Full set: four RPL teams went through two rounds without losses
The main favorites of the RPL season — Zenit, Spartak and Krasnodar — have won in the second round and are still going without losing points. However, if the current champions of Russia again achieved a crushing victory (this time Orenburg was unlucky), then Muscovites and Krasnodar suffered a lot in the matches with Akhmat and Fakel, respectively. The red and white completely snatched the victory in stoppage time after a mistake by the Grozny goalkeeper. Quite unexpectedly, Dynamo Makhachkala is in the top four, having also won two victories in this round — over the Moscow Lokomotiv, which is failing to start the championship.
Episodes of Wu
Already in the opening match, the Grozny team won the right to a penalty. The moment turned out to be curious: Alexander Maksimenko, while playing from the gate, gave a pass to Christopher Wu. And the defender decided to stop the ball with his hand — at that moment, referee Anton Frolov whistled and immediately awarded an 11-meter kick. The red and white began to argue furiously with the referee, as if they thought the ball was still rolling at the time of the transfer. Despite his objections, Frolov remained adamant. Akhmat took advantage of the gift from Spartak and took the lead — Egash Kasintura scored from the "point".
— Frolov made the right decision by punishing Spartak players with a penalty for playing Christopher Wu's hand. The referee assessed the actions of the goalkeeper of the red and white Alexander Maksimenko as a goal kick.: he kicked the ball, which had already stopped at the moment of contact. And the defender picked up the ball a moment later," said Alexander Bobrov, a Sports Express refereeing expert.
Wu later corrected himself and equalized shortly before the end of the first half. The decisive episode occurred in the 76th minute, when the hosts were left with ten after the removal of Kasintura, who elbowed Spartak player Roman Zobnin. The Muscovites managed to realize their numerical advantage: in the 90+1 minute, Ezequiel Barco's free-kick goal brought victory to the guests. It should be noted that goalkeeper Giorgi Shelia made a mistake at this point.
The Glushenkov Show
Zenit got off to a successful start in the new season, first defeating Spartak in the Super Bowl match, and giving Akron no chance in the first round. The St. Petersburg club is currently discussing the possible departure of Luis Enrique to Brazil, as Flamengo is rumored to be interested in him. But even without him, and without another participant in the World Cup, Douglas Santos, the blue-white-blues still look confident — Vega has gained a foothold on the left, and Glushenkov is showing himself well in Enrique's position.
It was Maxim who became the hero of the away match against Orenburg.
Already in the 6th minute, Sobolev, John John and Glushenkov played a three-way pass, and Maxim left no chance for the goalkeeper. It turned out beautifully, but at the same time it was so casual that the striker of the guests did not even celebrate. At the beginning of the second half of the meeting, it seemed that Zenit relaxed too early — Orenburg suddenly started pressing, possession improved, and even had chances. In one of them, Palacios won a horse fight and charged into the crossbar. But a minute later, Glushenkov cooled down the hosts' ardor — he received a pass from the penalty area, took aim and put the ball into the near nine with his left. Another spectacular goal by Maxim.
What followed was a matter of technique. In the 66th minute, John played a free kick in an original way, rolling Glushenkov to the second tempo, who cleverly opened up and scored a hat-trick. So Maxim, with three goals, broke out into first place in the goalscoring race, overtaking Daka and teammate Sobolev. After that, Orenburg gave up, and Glushenkov had a great chance in the last seconds to add an assist to the three goals, but Mostovoy could not adjust and score into an almost empty net. 3-0 — Zenit takes revenge for last season's defeat and prepares to host the rookie RPL Rodina at home in the next round.
Schwartz's bad start
If anyone had any expectations that Dynamo would fly forward after the return of Sandro Schwartz from the first rounds, they had to be postponed. In the opening match of the championship, the blue and white experienced huge problems with the Wings of the Soviets - they attacked and possessed the ball a lot in the first half hour, but at the end of the half they deflated, and after the break they completely stalled: they did not create a single moment and forced Lunev to become the hero of the match, who made several saves.
Now the test was even more powerful — a trip to Baltika, which, although it lost to CSKA in the first round, had a lot of nerves for the army. In the first half, the hosts looked preferable, but Bitello and Tyukavin did not realize their chances.
Such extravagance has cost the blue and white dearly. After the break, the hosts came out with the clear intention of sending the ball into the net — Dynamo literally fought off endless serves and throws into the penalty area, but in the 57th minute it faltered. Baltika took the corner, Murid sent it to the far post, and Gassama threw it to the opposite side, where Titkov was waiting for his chance all by himself. Excellent homemade preparation of Kaliningrad residents!
Dynamo refused to wake up even after the goal and soon almost missed again — Beveev aimed a sweeping shot at the far corner. Schwartz responded with a triple substitution, including Caceres, who was rested after playing at the World Cup. But a few minutes later, the Paraguayan carelessly played in the penalty area, stepping on Hill's foot, and scored a penalty. Referee Inal Tanashev went to watch the replay and confidently pointed to the point, and Gil easily increased Baltika's lead.
However, almost immediately Gomez brought the guests back into the game, closing the serve of Sergeyev, who entered the field. Dynamo scored heavily in the end and even scored again, but Tyukavin's goal was canceled due to offside. Baltika fought back and won the first victory of the season.
Schwartz's team, although it showed signs of life after the second missed goal, is still causing more skepticism and questions. Yes, the opponent is very organized, but still the fans of the blue and white clearly expected a different start.
Saving Agkatsev
How to replace Spercian? The answer to this question was given by the game in Kazan, in which Krivtsov, as expected, took over the role of the first violin in the middle line. But there was also such a nuance as standards. In their performance, the former captain of the Bulls simply had no equal in the RPL, but now it turns out that this gap can be eliminated by joint efforts.
Boselli scored for Rubin with a direct free kick. And Olas took the corners more often than the others a week ago. Obviously, Murad Musaev decided to use the Uruguayan's ability to serve well into the penalty area and in standard positions. It was already dangerous in the game with Rubin, and in the meeting with Fakel, Olasa gave an effective pass. Lucas executed a cross from his native left edge, and Jubal sent the ball into the net with his head. The perfect opening for the black and green, who got a lot of free space thanks to a quick goal, and threats to the visitors' goal were created with enviable regularity.
Christian was especially diligent on the right flank, whose appearance on the field was expected not only after a bright appearance as a substitute with a goal in the first round, but also due to Boselli's injury (after a broken nose, he works on an individual program). To begin with, the Brazilian rookie accelerated under a penetrating pass and brought Butchy into a striking position, and then assisted Krivtsov, who doubled the score.
The hosts played an exemplary first half and won it by a margin in the class. Agkatsev didn't actually have any serious work, but everything changed immediately after the break, when, after a tip from the VAR, the referee considered that Zhubal's elbow hitting Yurganov's face deserved a penalty. Gnapi, who had never played in the RPL before, went to beat him, and he seems to be unfamiliar with the Krasnodar goalkeeper's reputation. But now the Ivorian knows for sure who is the penalty taker in the Russian championship. Agkatsev has eight saves on 12 shots from the 11-meter mark!
Fantastic numbers, and again Stanislav managed to help out at a key moment, eight minutes after the misfire, the Gnapi grew to a large one. Yes, Vorobyov failed to escape to the goal, but he redirected the ball to Butchy, who rolled it under the second goal to Krivtsov. After that, Musaev decided to rotate the squad, allowing Diego Costa to play and rebuilding the middle line. The game was finished by a trio of midfielders in the person of Utkin, Ozdoev and Lenini. However, after the reshuffle, the bulls lost their reliability. Thanks to the efforts of Turishchev and Sutormin, Fakel won back two goals.
Finally, already in the time added by the referee, Krasnodar almost missed the victory. It was saved by the fact that two Voronezh players interfered with each other in the area of the gate square. The Bulls, although they won, got a serious shake-up before the visit to Spartak. And the Torch, which still has zero in the "points scored" column, is not hopeless at all.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
