Sable Hunt: Zenit striker retains intrigue in the race for gold
Following the results of the 29th round of the Russian Football Championship, the status quo remained at the top of the standings. The leading Krasnodar and Zenit St. Petersburg scored minimal away wins. The Bulls prevailed over Orenburg (2:1), and the blue-white-blues won against Rostov thanks to a beautiful goal by Alexander Sobolev. Thus, Krasnodar is one point ahead of Zenit before the end of the round, and the fate of the gold will be decided on the last day of the tournament — May 24. At the same time, there will be a denouement in the race for bronze medals and the right to remain in the RPL.
The Championship race
Having lost a week earlier to CSKA Moscow (1-0), Krasnodar lost the right to make mistakes in the fight for gold. He allowed Zenit to reduce the distance from the first place to a minimum. And Orenburg had to win last Saturday, so that in the last round everything depended on the southern club.
But Orenburg, which is in penultimate place, did everything to win and keep its chances of being saved from relegation from the RPL. According to the regulations, the last two teams of the Premier League, who took 15th and 16th places, are directly relegated to the first league. Those who finish on the 13th-14th lines will still have a chance to escape following the results of the transition matches against the third and fourth teams of the first league.
Orenburg was five points behind the 14th-place Grozny Akhmat. And to save himself, he had to win the last two rounds and hope for two defeats of the club from the Chechen Republic. Brian Mancinha quickly opened the scoring in the match against Krasnodar in the seventh minute. It seemed that the Bulls were twitching from the proximity of the championship and the first title in their history.
And Orenburg can cling to the chance of salvation. But in the middle of the first half, the hosts themselves buried everything when their defender Maxim Syshchenko made a weak pass back to the goalkeeper, who was intercepted by John Cordoba. He went one-on-one with Nikolai Sysuev and sent the ball into the goal. At the beginning of the second half, Krasnodar had several dangerous chances, and in one of them Lucas Olasa scored the winning goal. Murad Musayev's team calmly brought the matter to victory and retained their leadership.
The next day Zenit played in Rostov. In case of defeat of St. Petersburg, Krasnodar would have secured the championship. But few people believed that the residents of Rostov would take away the glasses from the blue-white-blues. Especially against the background of the fact that three days earlier they had a difficult away match of the Russian Cup against Spartak, a 2-1 victory over which allowed the Don club to reach the Super Finals of the tournament, where it will compete for the trophy with CSKA Moscow on June 1.
Zenit, in turn, had been eliminated from the Cup by the Army a day earlier. He had one more day to recover, return by train to Rostov-on-Don, and prepare.
Nevertheless, the wards of Sergei Semak had serious difficulties. They created two killer chances in the first half, but Rostov was saved by goalkeeper Daniil Odoevsky. However, soon he could not cope with a super-shot through himself performed by Alexander Sobolev, who scored one of the most beautiful goals of the season.
Before the break, the hosts had a great moment, but as a result of a series of attempts from close range, they could not break through the goalkeeper and Zenit defenders rushing under the ball. In the second half, nothing foreshadowed the loss of the guests' points, but in the last minutes one of the most dramatic episodes of the entire championship happened — Maxim Osipenko from Rostov went one-on-one with Evgeny Latyshon and scored a goal, but the referee did not count it due to a slight offside.
Zenit won and will now play Akhmat at home in the last round. He can become the champion for the seventh time in a row if he defeats Grozny, and Krasnodar does not win at home against Dynamo Moscow. Interestingly, a year ago, these two teams also played in the last round and decided on the championship.
Then Dynamo was in the lead before the last round, and a draw was enough for them to win the championship gold for the first time since 1976. But Krasnodar won 1-0, and the blue and white team missed a historic chance. The Southern club, in turn, could have won gold thanks to this victory, if Zenit had not won at home against Rostov. Even 10 minutes before the final whistle, everything was heading towards this, but in the end, the club from the Northern Capital scored the winning goal in the end (2:1) and took the gold again. Now Dynamo can leave Krasnodar without a championship in the same way and contribute to the preservation of Zenit's hegemony.
"We will try to win against Krasnodar and prevent them from becoming champions — there is such a desire to take revenge for the last round of last season," Dynamo defender Dmitry Skopintsev told Izvestia. — We will do everything for this. Moreover, we have a chance for bronze ourselves and we need to win. Considering how we've been playing and winning in recent rounds, we have everything we need to score three points in Krasnodar.
The fight for bronze
Dynamo Moscow scored their third victory in a row in the penultimate round. It does not lose points after Marcel Lichka's dismissal from the post of head coach — acting Rolan Gusev, who replaced him, does not allow misfires and returned the blue and white chances to third place. Last Sunday, the home team snatched a victory over Tolyatti Akron in the last minutes.
Now it has entered the top three and is one point ahead of its main competitor CSKA, which will face the Moscow derby with Lokomotiv on Monday evening. If the Army team wins, they will be the favorites in the bronze medal race before the last round. And they will finally deprive Spartak Moscow, who won 2-0 away from Krylia Sovetov Samara last weekend, of any chance of winning.
Back in March, the Red and white were considered contenders for gold, but they failed the last eight rounds, winning only three matches. In addition, the relegation from the Cup marked a total failure for Dejan Stankovic's team. And their chances of winning medals are very slim.
"We will do everything to finish the season in the top three," Dynamo Moscow midfielder Daniil Fomin told Izvestia. — It is very important for us to win medals and finish the season on a good note. Therefore, we will do everything to defeat Krasnodar and hope that this will be enough to finish above CSKA.
The battle for survival
After the failure of Orenburg in the match with Krasnodar, the intrigue ended with a direct flight from the RPL. In addition to the Orenburg team, Voronezh Fakel is going to the first league, which lost its chances of salvation a round earlier. At the same time, last Saturday, the doomed Voronezh managed to draw away from Pari Nizhny Novgorod (1:1), which desperately needed to win in order to improve its position in the fight for 12th place, allowing it to remain in the RPL for the next season without transitional matches.
But as a result of this misfire, Nizhny Novgorod remained in 13th place. And they are one point behind the 12th. This position is occupied by Dynamo Makhachkala, which achieved an important away draw in the Caucasian derby with Akhmat Grozny (1:1), which is in 14th place in the same zone of transitional matches.
"Akhmat" lost the chance to avoid the joints. In the last round, Paris NN will have to go to the strongest club of the spring, CSKA, motivated to fight for bronze. Therefore, the chances of Nizhny Novgorod residents in 12th place are very low. But formally, they can still send Dynamo Makhachkala, who are playing at home with Rostov in the 30th round, Khimki, who will have to leave for Spartak, as well as Krylia Sovetov, who will finish with a guest match with Fakel.
Of these three teams, Khimki should be singled out, who won a strong-willed victory at home over Rubin Kazan (3:2), scoring the winning goal in the last minutes. This spring, the Moscow Region club was at the center of a scandal due to financial problems - the players have not been paid their salaries since the winter, and in April they even boycotted training for several days, threatening not to go to the match with Zenit (0:1). They returned to work only after a conversation with the president of the RPL, Alexander Alaev, who promised assistance in debt collection.
Against this background, even then it was surprising that Khimki stayed out of the relegation zone and the joints. The team continued to score points, as a result of which they almost escaped relegation. But this is not a guarantee of participation in the next season's RPL draw. The club has not yet received a license to participate in the tournament and may not be allowed to participate unless financial problems are resolved.
"We tried not to pay attention to financial problems and do our job," Khimki striker Reziuan Mirzov explained to Izvestia. — And we succeeded. We have good players, and everyone wants to achieve victories against all odds, to be honest in front of football. That's why we want to win the last match against Spartak and no longer depend on the situation in the matches of our competitors, remaining in the RPL without joints. And then I hope that everything will be fine with finances and Khimki will get a license for the next season. The team did everything they could for this.
Meanwhile, the last round next weekend will also be in the first league. The victory in this tournament has already been secured by Kaliningrad "Baltika", which went directly to the RPL. The second direct ticket was almost achieved by the Moscow Torpedo. For final success, it will be enough for him to draw in a home match with KAMAZ from Naberezhnye Chelny in the last round.
Meanwhile, Novorossiysk Chernomorets is in third place, FC Sochi is in fourth. These teams will play in transition matches for relegation if they retain these positions. But one of them may be ousted in the last round by Ural Yekaterinburg, which is in fifth place.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
