants from the stands of the Voronezh stadium.
These episodes are reflected in the match delegate's report, and now they will be reviewed by the RFU KDC. Also in an interview with Match TV, Semak stated that discriminatory statements against Wendel came from one of the Fakel players. The Voronezh club has so far denied these accusations.
Three more matches took place in the last round. Krasnodar defeated Pari Nizhny Novgorod on a visit and retained the lead. Moscow's Lokomotiv lost points again this spring — this time they drew at home with Akhmat Grozny (1-1). And the last-placed Orenburg lost to Rostov (1:2).
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
