CSKA played in favor of Spartak

In the central match of the 29th round of the Russian Football Championship, CSKA, claiming silver medals, played 0-0 with Krasnodar. This draw heated up the intrigue in the fight for 2nd place. The army team now has 55 points, but now Spartak can beat them if they beat Paris Nizhny Novgorod at home.

For CSKA, the match with Krasnodar was of tremendous importance. Of course, he was not worth his weight in gold, which was taken by Zenit, but certainly worth his weight in silver. Two rounds before the end of the championship, the army team was ahead of Spartak by one point and Rostov by four, which, by the way, they will meet at the very finish line.

For Krasnodar, in the rest of the season, another match with CSKA was much more important – in the superfinal of the Russian Cup, which will take place on June 11. Although they probably wanted to rehearse it properly, and in general, they have practically not lost lately, demonstrating quite high-quality football.

So the red-blue did not have to count on the lack of motivation on the part of the opponent, especially since at home he always performs with great enthusiasm.

True, Krasnodar, unlike CSKA, put up a line-up that was far from optimal, in which the absence of the team’s top scorer John Cordoba and a pair of central defenders Cayo-Junior Alonso was striking. And that’s not counting the group of players, which has long been out of rotation. As a result, 18-year-old Georgy Harutyunyan made his debut in the center of defense of the hosts. In addition, the main goalkeeper Matvey Safonov was again in the reserve, and Stanislav Agkatsev defended the gate.

But even with such serious personnel losses, Krasnodar looked competitive. And it was the Kuban team that created the first dangerous moments, when Alexei Ionov tried to break through Igor Akinfeev from the right corner, and then almost had time to close Batchi’s sharp pass. In the middle of the first half, the guests were completely saved by the post, after Moses Kobnan David responded to Olakunle Olusegun’s cross from the left and struck literally from two meters.

CSKA had nothing close to its assets. Young Harutyunyan did not hesitate at all in the fight against one of the best snipers of the championship, Fedor Chalov, and in general, their newly formed team with Vyacheslav Litvinov acted surprisingly reliably.

Only closer to the break, when Krasnodar got too carried away with the attack, the Muscovites managed to really aggravate the situation at the opponent’s goal. Chalov decided to take the initiative, but did not turn the ball into the far corner.

In terms of moments and overall impression, Krasnodar won the first half of the meeting, so a goalless draw was by no means the worst result for CSKA. Another thing is that, in principle, a draw did not suit the army team, as it gave Spartak a chance to overtake them in the event of a victory over Nizhny Novgorod. However, in the second half, the guests still did not go well, and already in the debut, Moses went one on one with Akinfeev, but hit extremely unsuccessfully, again forgiving Willian Roshu, who had avoided disqualification after the derby with Spartak, who missed him. Recall that the Control and Disciplinary Committee of the Russian Football Union canceled the red card of the Brazilian defender of CSKA, received by him in a scandalous incident with Alexander Sobolev.

Unfortunately for the hosts, young Litvinov got excited in the 56th minute. First, the referee Kirill Levnikov qualified his tackle under Sasha Zdelar for a yellow card, but VAR recommended toughening the punishment, and the yellow card turned into a direct red one. Thus, Krasnodar remained in the minority, and it was already difficult for him to think about winning.

But the guests had a great opportunity to still change the nature of the match and score three points. They expectedly seized the territorial advantage and tried to load the ball into the penalty area more often.

Anton Zabolotny from a corner, and then Chalov from a pass from Zabolotny, finally hit the target, but Agkatsev rescued the Kuban team. However, CSKA still had problems with the organization and the number of scoring chances. Krasnodar, even with ten men, did not lose its competitiveness and periodically unnerved Akinfeev. In the end, the Muscovites could still score from a free kick when Igor Diveev loaded under the crossbar, but Agkatsev made his main save in this meeting. And the well-known homebody defender Kirill Nababkin made a rustle at the other’s goal, but goals are not his profile.

CSKA did not realize the majority, achieving only a draw 0:0. Now the red-blues have 55 points, and on Sunday Spartak can move them from 2nd place. And before “Rostov” opened the prospect of clinging to the medal, reducing the backlog from the army team to two points before the head-to-head confrontation in the 30th round.

Alexander Ilyin