A draw in the match with Krylya Sovetov could give Zenit leadership in the Premier League

The leader of the Russian Football Championship, St. Petersburg Zenit, achieved only a 1:1 draw in an away match with Samara Krylya Sovetov. This means that Krasnodar could again come out on top on Sunday if they win over Lokomotiv in Moscow.

Dynamo’s devastating Friday defeat to Rostov at the start of the 22nd round, which is de facto the 21st, since the matches of the weekend before last were postponed to the end of April, allowed Zenit, in the event of a victory over Krylia Sovetov, to increase the lead over one of his two most dangerous competitors in the fight for gold to five points. However, this was not possible. The Samara team, which lost the previous two spring championship matches without scoring a single goal, unexpectedly for many created insurmountable problems for the leader.

However, the St. Petersburg goalkeeper Denis Adamov was involved in the first of them, and the most important one, whose gross mistake led to a goal already in the first minute of the game. Deciding to play a pass with his defenders, he gave the ball to his opponents, and one of them, young striker Vladislav Shitov, took advantage of the generous gift.

The visitors equalized the score midway through the half. This was done by their recent recruit Arthur, who, according to Transfermark, was bought in the winter from Palmeiras for €15 million, and has now scored his first goal for the new club. The Brazilian’s one-touch left-footed shot after a cross from the left flank looked very beautiful. The second half was a big and nervous struggle. Zenit had the ball much more often, attacked more and more dangerously, but this did not bring them success. Having missed the last chances in stoppage time, when Alexander Erokhin was twice at the forefront of the Petersburgers’ attacks, the reigning champion left Samara with a 1:1 draw, scoring his 41st point, as a result of which his advantage over Dynamo increased to only three points. Moreover, following the results of the round, the leadership in the Premier League can be regained by Krasnodar, which has 39 points. True, for this he needs to beat Lokomotiv in Moscow on Sunday.

CSKA, which was fourth before this round, but at some distance from the top three, met Sochi on the road, and this match was also not without surprises. It all started with an own goal, scored by Dmitry Chistyakov, who unsuccessfully put his foot in an attempt to neutralize Victor Davila’s cross. Moreover, immediately after the break, Army striker Anton Zabolotny doubled his team’s lead. In such a situation, it seemed that the hosts were doomed, but they were helped by their own perseverance and failures in CSKA’s defense; even veteran goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev could not help them out. The foreign players who distinguished themselves for Sochi were Venezuelan Saul Guarirapa and Slovenian Martin Kramaric. The result is 2:2, CSKA is still eight points behind Zenit, and the southerners, still at the bottom of the standings, now have 14 points. Another hour later it became known that another outsider, Baltika, beat Paris Nizhny Novgorod on their field – 2:0. Thus, the Kaliningraders have 17 points, and together with Sochi they continue to fight for a place in the Premier League.

In the final match of Saturday, Spartak, stuck in the middle of the standings, hosted Ural. The home team’s advantage was noticeable. For the first time this year, using the technical Congolese striker Theo Bongonda on the right flank, they attacked a lot, but no matter how hard they tried, they could not score, limiting themselves to a goalless draw and sixth place with 32 points with nine rounds to go. “Ural”, which did not lose to the red-and-white team for the fifth time in a row, remains in the zone of transition matches with 20 points.

Evgeniy Fedyakov