Football clubs of Kuban lost in the sixteenth round of the Russian championship

FC Krasnodar lost its leadership in the Russian Premier League, PFC Sochi was defeated in St. Petersburg. “MK in Kuban” is about the main sporting events in the Krasnodar region.

No miracle happened

After the resumption of the Russian championship, Sochi went to the sixteenth round game in St. Petersburg to play the current champion of Russia. Probably, few people believed that Alexander Tochilin’s team was capable of taking points from Zenit in this confrontation: the “southerners” beat the “northerners” only once in history, and the class of the teams is now completely different. And so it happened.

In the first minutes of the match, the Leopards tried to play actively. The guests had more possession of the ball, ran into the attack, although without approaching the goalkeeper, and earned themselves corners several times. Ivan Ignatiev behaved actively. The striker shot on goal and received a yellow card for a foul on Rodrigao. But it was difficult to rely on a forward who scored only one goal this season.

Amir Batyrev and Artur Yusupov tried to create something in the center and pass to Martin Kramaric. Sochi actively operated on its flanks. But the class of the team, of course, was not enough to create problems for the champion. The Bars made many approaches to Mikhail Kerzhakov’s goal in the first half, but were unable to land a single shot on target.

For some time, Zenit waited, watched, and then unleashed all its power on the opponent. First, Douglas dos Santos, in the 31st minute, rushed to serve to the far post and hit his header without jumping – the ball hit the net, but from the outside of the goal. Zenit earned several corner kicks, one of which resulted in a goal. Already in stoppage time of the first half, Rodrigao waited for Santos to pass into the penalty area, got ahead of his opponent and headed the ball into the corner of the goal.

After the break, the hosts continued to destroy the guests. “Sochi” somehow humbly accepted the role of the victim, without trying to change anything. Already after the first five minutes, referee Kirill Levnikov awarded a penalty against the “resort team”. The reason is that in one of Zenit’s attacks the ball hit Nikita Burmistrov in the penalty area. Claudinho volunteered to shoot from the spot. A Brazilian with a Russian passport argued with Andrei Mostov over who would take the penalty kick. Having received the right to a penalty, Claudinho decided to play beautifully, scoring with a “panenka” in the center of the goal. Nikita Goilo simply caught the ball in his hands.

Zenit continued to press. The visitors’ defense was cracking. Goals scored against Sochi were only a matter of time. Five minutes after the missed penalty, the St. Petersburg team scored the second goal. Wendel made a pass to Wilson Isidore, who got caught on the offside line, ran away one on one, beat the goalkeeper and rolled the ball into the net.

Tochilin tried to change the game with substitutions. But even the fresh Sochi players could not do anything against the runaway Zenit. Izidor hit the crossbar, Alexey Sutormin almost hit the corner of the goal. Nevertheless, the Russian striker managed to make his mark with effective actions. In the 89th minute of the match, Sutormin from his own half of the field made a magnificent pass to Mostovoy, who jumped out from behind the defenders, processed the ball and shot past the goalkeeper from outside the penalty area – 3: 0. It can be considered a small consolation for Sochi that the footballer did not celebrate the goal scored against his former team.

Thanks to this victory, Zenit managed to take intermediate first place in the round, ahead of Krasnodar by one point. “Sochi” had nowhere to go: it was already at the bottom. Tochilin’s team with ten points has been in sixteenth place for several rounds. The situation for the “southerners” is only getting worse. The Leopards have little prospect of changing it before the New Year. Perhaps Christian Noboa could help his team. The Ecuadorian was included in the squad for the match with Zenit, but did not take part in it.

Unexpectedly given up the lead

After a break for national team matches, the Bulls went to Yekaterinburg to play with Ural in the sixteenth round of the Russian Premier League. It seemed that this fight would not cause serious problems for the championship leaders. Viktor Goncharenko’s team was in a severe crisis: they lost their last four matches and did not win for ten rounds. Vladimir Ivich’s team should have been spurred on by the fact that the day before the match in Yekaterinburg, Zenit beat Sochi and rose to first place in the standings. To regain the lead, the “bulls” had to beat “Ural”.

From the first minutes of the match it became clear that the hosts were not going to give up easily. Goncharenko’s team did not run to attack, but did not allow the opponent to approach their goal. Teams acted cautiously for a long time. The first dangerous moment happened in the 21st minute and immediately resulted in a goal. Olakunle Olusegun burst into the Ural penalty area, accelerated into the goal line and made a soft pass into the goalkeeper. From there, John Cordoba, who was ahead of the defender, sent the ball into the net with his head.

This only made Ural angry. The hosts ran to get even. They acted actively and aggressively. Nine minutes later they managed to restore parity in the score. Timur Ayupov made a pass from the corner of the field to the goal line, where Emerson hung over Nikita Krivtsov and headed the ball into the goal.

Here Krasnodar already seized the initiative. In the fortieth minute, Lucas Olasa shot dangerously across the Ural goal, but in the end no one reached the ball. But “Krasnodar” would not be “Krasnodar” if it had not brought problems to itself.

In stoppage time of the first half, Matvey Safonov ran outside the penalty area to secure the defense and collided with Vitor Tormena. The ball bounced to Eric Bikfalvi, who shot from long range well above the goal. But the main thing is that in this episode both the defender and the goalkeeper of Krasnodar were injured. Tormena was replaced before the break. According to some reports, he suffered a concussion. Safonov’s head was bandaged, but he did not come out for the second half. Stanislav Agkatsev took his place.

“Ural” took advantage of the situation, the hosts entered the second half fired up. “Krasnodar”, on the contrary, was shy. As a result, Ivic’s team conceded the second goal in the 59th minute. Andrey Egorychev received the ball in someone else’s penalty area from Ayupov, beat Agkatsev, who had come out of the gate, and hit the target with a shot from an acute angle.

Then the Yekaterinburg residents began to act even more confidently. They did not allow the Citizens to create chances in their own penalty area. At the same time, they continued to attack. Krasnodar began to make mistakes. In the 73rd minute, the “bulls” did not understand the defense, Agkatsev hesitated in his own penalty area. If it weren’t for Olas, the ball would have gone into the empty net.

In the 86th minute of the match, Alexey Kashtanov responded to a pass from deep to the edge of the penalty area, improved his position and, with resistance, powerfully shot past the goalkeeper – 3: 1.

At the ninetieth minute of the match, Alexander Koksharov could give the Bulls hope. The striker struck over the Ural goalkeeper as he came out of the gate, but the ball only hit the crossbar.

The Bulls mediocrely lost first place to Zenit and moved to second place in the standings with 32 points. During the entire game, Krasnodar made one shot on target. You can’t win a championship with a game like this!

After the final whistle, chief referee Sergei Ivanov issued a red card to Cordoba. The Colombian made an insulting gesture towards the referee. As the media reported, already in the room under the stands the football player tried to break into the referee’s room to find out why he was sent off. Ural employees prevented the attacker from entering the judges’ room, after which the dialogue continued in the corridor. After persuasion from representatives of both teams, Cordoba calmed down and went to the locker room. The football player may face a disqualification for several matches. It is better to demonstrate such activity on the field, and not in the tribune room. “Krasnodar” itself complicates its situation.