Bulls' rebound: Zenit has reduced the gap from Krasnodar in the RPL

The match of the 24th round of the Russian Football Championship between Zenit St. Petersburg and Krasnodar justified the status of the main fight of the spring. The club from the Northern Capital won 4-1 and reduced the gap from the leading Krasnodar to two points. In addition, Zenit took advantage of the misfire of Spartak Moscow, which sensationally lost at home to Dynamo Makhachkala (1:2). Now the red and white are three points behind the St. Petersburg club, which took sole second place. They also allowed CSKA Moscow to catch up with them, who equaled Spartak on points. Meanwhile, Dynamo and Lokomotiv Moscow almost lost their chances of winning medals due to their misfires.

Zenit – Krasnodar

Both teams approached the game knowing about Spartak's misfire. The winner significantly strengthened his position in the race for gold. The match took place on Sunday evening, and by Saturday afternoon all 55,000 tickets had been sold. The full house at the Gazprom Arena really took place — the stands were packed to capacity. As a result, taking into account the season ticket holders, according to official data, it turned out that more than 57 thousand people attended the match.

Already in the first half, the teams met the expectations of the audience. In the 16th minute, Krasnodar opened the scoring when John Cordoba broke through on the right flank, passed into the center of Zenit's penalty area, and Nikita Krivtsov sent the ball into the far corner of Evgeny Latyshon's goal. However, within the next 22 minutes, the hosts turned the game 180 degrees.

First, Maxim Glushenkov fired a powerful shot from outside the penalty area into the bottom corner - Stanislav Agkatsev hit the ball, but directly at Andrei Mostovoy, who hit the visitors' goal. And then he successfully shot from the flank to the goalkeeper's line, from which Luciano Gondu shot the opponent's goal and brought Zenit forward.

After the break, the game was going at a high pace, but with almost no chances. Only in the 75th minute, after a mistake by a Krasnodar player in the center of the field, Glushenkov went one-on-one with Agkatsev from the left flank, but shot from a sharp angle at the Bulls goalkeeper. But five minutes later, Glushenkov managed to score and bury the intrigue in the match. And at the very end of the meeting, Luis Enrique brought the matter to a rout with the transfer of Alexander Sobolev, who replaced Alexander Sobolev. Zenit reduces the gap from Krasnodar to two points and, thanks to a big score, gained the advantage of face-to-face meetings over the Bulls, who won their first game at home in the fall. Now, in case of a tie at the finish, Sergei Semak's team will be higher than Krasnodar in the table. In addition, at the end of the tour, they broke away by three points from Spartak and CSKA.

"We played a very good match and deserved to win,— Zenit defender Strahina Erakovich shared his opinion with Izvestia. — I am glad that we were able to improve at the right moment and realized our chances. Krasnodar is a very good team. She's deservedly in the lead right now. But we have shown that we can fight with him for this leadership. Now the main thing is to win all the remaining matches, and then the chances of winning the championship will be very good.

Spartak – Dynamo (Makhachkala)

From the first minutes of the match, the Dagestani team began to crush Spartak with pressure and impose a fight on all parts of the field. Nevertheless, the stands of the red-and-white home arena were shocked when Dynamo quickly led 2-0. First, after a corner kick, Daniil Denisov cut the ball into his own net. And then Hussem Mrezig doubled the advantage of the guests.

They could have scored before the break and brought it to a rout. And Spartak almost did not reach the penalty area of Makhachkala until the 35th minute. At the end of the first half, the hosts began to at least hit the goal, but without much danger. This period can be called the worst for the team this season, not only in terms of the score, but also in terms of the game. Spartak head coach Deyan Stankovich had to make substitutions during the first half.

The top scorer of the championship, Manfred Ugalde, also had to be replaced due to injury - Levi Garcia came out instead. And defender Oleg Ryabchuk was replaced by attacking midfielder Pablo Solari for playing and tactical reasons. Roman Zobnin replaced Denisov during the break.

Spartak was able to improve in the second half. He became more in possession of the ball, but for a long time Dynamo defended confidently. However, the very first dangerous moment at Timur Magomedov's goal turned into a goal — in the 68th minute, Teo Bongonda reduced the gap in the score. The red and white began to press the residents of Makhachkala more and more to the gates and create more danger.

The guests were already defending themselves by force. Towards the end of the match, their head coach Hasanbi Bijiyev made a number of substitutions to refresh his team's game. In particular, he released defender Ilya Kirsch on the field. A minute earlier, Jesus Medina replaced Bongonda at Spartak.

These substitutions will play a role in the ending. In the 84th minute, as a result of another Spartak attack, Kirsch played with his hand in his penalty area. After watching the VAR, referee Vitaly Meshkov awarded a penalty. But Medina punched it into the crossbar. Many were surprised that he went to shoot, since Ezequiel Barco is considered the regular penalty taker of the team in the absence of the replaced Bongonda. At a press conference, Stankovic confirmed that it wasn't Medina who should have hit.

And Spartak almost equalized at the very end of the match when Magomedov saved after a shot from the goalkeeper's line performed by Christopher Martins, and the subsequent finishing from Zobnin was successfully blocked by Valentin Fingers.

Dynamo (Makhachkala) won the third match in the last four rounds and moved up to tenth place, four points clear of the transition zone and 12 points clear of the relegation zone. Because of this situation, Spartak has made it much more difficult for itself to fight for gold and, moreover, now it risks falling out of the top three, allowing CSKA to catch up.

"I think our performance was very good in the first half," Shamil Gazizov, General Director of Dynamo Makhachkala, told Izvestia. — In the second half, Spartak showed who he really is. And it was very hard for us. But I'm grateful to the guys for standing through it and winning. I think that overall, we deserved this victory with our performance and dedication.

Pari Nizhny Novgorod – Dynamo (Moscow)

After four consecutive defeats, Pari Nizhny Novgorod began to seem like the main candidate for direct relegation. And although the gap between Fakel Voronezh and Orenburg, which occupy the last two places, is still quite good, the difficult calendar at the end of the season and the general condition of Viktor Goncharenko's team do not give reason for great optimism.

Nevertheless, Nizhny Novgorod managed to gather for the match with Dynamo Moscow. They resisted for most of the match and even took the lead in the middle of the second half as a result of Alexander Troshechkin's goal. However, Yaroslav Gladyshev quickly equalized the score. But at the end of the game, Paris NN had a chance to snatch victory by getting the right to a penalty, which was executed by Thiago Vecino, but the shot was deflected by Andrei Lunev.

Paris NN remains in 14th place with a five-point advantage over Fakel and a six-point advantage over Orenburg. Dynamo Moscow remains on the fifth line and misses the chance to get close to the top three, which is four points behind.

"We don't have any panic — we are confident that the guys understand the current situation, which they themselves allowed," David Melik—Huseynov, General Director of Pari NN, told Izvestia. — They have a desire to correct this story. And the match with Dynamo showed that they are willing and able to correct the situation in which we found ourselves after four defeats. Yes, it's a shame that we missed the victory over Dynamo, we didn't score a penalty, but there is optimism and hope that we will cope with all the difficulties.

Orenburg – CSKA

CSKA is having a very strong spring. He started it with an away draw with Zenit, and was rather closer to victory. And then he won five matches in a row, including the last one against Orenburg. Although this team is in last place, visiting it did not promise an easy walk for the army men.

Orenburg residents have also improved after the winter break and no longer look like a hopeless outsider. This was confirmed by the first half of the match against CSKA, when Orenburg had a serious advantage. But after the break, the red and blue made a positive result for themselves. Ivan Oblyakov managed to open an account. And at the end of the game, Sekou Koita doubled the advantage of the guests, who tied on points with Spartak, which closes the top three.

Four more matches also took place in the last 24th round. Akhmat Grozny beat Rostov at home and came close to getting out of the transition zone. The Chechen club has not lost in the championship for eight matches in a row. Rubin Kazan won 1-0 at home against Lokomotiv Moscow, which was stuck in sixth place and already six points behind third. In the last nine league matches, the Railwaymen have only one victory. Tolyatti Akron defeated Voronezh Fakel on their own field (1:0). Khimki lost at home to Samara Wings of the Soviets (1:3).