Lokomotiv drew with Krasnodar in the home match of the 22nd round of the RPL

In the central match of the 22nd round of the Russian Championship, Lokomotiv played a draw at home with Krasnodar – 1:1. Thus, the guests missed the chance to regain the leadership in the Premier League, which Zenit retained.

The confrontation between Lokomotiv and Krasnodar was already considered central in the 22nd round, and after Zenit took only one point in the meeting with Krylya Sovetov, it acquired even more importance, because the result depended on it. will the Kuban team return to first place? As you know, they recently removed Vladimir Ivich from his post as head coach and signed a contract with Murad Musaev for the remainder of the championship, who had already worked with the team in the past and twice led it to bronze medals. So for the 40-year-old specialist, who recently headed the Azerbaijani Sabah, this was the first match after Sergei Galitsky returned to the club.

In the two previous rounds, Krasnodar missed five points, as did Lokomotiv, which also stalled at the restart of the season. Actually, Musaev was required to stir up the “bulls” who had fallen into some kind of stupor as quickly as possible. True, the railway workers’ mentor, Mikhail Galaktionov, faced a similar task. In addition, after the misfires of their competitors, the red-greens had the opportunity to rise to fourth place and get within just one victory of the bottom three Dynamo.

In general, the stakes were very high. At the same time, Lokomotiv, for various reasons, dropped out of the rotation five players of the main team – Artem Dzyuba, Nair Tiknizyan, Zherzino Nyamsi, Artem Karpukas and Sergei Pinyaev.

Krasnodar also suffered personnel losses, but more modest ones – in the person of Lucas Olasa and Olakunle Olusegun. But the team’s two top scorers in the current championship, John Cordoba and Eduard Spertsyan, who scored 17 goals between them, reunited again after serving their suspensions.

It was Spertsyan who earned a dangerous set-piece near the penalty area in the debut and executed it himself. The ball flew over the crossbar from the wall, but Spertsyan scored from the corner, so cleverly passing it to the near post that Lokomotiv striker Timur Suleymanov mixed up the goal and hit his own. The hosts of the Russian Railways Arena could immediately get even when Maxim Glushenkov jumped out almost one on one with the goalkeeper from the right flank. The situation was defused by Nikita Krivtsov, who, on the verge of being sent off, managed to knock down his opponent just before the penalty area. However, in that episode the Krasnodar player received not only a yellow card, but also an injury, leaving the field in the 16th minute.

Then Ilya Samoshnikov had the right chance, who had already been taken one-on-one with Matvey Safonov, but the visiting goalkeeper parried his shot, after which he also blocked an attempt to score from Glushenkov’s penalty area. “Lokomotiv” generally had a game advantage, and the Kuban team acted in almost the same manner as under Ivic, when, having the lead, they also often rolled back and suffered in defense, counting on counterattacks through Cordoba looming ahead. Apparently, what they expect from Musaev is not this kind of football, but a bolder and more pleasing to the eye football, but this will take time. It is clear that during the short training camp during the break for national team matches, it was difficult for him to change the style he inherited from his former coach.

Perhaps, at this stage, it is much more important that Musaev managed to set up Krasnodar emotionally. And he himself was on fire on the edge of the field, even running into a warning for excessively heated arguments with the referee.

The teams fought in earnest and even before the break they had three yellow cards, in the future at great risk of being in the minority.

In the second half, the guests already adjusted their tactics and tried to play according to the principle “the best defense is an attack.” They competently pushed Lokomotiv towards its goal and periodically delivered harassing blows, while Safonov calmly stood on the sidelines. Krasnodar even organized the second goal when Cordoba single-handedly pushed through almost three defenders, and Spertsyan helped in the rebound and drove the ball into the net. But the Colombian still went offside and the Muscovites immediately equalized the score after Vladislav Sarveli subtly played along with Glushenkov, who accurately shot into the near corner from under Vitor Tormena.

A draw obviously suited neither one nor the other, and the teams produced a fiery ending with an exchange of sharp attacks. The railway workers, for example, did not realize a two-on-one chance, and Mikhailo Banyats could have brought victory to the guests literally in the last seconds, when the hosts were saved by goalkeeper Ilya Lantratov. As a result, this fighting match with 11 yellow cards ended 1:1. “Krasnodar” with 40 points remained in second place, and “Lokomotiv” scored 33 and was in fifth after CSKA, to which it is inferior in additional indicators.

Alexander Ilyin