Final matches of Kuban football players – MK in Kuban

FC Krasnodar and PFC Sochi played the penultimate matches in the Russian Championship of the 2022/23 season; “citizens” for the first time since last October failed to score a single goal; “leopards” drew for the first time in more than six months.

Looked at each other

In the match of the 29th round of the Russian Championship, the “bulls” hosted CSKA. For the “citizens”, this game was important not so much for promotion in the championship – Vladimir Ivic’s team in the Russian Premier League no longer shone prizes, but as a rehearsal before the decisive battle with the army team for the Russian Cup. But for the team of Vladimir Fedotov, three points were important in this game: the army team continues to fight for silver in the Premier League.

Krasnodar approached this meeting with personnel losses. Junior Alonso, Cayo, Kadi Borgis, Nikita Krivtsov, John Cordoba, Yegor Sorokin and Alexander Chernikov were not included in the application for the game. As in the last game, Matvey Safonov remained on the bench. The goalkeeper of the Russian national team made a lot of mistakes in recent games, but, most likely, Ivic just gave him a break before the cup final, putting Stanislav Agkatsev in the goal. In the match against CSKA, eighteen-year-old central defender Georgy Harutyunyan made his debut in the Russian Premier League. It is noteworthy that the pupil of Krasnodar had already managed to play for the Armenian national team in the Euro 2024 qualification. Only Jorge Carrascal was absent from the “army team” in the application, but Willian Rocha played. The defender managed to avoid disqualification.

In the first minutes of the meeting, Alexey Ionov showed himself especially brightly. The flank player acted in the center. In the sixth minute of the match, he opened well under the longitudinal pass of Kevin Lenini, entered the penalty area and, after a couple of tricks, kissed into the near corner. If not for the excellent reaction of Igor Akinfeev, who moved the ball to the corner, Krasnodar would have celebrated a goal.

Five minutes later, Moses Kobnan shot from the left into the goalkeeper’s area, where Ionov did not have enough dexterity to close the transfer. Krasnodar acted very harmoniously. The players were constantly moving, creating a lot of problems for CSKA defenders. At the 21st minute of the match, Olakunle Olusegun hung well to the near post, Moses Kobnan got ahead of Akinfeev and shot with his foot, the ball hit the goal frame.

Krasnodar clearly looked preferable in the first half. The “Bulls” struck five shots against the opponent’s four and hit the target once (CSKA failed to do this). The guests did little against the opponent’s defense. Harutyunyan acted unmistakably, coming out of the confrontation with the attackers as a winner. Only before the break the game leveled off, but in general Krasnodar looked brighter.

In the second half, the “black-greens” accelerated the pace, which the army team could not keep up. First, Moses shot above the gate. And in the 56th minute, Vyacheslav Litvinov hit Sasha Zdelar in a tackle. The chief referee of the match, Kirill Levnikov, first showed the Krasnodar defender a yellow card, and then, after watching the video replay, removed the young defender.

The game changed immediately. “CSKA”, remaining in the majority, seized the advantage, increased pressure on Agkatsev’s goal. But even the weakened defense of the owners acted reliably. The goalkeeper saved me several times. So, he reflected the ball, punched by Anton Zabolotny. Then he coped well with Fedor Chalov’s shot under the crossbar. For Agkatsev it was the sixth game in the main team of “bulls”. But the young striker of Krasnodar Alexander Koksharov, who came out in the second half, was almost invisible in this game.

Only in stoppage time of the match did Harutyunyan make a mistake and foul on Zabolotny. If it weren’t for Agkatsev’s save, perhaps the game would have ended in victory for the “soldiers”. At the end of the match Kirill Nababkin also missed. After the break, the hosts lost to the guests on shots – 5 : 11 (on target – 1 : 4). But in the end the match ended in a draw – 0:0.

This game was the first goalless meeting under Ivic. Under his leadership, Krasnodar usually scored two goals. One round before the end of the tournament, the “bulls” have 47 points in their assets and take sixth place in the standings. Ahead of them is a meeting with Akhmat. The Grozny team has 49 points and ranks higher in relation to the “bulls”. So in the last round these teams will be able to compete for the fifth place.

Although the transfer window in Russia has not yet opened, rumors have begun to appear about the transfers of Krasnodar players. So, Cordoba, the most expensive acquisition of the “bulls”, admitted that he receives invitations from European clubs. True, the Colombian assured that he was not going to leave the “bulls” yet. The best striker of the team rejects the transition to Zenit or Spartak.

European clubs show great interest in Eduard Spertsyan. According to rumors, the football player dreams of playing in Italy, but so far refuses to comment on any transitions. A number of media outlets report that proposals for Spertsyan come from Marseille’s Olympique, Milan, Fiorentina, as well as from Borussia Mönöngladbach.

A number of media outlets have reported that the Citizens are going to part ways with Christian Ramirez next season. The Ecuadorian’s contract with the Krasnodar club runs until June 30, 2025. The footballer has Russian citizenship.

Football agent Timofey Berdyshev said that Sergei Borodin would return to Krasnodar in the summer. The defender played on loan for the Israeli “Beitar”, which recently won the country’s cup. According to the agent, the 24-year-old pupil of the “citizens” may well move to another club in the summer. Allegedly, many Russian teams want to see Borodin in their squad.

Couldn’t take off the ring.

Sochi played in the 29th round of the Russian Championship at home against Zenit. This meeting was not important for both teams. Unless Dmitry Khokhlov, perhaps, still wanted to prove to the leadership of the “leopards” that the choice to make him the acting head coach after the departure of Kurban Berdyev was the right one.

Pitertsy took to the field in Sochi without part of the leaders. Only three legionnaires – Wilmar Barrios, Gustavo Mantuan and Mateo Cassierra – came to the game and got into the starting lineup. Sergei Semak for the first time released two forwards on the field. Together with Cassierra, Ivan Sergeev came out ahead. “Barcelona” surprised by the fact that for a long time they put Nikolai Zabolotny on the gate. Denis Adamov and Soslan Dzhanaev remained on the bench. By the way, Alexander Vasyutin stood at the gates of Zenit for the second match in a row, Mikhail Kerzhakov remained on the bench.

To score a goal, the hosts needed only thirty seconds. In the very first attack, Artur Yusupov received a pass in the penalty area, turned around and struck at goal. Vasyutin was ready to repel the threat, but the ball first hit Dmitry Chistyakov, and then, changing the direction of the blow, flew into the net.

Despite the fact that “Zenith” has already issued a championship in the season, St. Petersburg tried to recoup. The guests immediately took the initiative into their own hands, had more possession of the ball, shot at Zabolotny’s goal, but all to no avail. At the 21st minute of the match, Barrios intercepted the ball in the center of the field, passed to Cassierre – the one to Andrey Mostovoy. The midfielder shot into the penalty area, where Daler Kuzyaev tried to throw the goalkeeper. Zabolotny played reliably. A couple of minutes later, Mantua hit on goal from an excellent distance, but hit above the crossbar. Sochi created a good counterattack, at the end of which Nikita Burmistrov shot low from the penalty area – Vasyutin did not let us down.

“Zenith” bounced back immediately after the break. Mantua executed a free-kick, hitting Igor Yurganov, who was standing in the wall, in the back – the ball flew off from her into the corner of the goal. After the goal, the Petrograders tried to take the lead. In one of the counterattacks, Yurganov first blocked Cassier’s shot from outside the penalty area, then Zabolotny played confidently on the rebound by Mantua.

A funny episode happened at the end of the match. Khokhlov decided to release Cyril Zaika on the field, but the defender could not take off his wedding ring. Players usually remove such decorations before entering the field or wrap them with a band-aid. The coaching staff decided to get rid of the ring, several people helped the football player, but nothing happened. As a result, Zaika never played.

The match ended with a score of 1: 1. This result did not particularly affect the championship of Zenit. “Sochi” with 38 points remained in tenth place in the standings. Now Khokhlov’s team is waiting for the final away match against Ural.