A holiday like a Koita: Sekou helped CSKA beat Dynamo in the Moscow derby

According to the results of the spring matches of the Russian Football Cup, the semi-finalists of the Path of the Regions were determined. They were Moscow's Lokomotiv and Spartak, who beat Dynamo Makhachkala (2:1) and Akron Togliatti (3:2), respectively, as well as Akhmat Grozny and Ural Yekaterinburg, who created the main sensations. The first scored a strong-willed victory on the road over Krasnodar, the leader of the Russian championship (2:1), and the second, being the last remaining first league team in the tournament, defeated Rubin Kazan at home (1:0).

The "RPL Path" has a two-match playoff format, and the first games were played at the semifinal stage. Zenit St. Petersburg beat Rostov away (1-0), and the CSKA Moscow —Dynamo derby ended with a 2-1 victory for the Army team.

"The Path of the Regions"

Akron — Spartak

Once again, the intrigue of the match was the confrontation between Akron striker Artem Dzyuba and Spartak, from where he left 10 years ago with a scandal. But Artyom started the match against Spartak from the bench. However, Akron head coach Zaur Tedeev rotated not only his leader, releasing a largely reserve squad at the start. At the same time, Spartak coach Deyan Stankovich involved a lot of foundation players.

The difference in class quickly affected the beginning of the game — by the 20th minute, goals from Christopher Martins and Theo Bongonda allowed the red and white to lead 2-0. In the 58th minute, Sherzod Esanov reduced the gap between the hosts from the penalty spot, but Martins immediately made a double and restored the advantage of Spartak by two goals.

Soon, Dzyuba finally came on as a substitute. And nine minutes later, he scored a goal against his former team. However, he and his team did not have enough for more — Spartak retained a minimal victory.

—Spartak deserved to win, they had the advantage in terms of play and performers," Alexander Mostovoy, a former red and white midfielder, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — Maybe the visitors relaxed in the second half, so Akron scored two goals. Plus, Dzyuba's class took its toll. But in general, Spartak controlled the game. He is playing very high—quality football now - even in the lost match with Rubin (1:2) he had an advantage in the championship, but Kazan, who did not get out of defense, were lucky to fight back. And in the match against Akron, Dzyuba also came out very late. It is not known what would have happened if he had been there from the very first minutes. Perhaps it would have been more difficult for Spartak, but in general it is now too strong for anyone to stop it.

Krasnodar — Akhmat

Krasnodar, which is leading in the championship, has almost completely released the main squad for the cup match. Akhmat, which gained momentum in March, held a rotation for this meeting. And at first it took its toll — the Bulls had the advantage for almost a half and a half. They could have opened the scoring before the break, but John Cordoba missed the penalty.

However, shortly after leaving the locker room, he scored from the game. Nevertheless, the outcome of the meeting was decided by the substitutions made by Akhmat head coach Sergey Tashuev in the middle of the second half.

He released two Balkans players who had not played since August due to serious injuries - Serbian midfielder Miroslav Bogosavac and striker Bernard Berisha from Kosovo. The latter quickly equalized the score from the game, and then converted a penalty for a foul by Cordoba, thereby knocking out Krasnodar. The Grozny men are moving on.

— Of course, Krasnodar's departure is very unexpected, — Maxim Demenko, a former Bulls midfielder, told Izvestia. — But we must pay tribute to Akhmat, how he fought, how physically the team prepared in the winter. Plus, Tashuev chose the tactics for the match correctly and made the necessary substitutions on time. And Krasnodar, like other RPL leaders, are still unstable in March. The Grozny residents took advantage of this.

Dynamo (Makhachkala) — Lokomotiv

The Dagestani club did not enter the field with the main squad, whereas the Loko squad was combative from the first minutes. Only Anton Mitryushkin turned out to be in the goal instead of Ilya Lantratov. Even the start of the inexperienced Danila Godyaev was not something unexpected - the 20—year-old football player was already in the starting lineup on February 28 during the previous trip to Makhachkala in the championship (1:1).

And the young Alexei Batrakov, who became the main discovery of the first part of the season, led Loko onto the field as captain for the first time in his career. In the first half, it seemed that the teams were playing equally, because the reserves of Dynamo Makhachkala resisted so well.

In the 13th minute, the visitors opened the scoring thanks to Maxim Nenakhov's goal, but 10 minutes later Mohamed Azzi equalized. However, immediately after the break, the Dagestani club was severely affected by the removal of Soslan Kagermazov for rudeness. Soon, Sergei Pinyaev scored the winning goal with a shot from an acute angle. The Makhachkala team even tried to attack in the minority and even had a chance to even the score, but in the end they were eliminated from the Cup.

"The match turned out to be a very stubborn one — a real cup match," Nikolai Naumov, former president of Lokomotiv, said in a conversation with Izvestia. — The Makhachkala club managed to impose a fight on the opponent and resisted well, but the removal solved a lot. Due to better performers, Loko won in the end, but the team's game is still nondescript. And if this is not fixed, then there will be big problems that have already led to two draws in the championship.

Ural — Rubin

Back in November, the Yekaterinburg club remained the last team from the lower leagues to continue playing in the Russian Cup. However, Ural has retained a lot of strong players who played for the club in the RPL since last season. The Ural team's departure from the Premier League itself following the results of the transition matches with Akron." (0:2; 2:1) it seemed like an accident.

Now the club is trying to rectify the situation and return to the elite. However, so far he is only in fifth place in the first league, not even entering the zone of transitional matches. Ural is separated from it by two points, and from the second place, which gives the right to direct entry into the RPL, by six points.

Nevertheless, Yekaterinburg residents took the Cup seriously. They met with Rubin, which is in eighth place in the RPL, firmly entrenched in the middle of the table. Over the weekend, he scored a 2-1 home league victory over Spartak, ending a seven-match winning streak by the red-and-Whites. Kazan released a lot of players from the main squad, but Ural resisted them and won due to Timur Ayupov's goal before the break.

"We can only thank the guys for their dedication and desire to win,— Ural President Grigory Ivanov told Izvestia. — Great match, great fight. Well done guys. We strive to play for victory in all tournaments, both in the league and in the Cup. Yes, the main task is to return to the RPL. But we also want to go as far as possible in the Cup.

"The RPL Way"

Rostov — Zenit

Rostov residents have released quite a fighting squad for the cup match. A number of the main players — Mohammad Mohebi, Maxim Osipenko and Ronaldo — came out from the first minutes. However, other players, who usually start championship matches on the bench, have good experience of playing at the RPL level.

Zenit also did not come out fully as a base, but its reserve could compete for high places in the RPL. At the same time, the head coach of the team, Sergei Semak, also released a number of key players — Luis Enrique, who missed the first spring championship match with CSKA due to injury (0-0), as well as defensive midfielder Wilmar Barrios, who did not play away with Fakel (2-0) over the weekend due to the threat of disqualification. for the next championship meeting with Spartak.

Alexander Sobolev was also at the core. In the second half, the main forwards Luciano Gondu and Matteo Cassierra came on as substitutes, as well as Alexander Erokhin, who always helps Zenit in the endings. As a result, with an equal game in the 79th minute, Cassierra was able to open the scoring and bring the Petersburgers a minimal victory in a difficult away game.

CSKA Moscow — Dynamo (Moscow)

Back at the weekend, CSKA head coach Marko Nikolic did not release all the main players in the championship match against Khimki (1-0), as if he was saving them for the cup derby. Dynamo released a lot of basic players, including goalkeeper Andrei Lunev, who returned from injury. At the same time, there were two young players at the start — Egor Smelov, who was already out from the first minutes in the championship against Dynamo Makhachkala (4-0), as well as 18-year-old Dmitry Alexandrov.

The first half ended in a goalless draw with a slight advantage of CSKA. And at the beginning of the second, Sekou Koita opened the scoring with a great long-range shot. However, very soon Dmitry Skopintsev's equally spectacular strike allowed Dynamo to equalize. However, the blue and white team was immediately let down by El-Mehdi Mauhub, who received a red card for attacking Army goalkeeper Vladislav Torop.

And immediately the red and blue took advantage of the numerical advantage. Kirill Glebov, who came on as a substitute a minute earlier, gave an assist to Matvey Kislyak. After that, the account has not changed.

The return matches of the RPL Path semifinals will be held on April 15-17. Two meetings of the first stage of the "Paths of the Regions" semi-final will take place on the same dates. Both will be played in Moscow: Spartak will host Ural, and Lokomotiv will face Akhmat.