Bitello's blows: the Brazilian brought Dynamo a draw in the derby with Spartak

A 2-2 draw in the central match of the eighth round of the Russian Football Championship between Dynamo Moscow and Spartak significantly complicated the lives of both teams. They were even further behind the leaders, including Krasnodar in first place, who won at home against Akron Togliatti (2:1). In addition, Akhmat Grozny drew 1-1 with Lokomotiv Moscow last weekend and continues to go undefeated after the appointment of Stanislav Cherchesov as head coach. And Kaliningrad "Baltika" has not lost at all since the beginning of the tournament. And last weekend, she passed the Zenit St. Petersburg test, drawing 0-0 at home.

Dynamo (Moscow) — Spartak

The summer part of the season was unsuccessful for Dynamo. The first months of work under the leadership of Valery Karpin turned out to be extremely difficult, and the team went into the middle of the standings during the pause associated with the national team games. In many ways, the Spartak derby was supposed to answer the question of whether the blue and white were capable of overcoming the crisis. The Red and white also failed to start the season, but at the end of August they gained momentum and rose closer to the top five.

Shortly before the game, Spartak acquired two new defenders, Alexander Jica and Christopher Wu. The head coach of the team, Deyan Stankovich, decided to immediately put them in the starting lineup — both legionnaires went to the center of defense along with Ruslan Litvinov. Many were surprised by the decision of the Serbian specialist to release Levi Garcia from the first minutes, who has never scored in the current championship.

But this move paid off. It was Levi who opened the scoring in the 19th minute. The goal was out of line with the general logic of the game, because at least in the first half Dynamo had the advantage. The more natural were the two goals scored against Spartak by Bitello. For the second time, he scored just before halftime, and this caused the fiercest protest from the red and white, who felt that before this effective attack, referee Egor Egorov had not recorded a foul from Dynamo.

Stankovich had a heated conversation with the referees using offensive language. As a result, he was removed from the bench, and Dejan watched the second half from the stands. Strangely enough, Spartak improved after the break, and in the middle of the second half Levi Garcia equalized the score. The final draw is not in favor of both teams, which are stuck in the middle of the table — Spartak is eighth with 12 points, Dynamo is ninth with nine points. The gap from the first line is seven and ten points, respectively.

"We can say 100%, even 1000%, that this draw is a loss of two points for us, we should have won the game," Dynamo Moscow striker Denis Makarov told Izvestia. — But we conceded two offensive goals, and we only scored twice. Although we had chances to score more. Nevertheless, the game was good on our part. There was a struggle, aggression, but ridiculous mistakes left us without a victory. We will correct the shortcomings that we had. Then, with such a game, we are able to start winning regularly.

Interestingly, this match was the first for Dynamo, which it spent most of its time preparing for without a head coach. Valery Karpin took up this post in June on the terms of combining with a similar job in the Russian national team, where he has been working for four years. The two-week break for the national teams' games, which occurred between the seventh and eighth rounds of the RPL, suggested Karpin's absence from the club, as he was preparing the national team for friendly matches with Jordan (0-0) and Qatar (4-1).

He returned to Dynamo only at the beginning of last week, and the match with Spartak took place on Saturday. Nevertheless, this did not prevent the blue and white from playing a good match. Dmitry Gafin, Chairman of the Dynamo Board of Directors, answered the question of Izvestia about whether the absence of the head coach affected the condition of the team with irony.

— If you saw the game, you will notice that the team was fresh, — said Gafin. — I do not know what this is related to. Maybe you mean that our opponent's lack of a head coach allowed him to play well in the second half. Maybe... I do not know if you will develop this, then write a dissertation on the topic "Absence of a head coach and the result."

Akhmat — Lokomotiv

Lokomotiv is still going undefeated this season, but this is hardly a consolation for the fans of the Railwaymen, since their team cannot win four matches in a row. She successfully started the championship with four wins and was in first place, but then she played four draws in a row.

At first, it was possible to rejoice at the miraculous rescue at the end of the away game with Kaliningrad "Baltika" (1:1), the main sensation of the current draw. Loko played really badly in that match. As a result, at the end of the game Nikolay Komlichenko equalized the score, having realized one of the few opportunities to score. But then there were two offensive home misfires in a row — with Rostov (3:3) and Samara Wings of the Soviets (2:2). In both meetings, Mikhail Galaktionov's team led by two goals (3:1 and 2:0), but missed the advantage. Moreover, they allowed the opponents to escape from defeats just before the final whistle.

"Akhmat", on the contrary, is on an upward trend. The Grozny team lost in the first three rounds. After that, head coach Alexander Storozhuk was fired. He was replaced by Stanislav Cherchesov, under whom the Chechen team never lost in the next five rounds. The home game against Loko was no exception.

At the beginning of the second half, Akhmat opened the scoring thanks to Egash Kasintura's goal. But in the 80th minute, Lokomotiv equalized — its leader Alexey Batrakov scored. After this draw, the Grozny team gained a foothold in tenth place, although a month and a half ago they faced the prospect of a hard struggle for survival. Loko is already three points behind the leading Krasnodar and is increasingly reducing its chances of competing for gold.

—Akhmat played better and should be unhappy with the loss of two points," Nikolai Naumov, former president of Lokomotiv, said in a conversation with Izvestia. — In the first half, he had an overwhelming advantage and did not allow his opponent to land a single shot on target. Cherchesov's team was let down only by the realization of the moments. There were problems with her after the break, when, with the score 1-0, Casintura could have scored more, but he shot past the goal from the penalty area. So Loko didn't have any special moments ahead. It's good that Batrakov realized a rare opportunity to score, once again proving himself to be a true leader. "Railwaymen" can be congratulated for the fact that with such a game they earned a draw in the most difficult trip to Grozny, where it can be difficult for any team. But it is unclear how they are going to continue solving problems with such a game. In their current state, they won't be able to compete for a place in the top three.

Krasnodar — Akron

After a bad start, the Tolyatti club has been reinforced by several experienced players, among whom it is worth highlighting former CSKA midfielder Christian Bistrovich and ex-Lokomotiv midfielder Edgar Sevikyan. The team put up a good resistance to Krasnodar on a visit, but the class of the current champion and leader still affected.

The Bulls opened the scoring pretty quickly when Viktor Saa scored. But before the break, Sevikyan was able to earn a penalty, from which Artyom Dzyuba equalized. Nevertheless, towards the end of the meeting, Nikita Krivtsov once again successfully came on as a substitute, scoring the winning goal from Eduard Spertsyan's pass.

"This is not the best quality of our champion's game, but he has learned since last season that he is capable of putting the squeeze on his opponent in such matches,— former Krasnodar midfielder Maxim Demenko told Izvestia. — Here, Akron fought back with dignity, but Murad Musayev's team bent its line and found the opportunity to score the right number of goals. The same move to replace Krivtsov for the final part of the match proved itself again, although it had already become predictable. This is how Krasnodar pulled out difficult matches in the crucial spring part of last season, which earned them the championship. And he also scored a number of victories in the current championship, which allows him to confidently lead.

Baltika — Zenit

Formally, this match could be called the central one in the round, since both teams are in the top five. Baltika did not lose any of the seven league matches in the summer and deservedly gained a foothold on the fourth line, becoming the main sensation at the start of the season.

Zenit accelerated for a long time, losing points in a number of important meetings in the first five rounds. Before the break, he won two home matches, rising to fifth place. But, given the level of rivals in these games, Dynamo Makhachkala (4-0) and Pari Nizhny Novgorod (2-0), who are at the bottom of the table, it was difficult to speak with confidence about the St. Petersburg club's recovery from the crisis.

The trip to Kaliningrad should have clarified a lot. Once again, as in previous rounds, Baltika imposed aggressive football on the opponent. And it helped her achieve a goalless draw at the end of the match. As a result, Andrey Talalaev's team rises to second place and is only three points behind the leader. Zenit is stuck on the sixth line and is already six points behind the first.

Four more matches also took place in the last round. Rubin Kazan minimally won at home against Dynamo Makhachkala (1-0). "Pari Nizhny Novgorod" defeated "Orenburg" (3:1). And the Samara Wings of the Soviets put the squeeze on Sochi (2:0) on their field. CSKA Moscow lost the away match against Rostov (0:1).