“Krasnodar” did not exchange with “Zenith”

The change of leader that occurred during the 14th round of the Russian Football Championship was short-term in nature. Having beaten Krylia Sovetov 2:1, Krasnodar was again ahead of Zenit by two points. And CSKA took advantage of the defeat of the Samara team, which, having defeated Paris Nizhny Novgorod – 3:2, pushed them out of third place. Meanwhile, the derby between Lokomotiv and Spartak did not reveal a winner – 1:1.

Before the central match of the 14th round between Krasnodar and Krylia Sovetov An important change took place in the Russian championship, and Zenit took first place, defeating Baltika on Saturday (2:0) and scoring 29 points. The Kuban team, which had been in the lead for a long time, came second with 28 points and now found themselves in the role of catching up. Meanwhile, the meeting with the Samara club, which closed the top three, did not at all guarantee them a favorable outcome.

True, “Wings” have clearly slowed down recently, losing eight points in three rounds. So in Krasnodar, they somehow gave a head start to the opponent too quickly, when the home team’s ramming striker John Cordoba easily passed the central defender Roman Evgeniev and, despite the fact that goalkeeper Bogdan Ovsyannikov parried his shot, did not switch out of the fight, finishing the ball into an empty net . And although the guests made attempts to win back, the first half ended 1:0 in favor of Krasnodar.

“Wings” again lacked their former courage, which disappeared somewhere after they crushed “Spartak” on their field (4:0).

And Vladimir Ivich’s team acted in its usual pragmatic style, strictly based on the result, but without closing down and trying to increase it. She attacked much more sharply, and it is logical that she scored the second goal. And if first Olakunle Olusegun hit the post, then later, when Juan Bashi made a perfect pass into the penalty area, he headed the ball into the net.

Samara nevertheless created intrigue in the end thanks to Vladimir Pisarsky’s goal from a pass from Nikolai Rasskazov. However, it cannot be said that the Kuban team got nervous. They dried up the game and quite confidently brought it to victory – 2:1. Thus, Krasnodar regained the lead and restored the two-point lead over Zenit. But which of them will complete the first round of the championship as a leader will determine their personal confrontation in the next round, which will, in fact, be worth its weight in gold.

CSKA vs Nizhny Novgorod match also could not be called ordinary, since both clubs were vying for a place in the top three. Considering that the army team was facing the second Premier League team at that time in terms of defensive reliability, a priori a difficult test awaited them. They really had problems breaking through the organized defense, and Nizhny Novgorod also showed their worth in attack. It was they who opened the scoring through the efforts of Dmitry Stotsky, who ran to a flank cross into the penalty area and headed it in with no chance for goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev. Although it seemed that a little earlier Nikolai Kalinsky had missed the ball out of bounds, even VAR did not record an out in that episode. So the violent protest on the part of the owners led to nothing.

But immediately after this, CSKA found an approach to Artur Nigmatullin’s goal. Ivan Oblyakov crossed in the direction of the far post, where Fyodor Chalov was looming, who was trying to substitute his foot. The goal seemed to be credited to the striker, but later it was officially reassigned to Oblyakov. However, soon the army team missed from the corner. Nikita Kakkoev and Alexander Troshechkin won their duels, and Viktor Aleksandrov simply brought the ball over the ribbon. And so Nizhny took the first half, climbing to third place online.

But after the break, the guests paid for their excessive, albeit natural desire to play to keep the score. In just two minutes the red and blue turned the tide of the match. Abbosbek Faizullaev burst into someone else’s penalty area twice in a row and gave two assists. Moreover, in the first case, the cross of the Uzbek legionnaire of CSKA was closed by his compatriot from Nizhny Ibrogimkhalil Yuldoshev, and then Viktor Davila scored. Faizullaev could have scored a goal himself, but Nigmatullin coped with his tricky shot. The army team won a strong-willed victory 3:2, and now they occupy third place in the standings with 24 points.

Derby “Lokomotiv” – “Spartak” in principle it was difficult to ignore. The red-whites had Quincy Promes recovering from injury, but were missing central defenders Srdjan Babic, who received a red card in the last round, and Georgiy Dzhikia, who was out of action for health reasons. In addition, Alexander Sobolev remained on the bench, and Spartak head coach Guillermo Abascal again resorted to a tactical scheme without nominal forwards.

For Lokomotiv, the role of the tip was traditionally played by Artem Dzyuba, but in the opening, it seems that the hosts of the RZD Arena played without a striker. The visitors, with the agile Promes at the forefront, looked more mobile and appeared in the opponent’s penalty area more often. Nevertheless, the match passed with virtually no bright moments or even a hint of a goal.

In almost 40 minutes, the teams made only one shot on target, and the railway workers did not shoot at all.

But Spartak still cannot live without adventures. Central defender Alexis Duarte lost the ball in the middle of the field and provoked a dangerous counter-attack, which was stopped only by a foul on Anton Miranchuk by Daniil Khlusevich. The violation occurred at the entrance to the penalty area, so the red and white managed to avoid a penalty, but not another red card. The red-greens did not implement this standard, as well as the next one, when Lokomotiv captain Dmitry Barinov finally tested goalkeeper Alexander Maksimenko, but they earned such a significant bonus for the second half as a numerical majority.

Another thing is that Spartak had no intention of clinging to a goalless draw and unexpectedly offered active football in the minority. The guests played a beautiful combination with the participation of Danil Prutsev, Promes and Anton Zinkovsky, who brought them ahead. True, they did not lead for long and still missed Dzyuba. Maxim Glushenkov passed the ball to him when he was in a position from which such an experienced master usually does not miss. The red and whites still continued to hope for victory and were aimed at attacking, and in response they encountered painful injections from Lokomotiv. In particular, Dmitry Rybchinsky miraculously missed the goal when he picked up a rebound from Maksimenko after a shot from Sergei Pinyaev. But Promes also missed in a scoring situation, when he rushed off virtually one-on-one with goalkeeper Ilya Lantratov.

As a result, the derby ended in a draw – 1:1. Spartak and Lokomotiv are level with Dynamo, which also has 21 points so far. At the same time, the blue and whites still have to meet away from Sochi in the 14th round.

Alexander Ilyin