FC Krasnodar lost points again, but by a lucky coincidence, it retained the first place in the standings of the Russian Championship

Miss chances

The team of Vladimir Ivic in the sixth round of the championship of Russia played in Voronezh against the local Fakel. The team of Vadim Evseev started the season in the Premier League unsuccessfully. Prior to that, having lost the first four rounds, she was able to win only in the fifth round, hosting Pari Nizhny Novgorod at home. Krasnodar, which is in first place, should have unconditionally defeated such an opponent.

For the first time in the season, Krasnodar started the match with five players from the club academy in the starting lineup: Matvey Safonov, Georgy Arutyunyan, Sergey Volkov, Alexander Chernikov and Eduard Spertsyan. Vasily Cherov, a graduate of the Krasnodar football school, played the full match against Fakel. In the second half, two more pupils of the “black-and-greens” appeared on the field: Alexander Koksharov from the guests and Vyacheslav Yakimov from the hosts. Thus, eight players who studied at the Krasnodar Academy took part in the game at once.

The game got off to a good start. Krasnodar went on the attack and already in the twelfth minute of the match earned a penalty. In one of the bulls’ attacks, the ball darted into the Torch penalty area, the hosts fought back, but the guests began to insist that the ball hit Nikita Motspan’s hand. Chief referee Alexei Amelin took advantage of the video replay, noticed the Moldavian’s violation and pointed to the spot.

This was the sixth penalty in a row in Krasnodar’s matches. But last time, in the game against Lokomotiv, Spertsyan failed to score from the spot. Now the Armenian midfielder decided not to tempt fate – John Cordoba went to beat. The Colombian accelerated, shot and hit the right post, then tried to play the rebound, but did not hit the goal. The striker failed to score the fourth of his five penalties for Krasnodar. He became the leader among all the players of the Russian championship in terms of the number of unrealized penalty kicks. By the way, Fakel turned out to be the last team in the championship, in the games of which this season they did not assign a kick from the point.

After a successful outcome from the penalty spot, Fakel continued to act from defense. “Citizens” still owned the initiative. On the twentieth minute, Cordoba could be rehabilitated for a miss from the point. The Colombian made a convenient allowance for Nikita Krivtsov, who shot from outside the penalty area, but hit the crossbar.

Eight minutes later, Joao Batchi crossed from the left edge of the penalty area to the goal line, where Cordoba fought Fedor Kudryashov and headed the ball. The ball flew close to the post.

In general, it seemed that a goal against Fakel would happen sooner or later. The hosts practically did not attack, and their defenders made mistakes. Only at the end of the first half, Khyzyr Appaev shot along Safonov’s goal, but Maxim Maksimov did not reach the ball.

During the break, Evseev made two substitutions – and the game changed. Already in the third minute of the second half, Fakel could have scored a goal. Andrey Mendel intercepted the ball and performed a serve to the goalkeeper’s line, from where Ilnur Alshin struck in the fall with his head – the ball from Safonov’s exposed leg flew into the post.

By tradition, Ivic began to make large-scale substitutions in the middle of the match. In the 66th minute, he immediately released Sergei Petrov, Ilzat Akhmetov and Koksharov. Cayo, Cady Borges and Butchi left the field. But such changes did not bring success to Krasnodar. “Bulls” as soon as they began to look fresh on the field, they were able to make a pile at the end. In stoppage time, Lucas Olasa sent a pass into the penalty area to Koksharov, but the eighteen-year-old striker could not take advantage of the moment, Vitaly Gudiev turned out to be good on the goal line. As a result, no goals were scored in this match.

Fakel is the only team in the Russian Premier League that the Citizens have never been able to beat. The clubs met four times: twelve years ago in the Cup, when the Voronezh team won (2: 1), last season two matches in the Russian Championship ended in a draw (2: 2 and 3: 3), now it was also not possible to identify the winner.

Having lost points for the second time in a row, the Bulls nevertheless retained the first place in the standings. They could easily get ahead of Ural in the sixth round, but Viktor Goncharenko’s team was defeated by Zenit with a score of 4: 0. Ivic’s team has fourteen points, his closest pursuers – Zenit and Ural – are one point behind.

Meanwhile, the fate of Magomed-Shapi Suleymanov is being decided. Media reports that the Krasnodar midfielder will move to Aris. The player will join the Greek club on a free loan with an option to buy for one million euros. In the 2022/23 season, Suleimanov played for Hapoel from Beersheba on loan. In Israel, he played 35 matches in all competitions, in which he scored five goals and six assists. The contract of the 23-year-old footballer with Krasnodar is valid until the end of June 2024.

Never hit the target

In the sixth round, Sochi hosted the capital’s Lokomotiv. The injured Artem Dzyuba returned to the Muscovites. But defender Sergei Pinyaev remained on the bench.

The match was almost postponed. The reason was the disgusting lawn at the Fisht stadium. The game could have taken place in another arena, but in the end it took place in Adler. It is clear that on such a field it was difficult to act from the bottom, to make combinations. The meeting turned out to be simple and unspectacular. There were few dangerous moments, and they were obtained with great difficulty.

At first, the game was completely without moments. Only in the sixteenth minute of the match, Anton Miranchuk dragged the ball into the Sochi penalty area, his quick pass to the center led to Dmitry Rybchinsky’s kick. The midfielder hit Nikolay Zabolotny directly. In the 28th minute, Maxim Glushenkov hit the Sochi goal. The goalkeeper did it again. The hosts did not manage to oppose the attacks of Lokomotiv.

At the 34th minute of the match, Dziuba reacted to the pitch into the penalty area of ​​the “leopards”, outweighed Ivan Miladinovich and struck with his head – Zabolotny grouped up and again repelled the danger. In a couple of minutes Miranchuk could score after a shot from the corner. Zabolotny repulsed again.

In the first half, Sochi did not hit the target even once. The “resorts” had a lot of marriage in the game. Lost even the leader of the team – Christian Noboa. In general, both teams played simply, at a low pace. The game often paused. Sochi residents were injured, they needed time to recover. Perhaps the heat and poor field played a role. At the same time, Lokomotiv looked in a more advantageous light. “Railroad” in the first half struck four shots on target and had dangerous chances.

The goal came in the 57th minute of the match. Miranchuk intercepted the ball from the left, carefully threw it into the Sochi penalty area, where Dziuba beat Miladinovich, made a thin allowance for the radius, where Glushenkov shot from the left into the far bottom corner of the goal – Zabolotny could not help out.

Lokomotiv moved back after the goal, Sochi had more chances to win back. The owners tried to attack, but marriage played a decisive role in their actions. Even Noboa was inaccurate in passing. There were a lot of martial arts in the game, fight for rebounds. Former Lokomotiv player Ivan Ignatiev did not shoot on goal, did not give a single pass under attack and left the field after an hour of play. In the end, Zabolotny could miss a curious goal. The goalkeeper kicked the ball and hit Dziuba. Only luck saved the “holidays” from the second goal. The defense of the “railroad” played reliably – and “Lokomotiv” took away the victory from Sochi. The hosts did not hit the target for the entire match.

After six rounds, Sochi settled in twelfth place with six points in the standings. The team of Dmitry Khokhlov won only two victories and lost four times. Bars have eight goals scored and eight conceded goals. The club has already approached the zone of transitional matches. But while the confidence of the coach remains.