“Dynamo’s defeat has seriously intensified the fight for medals” – Kommersant FM

Zenit and Krasnodar broke away from Dynamo in the RPL standings. The blue and white lost points in the match with Spartak. The country’s oldest derby ended in a 1:2 defeat for the hosts. Now Dynamo is six points behind the leader, Zenit, and five points behind Krasnodar, which is second. Kommersant FM sports commentator Vladimir Osipov followed the developments in the matches of the 23rd round.

“Krasnodar” and “Zenit” won their matches this weekend. “Zenith” beats “Baltika” with a minimal score (1:0), and “Krasnodar” beats “Paris NN” (4:3) in an extremely productive match. In order to stay in the championship race, Dynamo simply had to take over Spartak. And when the game started, it seemed that there would be no problems with this. Already in the first minutes, the referee of the match, Kirill Levnikov, gave a fair penalty to the guests’ goal.

After this, those who watched the football probably believed that Dynamo’s second goal was only a matter of time. Nothing worked out for Spartak. The hosts attacked more and more sharply, but could not score. Sometimes, in some surprising, even magical way, the ball could not slip into the net. And the national team goalkeeper Alexander Maksimenko helped out. But Dynamo goalkeeper Igor Leshchuk not only didn’t help out, but made two monstrous mistakes at the end of the game, which deprived the team of three points. Leshchuk twice failed to keep the ball in his hands after simple shots, which led to the defeat of the hosts.

The emotions of commentator Konstantin Genich can be understood. Leshchuk was asked similar questions by the entire stadium and hundreds of thousands of Dynamo fans who watched the match on TV. After all, these mistakes not only led to the team’s defeat, they actually deprived it of the opportunity to fight for the championship. Football expert Vladislav Radimov criticized the Dynamo goalkeeper very harshly after the final whistle: “Here you can talk about Leshchuk in silence and without clinking glasses. Look, the man is 28 years old, he has played 28 matches in the Premier League, this is probably not a coincidence, right? A man sits in a warm place, he doesn’t need anything. Then suddenly he was entrusted with the gate of Anton Shunin. They trusted me – well, here you go.”

But criticism of Spartak head coach Guillermo Abascal now seems to subside, although last week rumors that the Spaniard would leave the people’s team were very active. But the result is the result. After all, they will forget about how Spartak played very quickly. In addition, the author of the double, Alexander Sobolev, assured the fans that the team was just getting started: “It took a long time to win in the RPL this year. We have a rather difficult calendar ahead, in which we must squeeze everything out of ourselves, the maximum, and move on. I hope this is just the beginning.”

Dynamo’s defeat seriously intensified the fight for medals, at least bronze. CSKA and Lokomotiv are now only two points behind Dynamo, and Spartak – three. And now getting any of these Moscow teams into the top three no longer seems as incredible as it did at the beginning of spring. A similar situation, by the way, was predicted by football expert Dmitry Bulykin: “Still, no one is participating anywhere – neither in the Champions League, nor in the Europa League, no one will be distracted. Therefore, I think they will get together in the championship, show a good finish and get close to the leading group.”

The next football tour, in which the leaders Krasnodar and Zenit will meet, can provide answers to many questions. In addition, another Moscow derby awaits us, this time Lokomotiv – CSKA.

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