Five - minus: how did the clubs from the top 5 of the RPL stumble?

The last 20th round of the Russian Football Championship will be remembered for the simultaneous misfires of the top five. Only Lokomotiv Moscow managed to avoid defeat — in a home match with Akhmat Grozny, they eventually drew 2-2, losing 0.:2. Krasnodar lost away to Rubin Kazan (1:2), and Zenit St. Petersburg lost away to Orenburg (1:2). CSKA was defeated in the Moscow derby with Dynamo (1:4), while Kaliningrad lost the victory away over Rostov (1:1). Only Spartak Moscow did not easily beat Akron Togliatti (4:3) on their own field.

Lokomotiv — Akhmat

The match took place on March 9, the last day of the tour, and Loko already knew that its competitors had lost, so there is a chance to increase the gap from the competitors in the fight for bronze — CSKA and Baltika — and impose the fight for gold on Krasnodar and Zenit.

In the event of a victory over Akhmat, Loko was compared on points with the leading Krasnodar. But it was clear that the Chechen club would not give up the victory so easily. After the appointment of Stanislav Cherchesov as head coach, Akhmat became a fighting team capable of imposing a fight on anyone, and rose to the middle of the table.

In early spring, Akhmat confirmed its ambitions by beating CSKA at home (1-0). He also tried to consolidate his success during the trip to Loko, leading 2-0 in the middle of the first half.

Within three minutes, Georgy Melkadze opened the scoring with a free kick, and Maxim Samorodov doubled the visitors' advantage. The Railwaymen also lost their main defensive player, Cesar Montes, due to injury.

But before the break, Lucas Fasson scored one goal, and at the beginning of the second half, Danil Prutsev equalized the score. Loko could have gone ahead, but after Artem Karpukas' shot, the ball hit the crossbar. As a result, Mikhail Galaktionov's team failed to put the squeeze on the opponent, and it only reduced the gap from the leaders by one point. Now the red and green are losing one point to Krasnodar and two to Zenit.

"It's a great success for us to score four points in the first two matches of the spring,— Akhmat striker Georgy Melkadze said in a conversation with Izvestia. — The score for matches with two Moscow teams is nine out of ten. A minus point is only due to the fact that we missed the victory over Loko. But we are happy with the game. Both CSKA and Lokomotiv are very strong teams that can claim the championship. Beating them or drawing them is worth a lot. But we are aiming for more and we want to win every match this spring in order to move up the table as high as possible.

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Lokomotiv football player Artyom Karpukas — about the departure of a key player of the team, the election of a new captain and the first match in the RPL after the winter break

Orenburg — Zenit

Few people believed in the sensation in this match, because in all the years of playing in the Russian Premier League, Orenburg had scored points against Zenit only twice. Evil tongues like to link this with the family relations of the sponsors of the clubs — Gazprom and its Orenburg subsidiary.

The first half really indicated that everything would be as usual. However, at the beginning of the game Gustavo Mantuan did not score a penalty against Orenburg, but Alexander Sobolev opened the scoring pretty quickly.

But after the break, the surprises began. In the middle of the second half, after a rebound from Emil Tsenov, Orenburg equalized. And at the end of regular time, he took the lead thanks to a goal from Evgeny Bolotov. Zenit could have saved itself before the final whistle, when it was awarded another penalty, but Andrei Mostovoy hit the crossbar.

Orenburg has won and strengthened its position in the struggle for survival. Zenit is still one point behind Krasnodar.

Rubin — Krasnodar

On March 8, the day of the match, it was freezing in Tatarstan. Because of this, the first league meeting in Nizhnekamsk was postponed to another date, where the local Neftekhimik was supposed to host the leader of the FNL Voronezh Fakel.

There was a risk of postponing the RPL match in Kazan. But in the end, the presence of modern heating in the stadium made it possible to avoid disrupting the meeting, and the judges found the temperature regime acceptable.

More adapted to the local climate, Rubin, which is in the middle of the standings, was able to use the opportunities for success.

Nazmi Gripshi opened the scoring in the middle of the first half, and towards the end of the match Konstantin Nizhegorodov doubled the advantage of the hosts. It was only in the last minutes that the visitors reduced the gap thanks to John Cordoba's goal.

As a result, Rubin won its first victory under the leadership of head coach Frank Artiga, who was appointed in the winter, and Krasnodar retained first place only because of the misfires of its competitors.

CSKA Moscow — Dynamo (Moscow)

At the end of last year, Dynamo confirmed Rolan Gusev as head coach, and under his leadership they are winning major victories this spring. First, the Samara Krylia Sovetov were defeated at home in the championship (4:0). Then there was a triumph in the derby with Spartak (5:2) in the first match of the semi-final of the "RPL Way" of the Russian Cup.

Dynamo is thundering: the blue and white defeated Spartak and are preparing for CSKA

The army team is trying to catch up with the leaders of the RPL, Krasnodar is going to Kazan, and Lokomotiv will take on the newly formed Akhmat

And on March 8, it was CSKA's turn. The Army started the spring with a failure in Grozny, losing 0:1 to Akhmat, which led to an increase in their gap from the leading three. Then there was a home success in the first match of the semi-final of the "RPL Way" of the Russian Cup against Krasnodar (3:1).

But the derby with Dynamo turned out to be a failure.

In the first half, Nicolas Marichal scored two goals against CSKA, and between them, the Army team remained in the minority after the removal of Luciano Gonda. At the end of the first hour of the game, Moises narrowed the gap in the score, but soon Bitello again provided Dynamo with a comfortable advantage. Towards the end of the game, Maxim Osipenko brought the matter to a rout. CSKA remains seven points behind the leader and is now five points behind the third-placed Lokomotiv.

"Of course, we are pleased with the results we have this spring,— Dynamo midfielder Daniil Fomin told Izvestia. — We have been working hard on tactics and psychology, and it is bearing fruit. I think CSKA deserved to win. If we won two derbies with a big score, then everything is going well. We must continue in the same spirit.

Four more matches also took place in the last round. Rostov saved themselves from a 1-1 defeat at home from Kaliningrad Baltika in the last minutes. In the battle of two outsiders, Pari Nizhny Novgorod, which is in penultimate place, won at home against Sochi (2:1), which almost lost its chances to rise from the last line of the RPL table. Samara Krylia Sovetov defeated Dynamo Makhachkala (2:0) at home, and Spartak Moscow defeated Akron Togliatti (4:3) at home.