Defeat from Rostov could result in Krasnodar losing first place

The leader of the Russian football championship, Krasnodar, lost away to Rostov at the start of the 20th round – 1:2. Now, if Zenit wins over Ural, it will get ahead of the stalled Kuban team and lead the Premier League. In another match, CSKA defeated Krylya Sovetov on their field – 2:0. The army team moved up to the top three, but their main competitors also have not played yet.

After Krasnodar missed out on a victory over Rubin in the previous round and almost allowed Zenit to catch up with them, which also misfired by failing to beat Spartak, its leadership was again under threat. After all, Vladimir Ivich’s team went on a difficult trip to Rostov-on-Don. Although Valery Karpin’s team is not competing for medals in the current championship, they still pose a danger to any opponent and, as their first match after the winter break against Krylia Sovetov showed, they are well prepared for the restart of the season. In addition, the guests arrived without their leading football player, playmaker Eduard Spertsyan, who was serving a suspension.

Spertsyan is, of course, a big loss for Krasnodar, however, there was also positive news: the team’s top scorer John Cordoba, who served a three-game suspension, finally returned to the lineup.

In addition, midfielders Alexander Chernikov and Juan Bashi, who missed the meeting with Rubin due to too many yellow cards, returned to duty. At the same time, Ivic again postponed the debut of Colombian newcomer Kevin Castano.

From the first minutes, the leader came under pressure from the home team and was forced to defend. But Cordoba quickly made his presence known when, in his signature forceful style, he pushed through Rostov’s central defender Maxim Osipenko, and he barely managed to block the striker’s shot. Gradually, the guests got comfortable in the foreign arena and moved the game to a safer distance from their own penalty area. Nevertheless, the Rostovites showed persistence and tried to impose their football, and in the middle of the first half they carried out an effective combination. Kirill Shchetinin made a short throw to Mohammad Mohebi, who found himself in the center forward position and demonstrated decent technical equipment, handling the ball with his chest and sending it into the goal with a second touch from under the powerful Vitor Tormena.

“Krasnodar” tried to fight back in hot pursuit, but only ran into counterattacks. In one of them, Mokhebi swung at a double and missed, and in the other Tormena was stopped at the cost of a yellow card. In total, the Kuban team received four warnings and at the same time never shot on target. Rostov, which was in tenth place, looked better than the winter champion of the Premier League before the break and quite logically led 1:0.

And already at the very beginning of the second half, Krasnodar was left in the minority. Olakunle Olusegun received a second yellow card, and for the same violation – giving the opponent the go-ahead hand signal.

The Nigerian, while in possession of the ball, for some reason punched Khoren Bayramyan in the face and put his team in an extremely uncomfortable position when they had to think about how to at least get a draw. Cordoba responded by putting Umar Sako and Evgeniy Chernov on yellow cards, but then Tormen again failed to notice Mokhebi, and the Iranian still scored a double when Bayramyan put him through to the goal with a cutting pass.

True, Cordoba did not give up. Soon he scored his ninth goal in the current championship, taking advantage of the small gap between Sakho and Osipenko and heading in a lobbed pass from Mikhailo Banjac. Then the Rostovites watched the Colombian extremely closely, but Kadi Borgis, who came on as a substitute, had chances to save the game, but the most the Brazilian got out of them was corner kicks. To be fair, it should be noted that the hosts also had opportunities to increase their advantage. So they deserved a 2:1 victory. Now Krasnodar is at risk of losing its leadership, because Zenit, which is two points behind it, will most likely take over Ural on Saturday.

The match in Samara, where Krylia Sovetov hosted CSKA, was also not a success. Despite the fact that there were clubs that took only seventh and eighth places, they had not yet given up the fight for prizes. The army team certainly did not lose their medal ambitions and immediately indicated the seriousness of their intentions by scoring in the third minute. The visitors’ initial onslaught led to them earning a corner.

And if goalkeeper Ivan Lomaev saved Igor Diveev’s shot after the first play, then from the second serve another central defender, Willian Rocha, hit the goal with his head.

The army’s standards continued to terrify the Wings’ defense, and already in the opening of the second half the same Rocha again scored from a corner. And Fernando Costanza, who seemed to be personally taking care of him, grabbed his compatriot with both hands, but the Moscow Brazilian still broke out of the tight embrace and, falling, managed to put his head in such a way that the ball flew from the bar into the net along a trajectory unattainable for Lomaev. The red-blues could have achieved success from the game. Ivan Oblyakov had a particularly good moment when he went one-on-one with Lomaev and hit the crossbar.

Samara, of course, also attacked and was periodically very dangerous, but in the absence of the injured Benjamin Garre, their execution became very poor. Now the hosts didn’t even take the penalty, which another Argentinean, Franco Orozco, volunteered to take. The Krylia newcomer apparently did not know what the “Igor Akinfeev’s leg”, which had already become a popular meme, was, with which the famous goalkeeper parried another 11-meter shot. And the visiting defenders prevented Orozco from finishing off the ball that bounced off the crossbar. CSKA won 2:0 and moved up to fourth place with 32 points. However, the same “Spartak” and “Lokomotiv”, which have 31 points each, can still demote the army team in the table based on the results of the 20th round.

Alexander Ilyin