Trud Batrakov: how a young midfielder helped Loko win against Spartak

The last fourth round of the Russian Football Championship turned out to be rich in exciting matches. Alexey Batrakov's hat-trick helped Lokomotiv win the Moscow derby against Spartak (4:2) and maintain their lead in the tournament. Akhmat Grozny defeated Zenit St. Petersburg with a score of 1 in the opening match under the leadership of Stanislav Cherchesov.:0. Unexpectedly, CSKA Moscow won big at home against the strong Kazan "Rubin" (5:1).

Lokomotiv — Spartak

After the third round, Lokomotiv remained the last RPL club that did not lose a single point in the current championship. Moreover, among the three initial successes were victories not only over outsiders Sochi (3:0) and Pari Nizhny Novgorod (3:2), but also over the reigning champion Krasnodar (2:0) away.

Now the "railwaymen" had to meet with the crisis Spartak. The Red and white scored only four points in the first three rounds with a very light calendar. After a minimal home victory over Dynamo Makhachkala (1-0), they defeated Kaliningrad Baltic (0-3) at home, and then missed out on a 1-1 victory over Tolyatti Akron.

After that, rumors began to spread about the possible resignation of Deyan Stankovich, the head coach of Spartak. In particular, Sport-Express reported that the Serbian specialist has been given until the September break for the national team games, when seven rounds will be held in the RPL. The derby with Loko aggravated the situation of the Spartak mentor.

In the 18th minute, Batrakov opened the scoring, but eight minutes later Christopher Martins equalized. Immediately after the break, Dmitry Vorobyov led the red-green team again. Loko held the advantage in the score for almost half an hour, but still scored a penalty in the 78th minute, converted by Ezequiel Barco. A minute later, the farmhands scored again. Closer to the final whistle, he scored a hat-trick and brought the final victory to Lokomotiv.

Mikhail Galaktionov's team remains the leaders, while clouds are gathering over Stankovich at Spartak. He has a home match with Zenit ahead of him, and then a trip to Rubin.

—Lokomotiv has won a well—deserved bright victory," Nikolai Naumov, former president of Railwaymen, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — Galaktionov's team worked well together in all lines, and due to individual mistakes, they conceded two goals — from the game and from the penalty spot. But in general, the game was much better than Spartak, which had chaos in defense and the middle line, and goalkeeper Alexander Maksimenko also began to make mistakes. It seems that improvements under Stankovich are no longer expected. And Loko is great — I haven't seen such a balanced game for a long time. The whole team played great, and Batrakov had a phenomenal match.

Akhmat — Zenit

In the middle of the week, the Grozny club fired head coach Alexander Storozhuk, who had not worked at the head of Akhmat for more than two months. Under him, all three opening matches in the championship were lost. He was replaced by Stanislav Cherchesov. The former head coach of the Russian national team returned to the RPL after a break of ten years. In the summer of 2015, he was fired from Dynamo Moscow and has not worked in our championship since.

During this period, the 61-year–old specialist managed to win the Polish championship and Cup with Legia Warsaw, win similar trophies in Hungary with Ferencvaros Budapest, and lead the Russian national team to the quarterfinals of the 2018 home World Cup. Cherchesov was out of work for just over six months — in February he left the national team of Kazakhstan.

This is not the first time Stanislav Salamovich has led a club from Grozny. In 2011-2013, he successfully collaborated with Terek (formerly Akhmata). Then he managed to take the eighth place with the Chechen team — at that time its best result in the RPL. It was under Cherchesov that the Grozny team established themselves as a strong middleweight in our championship, capable of fighting on equal terms with any opponent.

The second coming to Grozny had to start with a home game with Zenit, one of the favorites of the championship. Having lost gold in the spring for the first time in seven years, Sergey Semak's team did not start the new RPL draw very well. They narrowly won at home against Rostov (2:1), missed a 2-2 away victory over Rubin, and then drew on their own field with CSKA (1:1).

Their visit to Grozny also ended in failure. In the 30th minute, after Miroslav Bogosavac's shot, Vanja Drkusic cut the ball into his own net. In the remaining hour or so of the game, Zenit did not find anything to answer. Now, with five points, he is in the middle of the table in eighth place next to Dynamo Moscow and Spartak. Akhmat scored the first points in this championship.

— Zenit's problems have been obvious for years — they were noticeable the season before last, when the St. Petersburg team barely won the championship, and when it lost the race for gold to Krasnodar last season, all the difficulties in the game became visible to the naked eye, — said the former striker of the national team in a conversation with Izvestia. Dmitry Bulykin of Russia. — And all this has spilled over into the new season. Which makes it harder to play against any organized opponent. This is exactly how Akhmat appeared in the first match under Cherchesov. His success was quite unexpected, but it was clear that the team would improve under Stanislav Salamovich. At least from the point of view of emotion and dedication, this should have happened, because Cherchesov is very good as a motivator. And so it turned out. And this led to victory. I am sure that Akhmat will improve further in the game plan.

CSKA Moscow — Rubin

Rubin is in its third season after returning from the first league. All this time, Rashid Rakhimov has been working as the head coach of the team, with whom the Kazan team plays extremely organized, especially being reliable in defense. It was expected that she would create problems for CSKA.

But already in the 8th minute, the Army team opened the scoring - Kirill Glebov scored from Danil Krugovoy's pass. And in the middle of the first half, thanks to goals from Krugovoy and Igor Diveev, the hosts brought the matter to a rout. Mirlind Daku soon reduced Rubin's gap, but before the break Glebov scored a double and returned his team's three-goal advantage. In the second half, Tamerlan Musaev set the final score of the match — 5:1.

There were five more matches in the last round. Dynamo Moscow missed a 1-1 away victory over Sochi in the end, which scored the first point in this championship. After that, only Rostov and Pari Nizhny Novgorod remained with zero points, the meeting of which ended the tour. Rostov won 1-0, and Pari Nizhny Novgorod remained the last club without scoring a single point. Krasnodar won away from Orenburg (1-0). In two more matches, 1-1 draws were recorded — Dynamo Makhachkala with Akron Togliatti and Krylia Sovetov Samara with Baltika Kaliningrad.