Kuban clubs have reached their last matches of 2023

FC Krasnodar regained first place. PFC Sochi has lost its main coach. “MK in Kuban” is about the main sporting events in the Krasnodar region.

They took advantage of Zenit’s mistake

In the seventeenth round of the Russian Championship, the Bulls hosted an outsider, Orenburg. While in the capital football was already played in the snow, in Krasnodar the match took place at a quite comfortable temperature: 15-18 °C. Despite the weekend and good weather, the game did not attract many spectators. 16,889 people came to the stadium.

After the defeat (3:1) from the not very strong Ural, the outcome of the match with Orenburg did not look clear. In addition, the “black-and-greens” could not count on their main scorer, John Cordoba. The Colombian received a four-match disqualification (one match suspended) after immediately making an indecent gesture towards the referee at the final whistle, and then trying to get into the referee’s locker room.

Vladimir Ivic condemned the behavior of the Colombian. He said that the suspension will have consequences for the striker and he does not intend to cover it up.

— I am a coach who insists on discipline. She is very important to me. None of us expected what Cordoba did. “He punished the team and himself,” the Serbian specialist said after the match with Orenburg.

Instead of Cordoba, the coach released eighteen-year-old Alexander Koksharov at the forefront of the attack. Kadi Borges was also unable to take part in the game with Orenburg. The Brazilian received a fourth card in the match with Ural and missed the match.

Sixteen minutes into the match, Lucas Olasa pulled a back muscle – the experienced Uruguayan had to be replaced by the young Georgiy Harutyunyan. Orenburg was clearly inspired by the recent cup victory over Spartak and could well count on taking points from the leader. The guests started the match confidently. Open football immediately began at the Krasnodar stadium. Even before Olasa left, the Bulls could have opened the scoring. In the twelfth minute of the match, Eduard Spertsyan sharply shot from the left edge of the penalty area from under Mikhail Sivakov into the far corner – Alexey Kenyaykin reacted and parried the shot.

“Orenburg” was not satisfied with the role of number two; the team did not sit on the defensive. At every opportunity, the guests ran to Matvey Safonov’s goal. Such tactics of the opponent only played into the hands of the “townspeople”. They had free zones on the opponent’s side and could attack, as they say, in a big way. As a result, in the first half the “bulls” had a decent number of scoring chances.

So, in the 39th minute of the match, Olakunle Olusegun shot dangerously from the right into the goalkeeper’s area, Koksharov almost reached the ball. Immediately after this episode, Batchi crossed into the penalty area, Sergei Volkov made a header towards the goal, where Koksharov and Banyats simply interfered with each other, and Spertsyan did not have time to react to the ball bouncing to the side. A minute later, Volkov, with a pass from the right into the penalty area, found Spertsyan on the goal line, the Armenian national team midfielder skillfully cut the ball over the goalkeeper, but it turned out above the goal.

And yet, the “black-and-greens” were able to score in the first half. This happened already in added time. Olusegun went one on one with the goalkeeper, Kenyakin had no choice but to commit a last resort foul. Chief referee Artem Chistyakov issued a yellow card to the goalkeeper and pointed to the spot. According to tradition, Spertsyan shot from eleven meters. The shot was confident, low under the left post. Kenyaikin guessed the direction of the ball’s flight, but did not reach it.

After the break, nothing changed. Both teams had approaches to the opponent’s goal. Despite the fact that the hosts looked better, the Orenburg team managed to level the score. In the 51st minute of the match, the “citizens” lost the ball, first Leo Goglichidze passed to Lucas Vera, who sent a great cross from the left flank into the penalty area. There, Stepan Oganesyan jumped and hit the ball with his head into the net. Safonov could not help in this episode.

At this point, in the parallel match, Zenit was losing to Lokomotiv. This chance could not be missed. But Orenburg no longer left the Krasnodar team so much room for maneuver. The game has stalled a bit. Moments stopped arising. The guests began to act to hold the account.

In this situation, Ivic decided to change the course of the game with the help of substitutions. Nikita Krivtsov and Ilzat Akhmetov came on instead of Batchi and Mikhailo Banjac. And the replacements worked. In the 76th minute, Orenburg coped with Spertsyan’s cross from the corner, but the ball remained under Krasnodar’s control. As a result, Junior Alonso crossed from the left into the center of the penalty area, and the short Akhmetov from there made a great header into the corner of the goal.

Here Orenburg coach David Deogracia tried to change the game with substitutions, releasing three fresh players at once. But Krasnodar finished the game confidently. Ivic’s team more or less learned to hold on to the result, go on the defensive, and play for time somewhere. The result was 2:1. The loss (3:1) of Zenit in a parallel match with Lokomotiv allowed the Bulls to return to first place in the standings with thirty-five points. The gap from St. Petersburg is two points.

This victory was the first in the Russian Premier League for Ivic, without Cordoba in the lineup. In total, the coach played thirty matches in the Russian Championship and led Krasnodar all this time.

Next weekend, the Citizens will play at home against CSKA. This will be the last match in 2023. Ivic’s team needs a victory, but achieving it will not be so easy. In the thirteenth round, Vladimir Fedotov’s team won a victory over the “bulls” with a minimal score. Zenit will have a more convenient opponent in the eighteenth round – Paris Nizhny Novgorod. In addition, the game will take place in St. Petersburg.

They burrow into the bottom

In the seventeenth round, Leopards hosted one of the leaders of the championship, Krylya Sovetov. In this match, the team with the best attack in the Russian Premier League (34 goals) and the team with the worst defense (28 goals) met. The outcome of this fight was not difficult to predict. And the miracle did not happen. Although the course of the meeting was not so clear-cut.

For the first time in the Russian Premier League, Vladimir Pisarsky started at the base of Krylia Sovetov. The ball almost didn’t reach him. In this match, Igor Osinkin’s team was in a hurry and made a lot of mistakes. The Sochi team could have scored as early as the sixth minute of the match. Georgy Melkadze shot from a tight angle, Ivan Lomaev helped out. With a second strike, the Georgian striker threw the ball over the goalkeeper, but then Glenn Bale managed to provide backup and clear the ball from the tape.

In the twentieth minute, Fernando Costanza fell in the hosts’ penalty area after making contact with Marcelo Alves. The Orenburg defender clearly wanted to earn a penalty, but received a yellow card for simulation.

Before the break, the game was not remembered for any significant events. Then Vyacheslav Litvinov was injured in the thirtieth minute of the match. He was replaced by Ivan Miladinovic. In the first half, the teams each had one shot on target.

The second half turned out to be more interesting. In the 59th minute, Nikita Saltykov swayed Marcelo near the penalty line and sent the ball under the far post with a dribbling shot. Nikita Goilo managed to jump out and send the ball to the corner. The set piece also turned out to be a goal. Bale crossed from the corner of the field into the center of the penalty area, from where Costanza headed the ball into the post.

Osinkin considered that the time had come to put the squeeze on Sochi. The coach refreshed the attack: instead of Saltykov and Pisarsky, Amar Rakhmanovich and Vladislav Shitov entered the field. After that, Krylia Sovetov scored. In the 71st minute of the match, Bale ran behind Martin Kramaric and crossed from the goal line almost to the penalty line, where Roman Yezhov headed it into the far corner. Goilo was caught in the opposite direction.

The next attack by Krylia Sovetov should also have ended in a goal. After Shitov’s pass, Rakhmanovich’s first shot was parried by Goilo, and the second was deflected by the crossbar. Benjamin Garre tried to finish, but then the Sochi goalkeeper came to the rescue again.

In the 77th minute, Alexander Tochilin sent Leopards leader Christian Noboa onto the field. But the Ecuadorian is not yet in the shape to decide the outcome of the match alone, as was once the case. The coach sacrificed a defender in favor of an additional player on the attack line: Miguel Silveira came on instead of Igor Yurganov. Osinkin, on the contrary, began to strengthen his defense. As a result, Sochi failed to make a single shot on target in the second half. Only 2,637 spectators watched this game.

In added time of the match, after one of the counterattacks, Kirill Zaika brought down Shitov in the penalty area. Vladimir Moskalev pointed to the point. The penalty was taken by Garre. The striker fired into the right corner, Goilo did not guess the direction of the shot – 0: 2. After seventeen rounds, Sochi still ranks last in the standings with ten points.

The next day, the club management announced the removal of head coach Alexander Tochilin from working with the team. Under the leadership of the 49-year-old specialist, the club played twelve matches in all official tournaments. During this time, Sochi was able to win only two victories, one draw and lose nine meetings. Denis Klyuev will serve as head coach for the final game of the calendar year against Orenburg.

But these, of course, are half measures. Sochi needs a full-fledged mentor and, perhaps, a good shake-up of the team. It will be very difficult for the Sochi team to finish the championship outside the zone even with a play-off match. There are now nine points between twelfth and sixteenth place. But the “resort residents” are still quite capable of competing in the play-offs. Orenburg, which is in fourteenth place, has fourteen points, and Akhmat, located one line higher, has sixteen points. The southerners play at home with Orenburg in the last match of 2023. In the spring, the championship resumes with an away match against Baltika, which is in fifteenth place. Everything will depend on the personnel decisions of the management and the work done at the winter training camp.