FC Krasnodar reached the superfinal of the Russian Cup – 2022/23; also the “bulls” won the southern derby; PFC Sochi defeated by an outsider

Again beat “Rostov”

Last week, the “black-greens” played in the final match of the second stage of the “Path of Regions” Cup of Russia. The team of Vladimir Ivic again played at home. The rival of the “bulls” was “Ural”.

In the first minutes of the meeting, the guests began to dominate. Victor Goncharenko’s team carried out several quick attacks. “Krasnodar” obviously did not like it – he quickly pulled himself together and immediately scored. In the ninth minute of the match, the “citizens” got the right to a corner, Eduard Spertsyan struck from the flag, the ball flew into the center of the penalty area, where Caio Pantalean excellently headed. The projectile fired by the Brazilian bounced off the lawn and flew under the post. For Caio, this was the second goal in the “Krasnodar” and the first in the Cup of Russia.

Having taken the lead, the “bulls” played even more confidently. At the sixteenth minute, Kayo almost scored a brace. He was the first on the rebound in the penalty area of ​​the guests, hit, but missed. “Ural” tried to answer, but his attacks were too slow and harmless.

Nevertheless, the guests managed to level the score. At the 22nd minute of the match, Alexander Yushin moved the ball to the left corner of the penalty area. First, Andrey Egorychev struck from there, Matvey Safonov reacted, but beat him right in front of him, which Eric Bikfalvi did not fail to take advantage of. The Romanian immediately drove the ball into the goal – 1: 1. In general, the goalkeeper of the Russian national team has been making a lot of mistakes lately and is holding on uncertainly.

A couple of minutes after the missed goal, Sergei Volkov gave the pass to Kaio, but it was intercepted by Daniel Mishkic. Croat saw that Safonov came out of the gate, so he quickly shot from outside the penalty area on target. The goalkeeper of “Krasnodar” this time was reliable.

After a missed goal, Krasnodar began to act in a collected manner, but could not score before the break. In the second half, Krasnodar almost got the right to take a penalty. If not for John Cordoba’s handball, referee Sergei Karasev would have awarded a penalty kick. In the 59th minute, Mihailo Bagnac delivered a powerful shot from outside the penalty area, the ball flew past the goalkeeper in an arc and hit the post. Here Cordoba was successful in finishing off – 2: 1.

Then the game went on an equal footing. Christian Ramirez had a good moment to score. He received a pass into the penalty area with his heel from Spertsyan, shot from the goalkeeper’s corner. If not for Oleg Baklov’s save, there would have been a goal.

At the end of the match “Ural” remained in the minority. At the ninetieth minute of the match, Leo Goglichidze knocked down Cordoba in the penalty area. Karasev immediately pointed to a penalty kick, while showing the defender a second yellow card. But then the judge changed his mind. Video replays showed that earlier Cordoba was offside. True, he has not canceled the removal of Goglichidze.

The victory of Krasnodar with a score of 2: 1 allowed the “bulls” to reach the final of the Russian Cup for the second time in their history. There their rival will be CSKA. The game will take place in the capital, at the Luzhniki stadium, on June 11th. This season it will be the main game for the bulls, because it can bring them the first ever trophy.

The next match of Krasnodar also took place at home. As part of the 28th round, the “bulls” met with “Rostov”. This meeting did little to decide for Ivic’s team. But Rostov needed a victory, because the team of Valery Karpin is fighting for silver.

In this match, Safonov remained on the bench. As Ivic said after the match, a month ago he decided to put Stanislav Agkatsev in the goal at the end of the season. Perhaps they decided to save Safonov, give him a rest before the Russian Cup final, or the goalkeeper convinced the coach to replace him with his frequent mistakes. Rostov came out to play without leaders. Nikolai Komlichenko did not come to this game at all. Maxim Osipenko remained on the bench, Daniil Utkin came out to play only in the 74th minute.

“Rostov” from the first minutes sat in deep defense and paid for it. In the third minute of the match, Kevin Lenini gave a vertical pass from deep in the field, Cordoba passed the ball into the penalty area on touch, where Alexei Ionov skillfully shot into the far corner of Sergei Pesyakov.

Seven minutes later, the Colombian was already celebrating a goal. First, Spertsyan gave a cutting pass to Rostov’s penalty area – there Cordoba picked up the ball and shot from under the defender into the corner – 2: 0. This ball was the thirteenth for the striker of the season. He is the main scorer in the team. True, in the 29th minute, the player asked to be replaced, as he injured the back of the thigh. Alexander Koksharov replaced Cordoba. And the young football player did not spoil the game. The pupil of Krasnodar, the son of the Olympic handball champion Eduard Koksharov, only had three minutes to score the third goal. First, João Batchi passed to the front of Sergei Volkov, who served in the goalkeeper’s area, where the bursting striker headed the ball into Pesyakov’s goal – 3: 0. This goal was the first for 18-year-old Koksharov in the Russian Premier League.

Agkatsev had almost no work in the first half. Before the break, Rostov only hit the target once. The kick came from outside the penalty area.

In the second half, Rostov tried to win back. But he failed to show anything. The guests could have scored when Kirill Shchetinin picked up the ball on dribbling, slipped between Junior Alonso and Vyacheslav Litvinov, burst into the penalty area, but shot near the near post. Karpin tried to change the game with substitutions, but they did not help.

In the seventh minute, David Toshevsky rushed after the pass sent behind the back by the Krasnodar defenders, went one on one with Agkatsev and shot straight at the goalkeeper. In the second half, “Rostov” did not strike a single shot on target. Even the former pupil of Krasnodar, Utkin, who came out to play for Rostov in the last twenty minutes, could not add spice to Karpin’s team. “Bulls” again beat “Rostov” and did not allow the opponent to gain a foothold in the top three. After 28 rounds, Krasnodar is 6th in the standings with 46 points.

Lost to an outsider

Sochi in the 28th round played away against Pari Nizhny Novgorod. This meeting was also important only to one team – the hosts. After all, they are in the play-off zone.

The first half was pretty dull. It seems that at first Pari Nizhny Novgorod set the tone for the game, but then the initiative passed to Sochi. Georgy Melkadze especially wanted to excel, but his implementation suffered. The teams went to the break without opening an account.

Everything changed in the second half. In the 51st minute, Viktor Aleksandrov, attacking from the left along the penalty line, walked into the center, struck a dribble shot into the far corner, which Denis Adamov could not handle.

After the goal, Sochi got lost. In the 62nd minute of the match, the Nizhny Novgorod team scored the second goal. Dmitry Rybchinsky burst into the penalty area on the right flank, passed Artem Makarchuk and sent the ball into the far corner with a dribble kick. Adamov reached for the ball, but could not help out.

Eight minutes later, Vanya Drkusic thwarted the attack of Vyacheslav Krotov and received a second yellow card. Here the Sochi residents no longer had a chance. In the remaining twenty minutes, Pari Nizhny Novgorod scored two more goals. First, Krotov on the left flank dragged the ball to the penalty area, then moved to the center and shot into the near corner. The ball ricocheted into the goal. Already in stoppage time, after a corner kick, Nikita Kakkoev jumped the highest in the penalty area and sent a projectile to the Sochi goal with his head – 4: 0.

“Kurortniki” lost the fourth match under the leadership of Dmitry Khokhlov. It seems that the fate of the coach in this team is sealed. After 28 rounds, Sochi has 37 points to its credit and ranks tenth in the standings. A completely unexpected result after such a successful last year silver.