Immersed in the derby: The RPL tour turned out to be rich in two bright Moscow matches

The last 11th round of the Russian championship was marked by two Moscow derbies, and the entertainment of both matches corresponded to their status. CSKA beat Spartak (3:2) and retained the lead in the RPL. His main pursuer, Lokomotiv, managed to get the better of Dynamo (5:3). And the third reigning champion Krasnodar scored a very difficult home victory over Akhmat Grozny (2:0), which lost in the championship for the first time after Stanislav Cherchesov returned to the club. The main sensation was the misfire of Zenit St. Petersburg in the away game against Akron Togliatti (1:1).

CSKA Moscow – Spartak

Since Spartak was only three rounds behind the leading CSKA before this round, according to the results of the derby, it could reach the first place. And this was extremely important for the club, where even after two home victories over Samara Krylia Sovetov (2:1) and Pari Nizhny Novgorod (3:0), the positions of head coach Deyan Stankovich did not seem unshakable. On September 19, the RFU KDK (the Control and Disciplinary Council of the Russian Football Union) suspended him for one month for insulting the referees after the match with Dynamo Moscow (2:2).

The derby with CSKA was the penultimate match that the Serbian specialist watched from the stands, and not from the coaching bench, because of this disqualification. Nevertheless, the previous three meetings without him — two in the championship and an away game in the Russian Cup with Pari Nizhny Novgorod (2:1) — ended with a victory for Spartak. Therefore, it seemed that the absence of a head coach prone to emotional breakdowns even had a positive effect on the team.

But this theory didn't work in the match against CSKA. By the 20th minute, the Army had beaten the red-whites 3-0. Kirill Glebov, Ivan Oblyakov from the penalty spot and Danil Krugovoy scored the goals. Pretty quickly, Jedson Fernandes scored one goal. And at the beginning of the second half, Levi Garcia reduced Spartak's gap to a minimum. After the second goal of the red-whites, the Army team had another problem: goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev had to leave the field due to an injury.

CSKA will be the first so far: the army team became the leaders of the Russian championship

In the next round, the red and blue will play with Spartak Moscow, from which they are separated by three points.

Vladislav Torop, who replaced him, made only one mistake in the remaining 40 minutes, after which Manfred Ugalde hit an empty goal, but Milan Gajic took the ball off the ribbon. Otherwise, Spartak created almost nothing, and at the very end of the meeting, CSKA confidently held the game in the opponent's half of the field, eventually bringing the match to victory. The red and blue retain the lead, while Spartak dropped to sixth place and are six points behind the first.

"It's very good that we managed to realize our chances at the beginning of the match and lead with a good score," CSKA defender Danil Krugovoy shared his opinion with Izvestia. — Yes, it wasn't easy in the second half, but we defended well and did the most important thing — we won. I think we are deservedly leading the league. And the victory in the derby over Spartak is a good bid for the championship. But we are not paying attention to the table right now. The main thing is to keep winning and playing the way we played in the first 15 minutes of the match against Spartak.

Dynamo – Lokomotiv

Sunday's derby between CSKA and Spartak could not surpass Saturday's derby between Dynamo and Lokomotiv. Expectations from this meeting began to be fulfilled already on the 35th second of the meeting, when Danil Prutsev opened the scoring. After that, Dynamo had the advantage and a good chance to equalize, but the goalkeeper of the Railwaymen, Anton Mitryushkin, made crazy saves, hitting the ball after shots from literally a meter away.

So he almost saved the team after Ivan Sergeev's shot in the 23rd minute, but the ball still crossed the goal line. Four minutes later, Bitello put Dynamo ahead, and this seemed to be a natural result of the advantage of Valery Karpin's wards. Nevertheless, closer to the break, Loko got the right to a penalty, from which Alexey Batrakov equalized the score.

In the middle of the second half, he successfully scored from a corner on Nikolay Komlichenko, who again brought the red-greens ahead. And in the 81st minute, Dynamo missed Dmitry Vorobyov, he went one-on-one with Andrei Lunev from the central circle and scored his team's fourth goal. It seemed that the intrigue had died, but pretty soon Lokomotiv brought in their penalty kick, realized by Maxim Osipenko.

"I'll rate the start of the Baltika season at five with a minus"

Ravil Izmailov, CEO of the Kaliningrad club, spoke about the team's results in the first ten rounds of the Russian Premier League, its position in the leading group and the inclusion of players in the expanded list of the Russian national team.

Nevertheless, Mikhail Galaktionov's team had the last word: in stoppage time, Alexander Rudenko scored the fifth goal against Dynamo and gave Loko the opportunity to finish the match without unnecessary hassle, retaining second place one point behind CSKA. The Railwaymen still haven't lost a single match in the current league. Dynamo is stuck in the middle of the table — eighth place and nine points from first.

"Apparently, both we and the opponent were good at attacking,— Lokomotiv defender Egor Pogostnov said in a conversation with Izvestia. — As a defender, I would like to see fewer such games. We need to be more focused on defense and avoid so many chances. But the main thing is that we won. We are preparing for the next matches.

Krasnodar – Akhmat

Krasnodar was in the lead back in September, confirming its status as the reigning champion. But a home defeat against Zenit (0:2) and an away draw with Rostov (0:0) knocked the Bulls off the top. The problems could have continued in the match with Akhmat, which had not lost seven consecutive matches in the championship by the time of this meeting, that is, not once since the summer appointment of Stanislav Cherchesov as head coach.

The Grozny club started the match well, immediately trying to play the first number. In the first ten minutes, he dominated the field and almost did not let Krasnodar out of his penalty area. But he couldn't materialize this advantage in goal. And he was immediately punished for this when, in the 15th minute, John Cordoba opened the scoring with a great shot from outside the penalty area.

Soon Georgy Melkadze had a great chance to equalize. In the 25th minute, after a shot into the Krasnodar penalty area, he beat the home goalkeeper Stanislav Agkatsev and shot from the goalie's line into an empty net, but Vitor Tormen, at the cost of injury and his early substitution, turned the ball into the post.

Diego Costa immediately increased the advantage of the hosts. And before the break, Melkadze had another chance to score and bring back the intrigue in the match, but did not convert a penalty. In the second half, Krasnodar confidently brought the meeting to victory. However, the ending was marred by a scandal. Akhmat player Usman Ndong earned a penalty by waving his hand in the direction of Eduard Spertsyan, who started a conversation in raised tones. After the game, representatives of Grozny accused the Krasnodar football player of racist chants against their African legionnaire.

"This is the skill of teams and players, when some realize their moments and win, while others fail to do so," Sergei Tashuev, former head coach of Krasnodar and Akhmat, told Izvestia. — At the same time, I think that the match turned out to be equal in structure. Both opponents tried to play a positional attack, and to respond with attack to attack, that is, to dominate the field. And this is even evident from the statistics of the meeting — possession of the ball is 50-50, the number of shots on goal and even the number of fouls is about the same. In general, everything turned out so that Akhmat could win a draw, but it is the game in the penalty area and the implementation that is the main thing in football. Krasnodar realized their chances, Akhmat did not.

"We can beat everyone"

Football player of Baltika Maxim Petrov — about the sensational start of the team in the RPL, the first defeat in the championship and his club partners in the expanded list of the national team

Akron – Zenit

It seemed that the St. Petersburg club should win easily, as it began to gain momentum in the last rounds. He especially looked like a favorite against Akron, which has not won the championship since the second round and is stuck near the relegation zone. At first, the game developed according to a pre-predicted scenario: in the first 15 minutes Zenit had a total advantage and took the lead thanks to Pedro's goal.

But after that, the blue-white-blues seriously decreased their activity and seemed to stop playing. As a result, even before the break, the ball from Edgar Sevikyan's foot ended up in the visitors' goal. And in the second half, the Tolyatti team played quite confidently on the defensive. And we were close to winning in the end, but Artyom Dzyuba missed a penalty.

Four more matches also took place in the last round. Rostov snatched an away victory over Orenburg (1-0) in the end, which fired its head coach Vladimir Slishkovich after the game. Sochi, the outsider of the Russian Premier League, won the first victory in this championship, defeating the penultimate Pari Nizhny Novgorod at home (2:1). Kaliningrad "Baltika" won at home against Makhachkala "Dynamo" (2:0). Kazan "Rubin" prevailed on its own field over Samara "Wings of the Soviets" (2:0). The championship goes on a two-week break related to the national team games.