Krasnodar scored one point in the match with Akhmat and maintained their leadership in the Premier League

In the eighth round of the Russian Football Championship, Akhmat managed to slow down Krasnodar, which was in first place, and achieved a 1:1 draw. Now the Premier League leader has 18 points. The second position with 15 points was taken by Krylya Sovetov, who played 2:2 with CSKA. Spartak moved up to sixth place with 13 points after beating Sochi 1:0.

In the eighth round, two more matches took place that influenced the balance of power at the top of the Russian Premier League table. Dynamo, after a 1:1 draw with Paris Nizhny Novgorod, although it came into intermediate second place with 15 points, missed the opportunity to catch up with Krasnodar. And now the championship leader has a chance to increase the distance from the same Dynamo team to five points. True, for this it was necessary to defeat Akhmat in Grozny, which, under the new head coach Miroslav Romashchenko, again turned into a very tough nut to crack, having ceased not only to lose, but also to concede.

Meanwhile, pressure was exerted on Krasnodar by Krylia Sovetov, who were three points away from them before the eighth round. The Samarans were visiting CSKA and, not seeming to be favorites against the Moscow giants, immediately made it clear that they had come to the capital for the maximum result. Already in the debut, “Wings” attacked the opponent’s goal so much that the army team trembled under this pressure. Nikolai Rasskazov himself accelerated and completed the attack, finishing the ball into the net after setting up Fernando Costanzi and saving Igor Akinfeev. And in the middle of the first half, the hosts lost leading defender Moises due to injury and immediately ran into a second goal.

Costanza played well in pressing, Amar Rakhmanovich in play-by-play, and Nikita Saltykov in the final phase. The 19-year-old midfielder very confidently dealt with the experienced Akinfeev, putting the goalkeeper on the lawn and shooting him in the opposite direction.

Before the break, CSKA had nothing at all in attack, except set pieces, one of which led to visiting goalkeeper Ivan Lomaev for some reason hitting Willian Rocha in the face with his hand. Thus, the Muscovites earned a “garbage” penalty and reduced the difference to a minimum. Although Anton Zabolotny squeaked in this 11-meter shot, and Lomaev almost corrected his own mistake.

In the second half, the red-blues still looked difficult and tried to simply load the ball into the Samara penalty area as often as possible. In addition, they were let down by Rocha, who received a second yellow card and left the field early. But, oddly enough, it was in the minority that CSKA played much better, and unexpectedly the team was led by 19-year-old Abbosbek Faizullaev. The Uzbek legionnaire almost scored himself, hitting the crossbar, and assisted Fedor Chalov, who equalized the score.

In the end, “Wings” could still snatch victory when Saltykov again jumped out one on one with Akinfeev and sent the ball near the post.

On the other hand, they could have lost if central defender Alexander Soldatenkov had not stopped Zabolotny’s breakthrough by sending him off. As a result, the match ended in a draw – 2:2. The Samara team scored 15 points and moved to second place thanks to their advantage over Dynamo in additional indicators, while CSKA gained 12.

Only Krasnodar was undefeated in the Premier League, but in Grozny the leader was already losing 0:1 in the third minute. “Akhmat” grabbed the guests in the center of the field and ran with lightning speed into a counterattack, at the forefront of which was Ivan Oleynikov. The midfielder slipped into the penalty area between two central defenders and delivered an irresistible shot for Matvey Safonov. But the Kuban goalkeeper pulled out two difficult goals when Miroslav Bogosavac and Bernard Berisha scored, and in the second case he was also helped by the bar.

For Krasnodar, John Cordoba had a scoring chance when he had already dribbled past goalkeeper Georgiy Shelia, but defender Yasmin Chelikovic protected him. In addition, the referees canceled the Colombian striker’s goal due to offside. It seemed that Kadi Borgis also scored from an offside position at the end of the first half, but VAR sorted out the episode and counted the goal. Moreover, Kadi immediately passed the ball to Olakunle Olusegun on an empty target, and the Grozny team was very lucky that the Nigerian missed. Shelia also made a blunder, and Cordoba was close to scoring again.

However, the most surprising thing happened at the beginning of the second half. It’s difficult to explain how Vladimir Ilyin hit the post from two meters when he beat Safonov at the break and no longer saw absolutely any obstacles in front of him.

This was probably the mistake of the season. “Ilyin’s disease” was also picked up by another Akhmat striker, Mohamed Konate, who also ruined a good chance as soon as he entered the game from the bench.

The Kuban team, in turn, replaced Eduard Spertsyan, whom their head coach Vladimir Ivich decided to keep after returning from the Armenian national team. But the guests also failed to improve the implementation. No one interfered with Juan Bashi, and he artlessly shot from a convenient position at Shelia. Thus, here too the rivals split amicably – 1:1. Krasnodar left two points in Grozny, but nevertheless retained its lead in the championship with 18 points.

Meanwhile, the misfires of competitors allowed Spartak to rise, which dropped to tenth place with ten points. After a four-match series of failures, the red and white needed a bloody nose to win at home to Sochi. However, they ran into problems again. In the first half, the Muscovites had the initiative and organized several sharp approaches to the goal, but on the whole the Sochi team calmly fought back. In the second half, the hosts rarely threatened visiting goalkeeper Nikolai Zabolotny. Only towards the end of the match he made two saves, parrying headers from Quincy Promes and Daniil Denisov. And then Jesus Medina managed to miss Promes’ cross at the far post.

At the same time, Sochi’s Christian Noboa could well have scored a crazy goal from a corner. The Chernomorians even finished the match with ten men due to the injury of Vanya Drkusic, when their limit of substitutions had already been exhausted. And Spartak still snatched victory in stoppage time. Central defender Srdjan Babic entered the opponent’s penalty area and pushed the ball into the net. With 13 points, the red-whites will now certainly feel much more comfortable, especially ahead of the upcoming derby with Dynamo.

Alexander Ilyin