Spartak's standoff: how the red and white lost their chance at the championship

Following the results of the 27th round of the Russian championship, the players of Spartak Moscow lost even their mathematical chances of winning the tournament. An away draw with the outsider of the competition Voronezh Fakel (0:0) led to a 10-point gap from the leading Krasnodar, who won at home against Rubin Kazan (2:1) and increased their chances of gold, maintaining a four-point gap from Zenit St. Petersburg. who won a strong-willed victory over Pari Nizhny Novgorod (2:1). Meanwhile, Dynamo Moscow will finish this tour on May 5 by playing their first match away from Krylia Sovetov Samara after the resignation of head coach Marcel Lichka.

The Championship race

Spartak Moscow lost points in the away match against the last Voronezh Fakel. The red-whites were already outnumbered in the middle of the first half after Ruslan Litvinov was sent off for a foul of the last hope. After that, they created little in front, and the hosts almost scored in the end, but Daniil Khlusevich managed to save his team by pulling the ball out of an empty net.

The match ended in a draw, and Spartak lost even a formal chance to catch up with Krasnodar — it is impossible to win back the 10-point gap from the leader over the remaining three rounds. Deyan Stankovich's team also made it difficult for themselves to compete for medals. Zenit is already six points behind the second-placed team.

— According to the game, you can be happy for Spartak that they took away a draw from Voronezh at all, — Andrey Chervichenko, the former owner of the red and white, told Izvestia. Fakel was closer to victory and did not realize its chances only because of a lack of offensive skill. This is not surprising for a club whose annual budget is less than Spartak's total spending on transfers over the past year. To be honest, it was not clear which of these two teams had spent about €50 million in the last two transfer windows, and who was completing on a residual basis, looking for an extra penny for survival. So it's natural that Spartak lost its chance to win the championship. Even a month and a half ago, when he was next to the first place, it seemed that all this was more due to emotions and farce, but not some kind of integral game. This was further confirmed in practice. And now there is no certainty that Spartak will take at least some kind of medal.

In November, Rubin achieved a 1-1 home draw with Krasnodar and broke the Bulls' 11-match winning streak. Last weekend, the Kazan club did everything to ruin the leader's life once again and complicate the fight for gold. However, at first everything went according to the scenario of Murad Musaev's wards. Already in the 2nd minute, they got the right to a penalty, which was confidently converted by Eduard Spertsyan.

Already at the end of the first quarter of the hour, Krasnodar almost remained in the minority when Vitor Tormen stopped the ball with his hand when Mirlinda Dacu tried to break through to the opponent's goal. Chief referee Kirill Levnikov immediately gave the home team's defender a yellow card, but then, under the influence of the referee on VAR Sergey Ivanov, he went to watch the replay for a possible foul of last resort, as the Albanian striker could go one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

But it was decided that due to the movement of the Rubin player towards the edge, and not the goal, it could not be considered a foul of last resort, so there was no red card. Before the break, there was also a shot at the Kazan goal post by John Cordoba, and several good attempts by the visitors to equalize. But in the end, Krasnodar doubled its advantage at the end of the first half after a free kick from Spertsyan Tormen.

In the second half, Rubin seriously increased the tempo and created a lot of chances to score goals. He hardly let the opponent out of his half of the field. Several times, Krasnodar goalkeeper Stanislav Agkatsev had to save his team from scoring with great difficulty. Kazan, who were already stuck in the middle of the table and had no tournament motivation, tried their best to take points away from the leader.

As a result, they managed to score only once at the end of the meeting — in the 83rd minute, after a beautiful combination, Ilya Rozhkov sent the ball into the goal. But then Krasnodar calmly calmed down the game and brought it to victory.

Zenit played their match the next day. And he was on the verge of personally presenting the championship cup to Krasnodar. In a home game against the extremely poorly performing Pari Nizhny Novgorod, the reigning champion quickly missed his own goal — Vyacheslav Grulev opened the scoring. Throughout the first half, the visitors created chances to equalize, but did not realize them.

Alexander Sobolev was particularly unlucky, but after the break, in the 54th minute, he still scored. He was assisted by Wendell, who soon left the field due to injury and was replaced by Andrei Mostovoy. But this did not prevent Sobolev from making a double towards the end of the game, in the 83rd minute, and bringing victory to Zenit, which continues to chase Krasnodar.

Personal dismissal

The Czech specialist has been working in Russia for almost five years. He started his career in our country back in the first league, when he took over Orenburg in 2020. In the first season, under the leadership of Lichka, the team achieved entry into the RPL on a sporting basis, but was not allowed to participate in the elite division due to infrastructure inconsistencies. But in May 2022, nothing prevented a class upgrade.

Orenburg took the third place in the first league, and then won a ticket to the RPL following the results of the transition matches against Ufa." (2:2; 2:1). In his debut season in the Premier League, Lichka showed a high class, taking seventh place with the club - a repeat of the best result in history, which was achieved under Vladimir Fedotov in 2019.

In addition, a number of talented football players were revealed under the Czech Republic — Lucas Vera, Brian Mansinha, Dmitry Vorobyov, Vladimir Pisarsky, Alexander Ektov. For some, Orenburg has become a springboard to top clubs in person - Vorobyov has been playing for Moscow's Lokomotiv since then, and Ektov left for Krasnodar after that season. For someone like Pisarsky (then playing under the name Sycheva), six months in the RPL as part of Orenburg were the best of his career - he led the goalscoring race for a long time.

Lichka's own work did not go unnoticed — in the summer of 2023, he was invited to Dynamo Moscow to solve more serious problems. And in the very first season, he managed to finish in third place, which is exactly the goal set by the management. At the same time, the team almost won the first championship since 1976. In May 2024, it was enough for the blue and white to win gold in the last round to play a draw with Krasnodar. But Dynamo lost 0:1.

This was the main disappointment in their recent history. And Lichka turned out to be the one who was the closest of all Dynamo coaches in half a century to the opportunity to bring the club back to the top. The second season turned out to be extremely unstable for the team. Due to fluctuations in the game and results, even before the winter break, there were rumors in football circles about the dissatisfaction of the management with the head coach and his possible resignation if the team did not finish in the top three in the championship.

Another opportunity to keep himself at the head of Dynamo for Lichka was to win the Russian Cup. But last week, the blue and white team crashed out of the tournament, losing to Spartak in the second stage of the Path of the Regions semi-final. This was followed by Marcel's resignation. Roland Gusev, who helped the Czech, was appointed acting head coach until the end of the season. On Monday, Samara will host an away match against Krylia Sovetov, the first after the change of coach. This game will close the 27th round.

— Formally, you can find the reasons for his resignation in the results, after all, the task for the season has not been completed - relegation from the Cup, the results in the championship are also not very good, — Dmitry Bulykin, a former Dynamo Moscow striker, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — But I would like to understand why the decision has been made now. And to hear an explanation of the results from the athletic director of the club Zeljko Buvac, who has been working for many years with all the changes of coaches. It's strange that only the personal account turned out to be the last one. But I think he won't have any problems finding a club — he worked well at Dynamo, spent his first season with the team brilliantly, almost winning the championship. I'm sure there will be a demand for him from the RPL clubs.

The fight for medals

As a result of Spartak's misfire in Voronezh, CSKA Moscow became the favorite in the fight for the bronze medals. However, he had a difficult trip to the Grozny Akhmat, which is fighting for survival, but almost does not lose this spring.

The Army team quickly took the lead thanks to a goal by Seydou Koity. But in the middle of the first half, Maxim Samorodov equalized. In the first half of the second half, Akhmat had an overwhelming advantage. The Grozny team had several excellent opportunities to score against CSKA, but the visitors fought back. And after a series of substitutions, they began to control the game in the end, but also failed to realize their moments. The final score is 1:1.

CSKA remains third, but only one point ahead of Spartak. At the same time, the Army team is nine points behind the first place and has almost lost the chance to win the championship. Krasnodar needs to score only one point in the remaining three rounds to cut off the red and blue from the gold. At the same time, the Bulls will visit them in the next round.

Moscow's Lokomotiv has almost lost its chance of winning medals. Last weekend, he drew at home with Orenburg (1-1) and continues to remain in sixth place. The gap from the third is six points. Dynamo Moscow's medal prospects will depend on the match with Krylia. So far, the fifth-placed blue and white are five points behind the third line, but they have one game left.

—CSKA looks like the favorite in this bronze medal race, although its calendar is not easy at the finish," Nikolai Naumov, former president of Lokomotiv, told Izvestia. — But considering how his competitors misfire, I'm inclined to believe that it will be the army men who will become the third. Dynamo only has a chance to take the medal away from them if the change of coach gives a tangible shake-up.

The struggle for survival

Orenburg and Fakel, who are in the direct relegation zone, achieved draws with the Moscow top clubs, but this did not help them much. Orenburg is five points behind the transition zone, and Fakel is seven points behind. They can officially be relegated to the first league in the next round. A tougher fight is underway for the 12th place, which makes it possible to keep a residence permit in the RPL for the next season without transitional matches.

For now, it is occupied by Khimki. After the defeat of Pari Nizhny Novgorod and the draw of Akhmat, the Moscow Region club could increase the gap from these inhabitants of the joint zone. He led the score in the home game against Rostov. Lucas Vera did not score a penalty at first, and then in the 70th minute from the game he managed to hit the visitors' goal. But at the end of regular time, in the 89th minute, Maxim Osipenko equalized with a free kick. After this 1-1 draw, Khimki is one point ahead of Akhmat and two ahead of Paris NN.

In another match of the tour, Akron Togliatti won 1-0 at home against Dynamo Makhachkala due to Artem Dzyuba's goal and almost avoided transitional matches. The Dagestani club is only three points ahead of the joint zone.