Krasnodar from above: Spartak rushed in pursuit of the RPL leader

Spartak Moscow's players won 2-0 at home against Zenit St. Petersburg in the key match of the opening round of the Russian championship. The meeting of the fifth round between the two main pursuers of Krasnodar decided who would continue to follow on the heels of the Bulls. As a result, Spartak won and came in second place. The championship leader scored a hard-fought away victory over Dynamo Makhachkala (1-0). And CSKA closes the top three, having won the Moscow derby against the distressed Lokomotiv (3:2).

Spartak — Zenit

The teams reached this round with nine points apiece in four championship matches — three wins and one loss. In fact, the face-to-face meeting was for the right to become Krasnodar's main pursuer. Spartak's leader, midfielder Ezequiel Barco, returned to the squad after missing the last games of the RPL and the Russian Cup due to injury.

At the same time, the red-whites still could not count on their other significant player, Christopher Martins. Zenit's main event of the week was the completion of the acquisition of Artyom Karpukas, one of the leaders of Lokomotiv. Negotiations on him went on for several months, and two days before the match with Spartak, his transfer was officially confirmed.

He started the game with the red-whites on the bench. And the match itself, which took place with full stands of the 45,000-seat stadium, gained a special intrigue in the 13th minute after Zenit's own goal. In this episode, Barko made a long cross from the corner to the far post, where Manfred Ugalde shot into the goalkeeper's box, the ball hit the guest goalkeeper Denis Adamov, who was intercepting, bounced into Wilmar Barrios and ricocheted off him into the goal.

And in the 38th minute, Roman Zobnin doubled Spartak's advantage with a shot from outside the penalty area.

At the beginning of the second half, a powerful shot from afar by Maxim Glushenkov was barely beaten off by Spartak goalkeeper Alexander Maksimenko. But otherwise Zenit could not create anything ahead. He even had to replace his main striker, Alexander Sobolev, who went to the bench to the whistle of the stands — the red and white fans still haven't forgiven him for leaving their beloved club for St. Petersburg two years ago.

The hosts lost Ruslan Litvinov due to injury, but this did not prevent them from calmly keeping a comfortable score for themselves. With 15 minutes left in the match, Zenit head coach Sergei Semak released Karpukasa for the first time. But it didn't help the guests. They lost and lost because of Glushenkov's removal. Now Peter has dropped out of the top three.

"We don't want to fight for survival — our priority is to be in the top 8"

Orenburg football player Dmitry Rybchinsky — about goals for the season, results at the start and media attention to Kasadzhikov

Dynamo (Makhachkala) — Krasnodar

Until recently, few people would have included this match in the list of central matches on the tour. But in terms of tournament layouts and the quality of the game, this time it surpassed even the CSKA and Lokomotiv derbies. And Krasnodar, which did not lose a single point in the current championship, was only three points ahead of Dynamo Makhachkala.

The Dagestani club, having one of the smallest budgets in the RPL, climbed to fourth place, winning three out of four matches at the start. Moreover, the lost away game with Dynamo Moscow could also end in favor of Vadim Evseev's wards, who held the score 0-0 until the 78th minute, did not use several chances to score goals, and only at the end allowed the opponent to score several goals (1:3).

It is not the first season that Makhachkala residents have been distinguished by their cool defensive play and the ability to fight in every area of the field. This helped them to stay in the RPL twice, where they entered for the first time in their history two years ago. And now Dynamo is trying to gain a foothold at the top.

And it gave a fight at home to Krasnodar, which was approaching departure to Dagestan with very serious personnel problems. Four days before the game, midfielder Nikita Krivtsov was injured in an away Cup match against Dynamo Moscow (1-0) and was out for several weeks.

Krivtsov started the season very brightly, having managed to successfully replace the leader of the Bulls midfield, Eduard Spertsyan, who left for Saudi Al-Ahli. Thanks to Nikita's successful performance, who had previously been an effective substitute, Krasnodar was able to survive the loss of the Armenian midfielder. Now the head coach of the team, Murad Musayev, had to come up with something in this position again.

But for the first time this season, the best RPL striker of recent years, John Cordoba, got into the application for the game. He was injured playing for the Colombian national team at the World Cup. Because of this, he had to miss the start of the season in Russia. He entered the field in the middle of the second half, replacing Dmitry Vorobyov.

Personnel problems led to the fact that Krasnodar could not do anything for most of the match against the dense defense of Makhachkala. In the first half, the teams created one dangerous moment each. After the break, the Bulls began to keep the ball in front more, but Dynamo held on.

Nevertheless, in the 79th minute Krasnodar put the squeeze on the Dagestani team. After an unsuccessful free kick, the ball bounced to Kevin Lenini, who made a discount on Jubal, and the Brazilian defender hit a powerful shot through himself into the top corner of the home team's goal.

Musaev's team managed to maintain a minimal advantage in the score and won the fifth match out of five in the championship. Dynamo Makhachkala remains in fifth place, six points from the leader.

Moscow burden: the capital's clubs failed the round in the Russian Cup

Dynamo, Spartak, CSKA, Lokomotiv and Rodina lost in their matches.

CSKA Moscow — Lokomotiv

Both teams did not start the season well, so it was initially difficult to consider their derby as a confrontation comparable in level to the match between Spartak and Zenit. CSKA also got off to a good start in terms of scoring, winning two matches: against Kaliningrad Baltika (2:1) and Voronezh Fakel (1:0). At the same time, there were also home draws with Samara Wings of the Soviets (1:1) and Rostov (0:0).

Considering that the Army team played at home with not the strongest opponents for the first five rounds and even won with difficulty with not very high-quality play, the prospects for Dmitry Igdisamov's wards remain vague. Especially against the background of the fact that Moises, the key defender of the team, recently suffered a cruciate ligament injury. The Brazilian was out for six months.

In the fifth consecutive home championship match, CSKA got another opponent, which makes it difficult to assess the chances of the army team competing for medals. The locomotive has been dismantled since the beginning of the season. He has not won a single match in the Russian League and Cup.

He scored only three points in the RPL and ended up at the bottom of the table. Before the season, the Railwaymen sold their key striker Dmitry Vorobyov to Krasnodar. In theory, Nikolay Komlichenko can replace him, but he has been injured since the end of last season and will not return until September.

And a few days before the game with CSKA, the transfers of two more leaders were also completed: attacking midfielder Alexei Batrakov to Turkish Galatasaray and defender Karpukas to Zenit. For all three sales, Loko will earn almost €40 million.

But the squad was weakened as much as possible, and the team hardly trained in its new form before CSKA. The day before, she acquired midfielder Sergei Babkin from Krylia Sovetov. And he immediately found himself in the starting lineup for the game with the Army, although he spent only one training session.

The first half passed with the total advantage of CSKA, but goalkeeper Anton Mitryushkin saved the guests. And it wasn't just unexpectedly that Loko scored first — Alexander Silyanov scored. But closer to halftime, the Army team equalized — for the first time in a long time, Luciano Gonda scored a goal.

At the beginning of the second half, Kirill Danilov put the Red-Blues ahead with a free kick. And in the 68th minute, Mateus Alves scored the third goal against Lokomotiv. Igdisamov soon released midfielder Dmitry Barinov, a pupil and former captain of Loko, who scandalously moved from his hometown club to a competitor in the winter.

Barinov still can't play in the new team and even lost his place in the starting lineup. He lasted less than 10 minutes on the field, after which he was injured and replaced. During his time on the field, Lokomotiv scored one goal — Sergey Pinyav scored.

But Mikhail Galaktionov's team did not have enough for more. CSKA moved up to third place, four points behind the leader. Loko is in 14th place in the transition zone with three points, just one point ahead of the relegation zone.

— The team, of course, is not in the place where it should be, — Sergey Babkin told Izvestia. — I am sure that we are capable of more even after the departure of important players for Lokomotiv. In any case, such a club should always fight for the highest places. And we are capable of it. I will do everything to help the team improve its results, and that's why the club invited me.

There were also four more matches on the tour. Voronezh Fakel drew at home with Orenburg (0:0). Akhmat Grozny defeated Rostov on its own field (4:1). Samara "Wings of the Soviets" in the regional derby won big against Tolyatti "Akron" (3:0). Dynamo Moscow won a strong-willed victory over Rodina Moscow (3:1) at home. The tour will end on August 24 in Kaliningrad, where the local Baltika will host Rubin Kazan.