Catch up and rule: "Krasnodar"'s third consecutive draw has sharpened the intrigue in the RPL

The Russian Football Championship is going on a three-week pause amid increased intrigue in the fight for gold. After the third consecutive misfire of the leading "Krasnodar", a group of competitors came close to him. "Dynamo Moscow" stands out especially among them, having won five matches in a row.

"Rostov" — "Dynamo" (Moscow)

After an unsuccessful start in the championship (one victory in the first four rounds), Dynamo began to win regularly. Three points were not always obtained with good play, but the results allowed Sandro Schwartz's team to rise to the RPL leadership group. First, they won three consecutive Moscow derbies. "Moreover, "Rodina" (3:1), a newcomer to the Premier League, and "Lokomotiv" (1:0), who were in distress, did not make a strong impression.

But the strong-willed victory over "Spartak" (2:1), which started successfully, allowed us to talk about the blue and white as medal contenders. Then, in the last minutes, they snatched a 1-0 victory at home over the unyielding "Orenburg". The decisive goal was scored by promising 19-year-old midfielder Viktor Okishor.

He also had his say in the away meeting with "Rostov". The Donskoy club has won only two victories in the current RPL draw and is still getting more and more bogged down in the struggle for survival. In the match against "Dynamo", he tried to resist and for a long time did not allow the opponent to create anything ahead.

But he still missed in the 35th minute - Konstantin Tyukavin opened the scoring. For a long time, the guests could not consolidate the advantage, but towards the end of the meeting, Okishor scored the second goal in the 78th minute. Shortly before the final whistle, Tyukavin scored a double from the penalty spot.

"Dynamo" is in second place, just two points behind the leading "Krasnodar". "Rostov" is on the 12th line after nine rounds and is ahead of Tolyatti "Akron", which is in the zone of transitional matches, only in terms of additional indicators.

"Orenburg" — "Krasnodar"

Having started the championship with five wins in five rounds, "Krasnodar" was confidently in the lead. But he lost in the last rounds, having drawn three times. First, there was a missed away victory over Samara "Wings of the Soviets" (2:2), when the southern club led 2-0, but allowed the opponent to equalize the score.

Then "bulls" only equalized the score (1:1) at the end of the home match with "Akron". And now there was a trip to "Orenburg", which has consistently taken points from almost all the leaders this season.

So, at the end of August, he managed to stop "Spartak"'s winning stride by playing a 1-1 draw with him, although in the current championship the red and white are defeating almost all rivals from the bottom half of the table. The only problem for "Orenburg" is that it does not win much.

After a strong-willed home victory in the first round over "Rostov" (2:1), they lost at home to "Zenit St. Petersburg" (0:3), and then there were five draws. Only "Dynamo" interrupted this series. And now it's a draw again in the home game with "Krasnodar" (0:0).

""""""Dynamo", "Spartak", "CSKA" and "Zenit" were allowed to get closer to themselves because of the third draw in a row. But they remain the leader without losing a single match. "Orenburg" is in 11th place.

"Baltika" — "Zenit"

"Last season "Baltika" created a lot of problems for "Zenit". She took away his points at home in the championship (0:0), and then only in the end lost to him away (0:1).

It was expected that Kaliningrad residents would now resist the reigning champion. But "Zenit" led 2-0 in the first quarter of an hour. Maxim Glushenkov and Alexander Sobolev scored, and the latter scored as a result of a serious mistake by Kaliningrad goalkeeper Evgeny Latyshon, who returned from "Zenit" just a couple of months ago.

Very quickly, Brian Hill narrowed the gap in the score, but at the beginning of the second half, Luis Enrique increased the advantage of the visitors again. "Baltika" towards the end of the game, due to Ilya Petrov's ball, again made the gap minimal, but could not escape defeat.

"Zenit" remains in fourth place and is three points away from "Krasnodar". "Baltika" is eighth, 10 points from the leader.

There were also five more matches in the last ninth round. Moscow "Spartak" only snatched a home victory over the last Voronezh "Fakel" (1-0) in the last minutes. This allowed the red and white to keep the third place and go level on points with "Dynamo Moscow".

"Lokomotiv" drew at home with "Wings of the Soviets" (1:1). The capital ""Rodina"" achieved a draw with "Rubin" (1:1) in their native walls. "Akron" won against "Akhmat" on its own field (2:0) — this is the first victory of the club from the Samara region in the current championship. Now only the "Torch" remains without victories.

CSKA Moscow defeated "Dynamo" Makhachkala (3:1). After the ninth round, we will have a three-week pause in the RPL for the national team games, where Russia will play friendly matches with Iran, Namibia and Nigeria. The championship will resume on October 9th.