“Bulls” strengthened their leadership, “Leopards” sank to the bottom

FC Krasnodar is still unbeaten in the Russian Championship for the 2023/24 season and continues to be in first place in the standings. PFC Sochi lost the fifth match in a row in the RPL and took last place. “MK in Kuban” – about the main sports news in the Krasnodar region.

What matters is the result?

The first third of the Russian football championship has ended. The Bulls played at home against Rubin in the 10th round of the Russian Premier League. Vladimir Ivich’s team immediately took the initiative on the field and began to act as number one. In this game, the coach could not count on Alexander Chernikov; the main destroyer of the “citizens” in the center of the field had too many yellow cards and missed this match.

In the eleventh minute of the match, João Batchi fired from outside the penalty area, Yuri Dupin deflected the ball in a jump. The rebound went to Kevin Lenini, but the midfielder hit it high.

Krasnodar played dangerously from set pieces. So, Eduard Spertsyan hit a free kick near the post. In the middle of the first half, Batchi played a one-two with Nikita Krivtsov, the pass ended with the Russian central midfielder hitting the crossbar.

Rubin chose a defensive tactic; the Kazan team created a very high density in their half of the field and practically did not counterattack. Nevertheless, the hosts managed to get the ball into the goal first. In the eighteenth minute of the match, Nikola Čumić cut out a pass to Mirlind Daka, who deftly dealt with Victor Tormena and sent the ball into the far top corner. True, the video replay showed that the Albanian took the ball from an offside position. Chief referee Sergei Cheban canceled the goal.

Krasnodar responded by scoring without any violations. In the 24th minute of the match, after a set piece, Junior Alonso jumped very high in the penalty area and knocked the ball into the goalkeeper’s area, where John Cordoba pushed the ball into the net. For the Colombian it was the sixth goal of the season (the fourth in the current Russian championship).

After the goal the game became more open. “Rubin” ran to the attack. Already in the 26th minute, Kazan could get even, Cumich again passed to Daka, the Albanian went one on one, but he was neutralized by Sergei Volkov and Matvey Safonov. Just before the break, Valentin Vada brilliantly took a free kick – Krasnodar was saved by the post.

In the second half, the “citizens” openly began to play to maintain the score and gave the initiative to the opponent. This allowed the Kazan team to shoot on goal five times in the first fifteen minutes. The “Bulls” at this time preferred to act on the defensive. Ivic’s football frankly puts the result at the forefront, and not the beauty of the game. In conditions where the club has a good chance of winning the championship, this is the right strategy.

In the 53rd minute, the coach was forced to replace Lenini; the midfielder suffered a knee injury out of the blue. But Krasnodar still played reliably. It is worth noting that in ten Premier League matches the team conceded only three goals. This is, of course, the best figure in the league, the closest thing to it is only Paris Nizhny Novgorod with nine goals conceded, all the others have already conceded more than ten goals.

It is clear that Rashid Rakhimov’s team only intensified the pressure on the opponent. The Kazan team hoped to at least win back, especially since they had a good chance of doing so. But as often happens, the team got carried away with the attacks and missed the counter attack.

In the 86th minute, Cordoba responded to a long throw over the right edge, ran into the Rubin penalty area, got away from former Krasnodar defender Alexei Gritsaenko, crossed into the goalkeeper’s area, where Olakunle Olusegun played in advance and accurately hit the crossbar – 0 : 2.

Already in stoppage time, Rubin scored again. Joel Fameye sent the ball into the net, but Igor Vujacic’s throw into the center of the penalty area was offside. Another (seventh) victory in the Russian Championship allowed the Krasnodar team to strengthen their leading position with 24 points. The closest competitor of Ivich’s team, Krylya Sovetov, is three points behind. Zenit, having lost to Orenburg, fell behind by seven points. By the way, through the tour, St. Petersburg residents will host Samara residents at home. Some of them will definitely lose points. In the next rounds of the RPL, Krasnodar will have to meet at home with Rostov and away with Baltika.

Reached rock bottom

“Sochi” in the 10th round played away against the weakest team in the Premier League – Voronezh “Fakel”. After losing away to Krylia Sovetam, Alexander Tochilin made changes to the starting line-up. Goalkeeper Nikolai Zabolotny, center forward Georgy Melkadze, and defense Igor Yurganov and Marcelo Alves remained unchanged. Instead of Ivan Miladinovich, the coach sent Vyacheslav Litvinov into defense. Christian Noboa, Amir Batyrev and Artem Makarchuk remained in the central line. Kirill Zaika took his place on the right flank (Timofey Margasov played with Wings). Miguel Silveira and Martin Kramaric took the lead. Tochilin was clearly looking for successful combinations of the main team, but there are no results yet.

“Fakel” started the match strong. The Voronezh team immediately picked up the pace and began carrying out dangerous attacks on the Leopards’ goal. If the hosts lost the ball, the hosts immediately turned on active pressure. The Sochi team had to slow down the enemy’s pace. Tochilin’s team clearly had problems getting out of defense. In the fourteenth minute of the match, the hosts played three corners in a row. Ilnur Alshin’s passes turned out to be easy for the Sochi team, but Ruslan Magal’s cross led to a dangerous moment at the goal. Sergei Bozhin overpowered his opponent and fired his header from the goal line near the post.

In the thirtieth minute of the match, Irakli Kvekveskiri covered the Leopards goalkeeper’s clearance, but did not have time to hit the empty goal. Zabolotny threw himself at the Georgian’s feet and took the ball into his hands. A couple of minutes later, Alshin reached the line of the Sochi penalty area and shot from under the defender, it turned out to be in the opposite direction of the goalkeeper, but close to the post. The Sochi residents launched rare and not at all dangerous counterattacks. The situation at the gates of Zabolotny was only heating up.

In the 41st minute, Alshin found Evgeniy Markov in the Sochi penalty area with a pass through the center. Alves prevented the Fakel forward from striking. The main referee of the match, Dmitry Safyanov, watched a video replay of this episode and pointed to the “spot”. Markov fired a low shot into the center of the goal from the penalty spot. Zabolotny looked for salvation in the right corner, but missed the mark.

After the goal, Sochi noticeably stepped up its game. First, Silveira received the ball at the edge of the penalty area, moved a little forward and fired a shot under the near post, but Alexander Belenov pulled the ball away. After the next attack by the guests, the ball was thrown into the Fakel penalty area, Noboa ambushed a cross to the far post, but the shot hit the net from the outside of the goal.

During the break, Tochilin brought on Nikita Burmistrov instead of Silveira, clearly hoping to strengthen the attack, but in the end, Sochi quickly gave up. In the 74th minute, Magal’s shot from the corner of the penalty area turned into a cross to the penalty spot, from where Vyacheslav Yakimov shot into the top corner without resistance with his right foot – 2:0.

The hosts were close to the third goal, in the 59th minute Alshin took advantage of the rebound into the penalty area and shot low from under the defender – the ball caught the post.

All attempts by the Sochi residents to win back did not bring success. Until the end of the match, they were unable to create a more or less dangerous moment. The most tragic thing is that, playing against the weakest team of the tournament, the “resort team” completely lost to it. “Fakel” brought the match to victory and overtook Tochilin’s team in the standings. Now Sochi takes last place in the Russian Championship with six points. The team lost five matches in a row in the RPL. For the team, which achieved silver medals in the tournament the season before last, this is a complete disaster.

The leadership of the “southerners” needs to take urgent measures. It is obvious that a stalemate has developed in the team. The resort team will play their next match in the RPL at home against Zenit. Staying in the relegation zone may become irreversible.