Dynamo and Rostov made it to the semi-finals of the Russian Cup

In the Fonbet Russian Cup, two semi-finalists from the bottom of the tournament bracket were determined. Dynamo and Rostov, who recently replaced the “RPL Path” with the “Regional Path”, knocked out the last representatives of the first division. The Muscovites beat SKA-Khabarovsk in regular time – 2:1, and the club from the banks of the Don defeated Khimki on penalties – 7:6.

If anyone was lucky at the second stage of the Path of Regions quarterfinals, it was Dynamo, which faced an objectively weaker opponent – SKA-Khabarovsk, which ranks tenth in the first league. Moreover, the capital team did not have to fly to the Far East due to the fact that the army arena is not currently functioning for technical reasons. So they received Muscovites at the Kirovets stadium in St. Petersburg. True, at the first stage, SKA actually played a formal home match with Sochi on the field of its opponent, but this did not prevent it from achieving success.

And yet Dynamo, fighting for the Premier League championship, was the clear favorite, even taking into account the rotation and the absence of a number of leading players in the starting lineup. Another thing is that Khabarovsk residents have already managed to adapt to the specific artificial turf laid at Kirovets, while Muscovites needed some time to do this. However, they quickly opened the scoring after Alexander Kutitsky made a pass from deep to the front line, and Yaroslav Gladyshev threw the ball behind the SKA defenders to Vyacheslav Grulev, who hit the goal with a touch. But the nominal hosts often appeared near Anton Shunin’s penalty area, and closer to the break they even forced the Dynamo goalkeeper to make a mistake, unsuccessfully parrying a shot from outside the penalty area. Moreover, his teammate Dmitry Skopintsev unexpectedly hit the post, trying to defuse a dangerous situation.

In the second half, Shunin had already saved Dynamo from a sure goal when he pulled the ball from the top corner, where Albek Gongapshev headed it from a set piece. However, the SKA striker still found his way to the goal and closed in Andrei Nikitin’s cross from the right flank. However, the Muscovites soon scored from a corner when central defender Fabian Balbuena put his foot under Daniil Fomin’s cross. And once again the Khabarovsk team could not win back and, losing 1:2, were eliminated from the Russian Cup.

“Rostov” was also opposed by a representative of the first league, but, unlike SKA, “Khimki” is the leader of the championship and is seriously vying for promotion. In addition, in the quarterfinals of the “Path of Regions” they had already crushed “Krasnodar” and actually “removed” its head coach Vladimir Ivich from his position, who was dismissed precisely after the defeat from the Moscow region club. Although this was not a threat to Rostov coach Valery Karpin in any case. He himself recently beat Krasnodar in the championship, and his players also dealt with Krylia Sovetov and defeated Dynamo.

Not only in terms of results, but also in terms of the quality of football, the yellow-blues are right now perhaps the best in the Premier League. With one amendment – when they perform in the optimal lineup, and for the match with Khimki Karpin practically put in a reserve. Of the base, only Danil Glebov ended up in it, which naturally affected the balance of forces.

Rostov goalkeeper Nikita Medvedev even participated in the game more often, despite the fact that his teammates controlled the ball more. Gradually, the southerners began to create an edge, and Daniil Shantalii completely missed an excellent chance, hitting the post. The referees mistakenly recorded an offside in that episode, but if there had been a goal, VAR would undoubtedly have corrected them. At the end of the first half, the Khimki team had not yet looked after Nikolai Komlichenko, and they were greatly helped out by goalkeeper Igor Obukhov, who was not at a loss when meeting with the Rostov giant face to face. He had already parried Ivan Komarov’s nasty shot from mid-range in warm-up mode.

After the break, the teams also couldn’t break the scoreline, and there were no prerequisites for this for a long time. And when, finally, Ronaldo spontaneously, in the confusion in front of the goal, had a scoring chance, the Brazilian who came on as a substitute was unable to beat Obukhov. During the second half, the Rostovites strengthened the squad with five main players and were almost constantly visiting the opposing half of the field, but they never pushed through the Khimki defense.

Regular time ended 0:0, and everything was decided in a penalty shootout. Moreover, immediately after the final whistle, referee Alexey Sukhoi showed two red cards – to Karpin and his assistant Viktor Onopko for too obvious display of dissatisfaction with the refereeing. But even without them, Rostov won 7:6. Already in the extra session, when the penalty kicks were taken before the first miss, Medvedev, together with the barbell, parried Oleg Isaenko’s shot.

Alexander Ilyin