No one needs a draw – Sport – Kommersant

In the central Saturday match of the 22nd round of the Russian Football Championship, Spartak played a draw with Dynamo at home – 3:3. This result did not suit both teams. The red-whites, which until recently were considered the main competitor of Zenit in the fight for gold, are at risk of leaving the top three in the middle of the month, and the white-blues are still at a distance from the group of winners.

The match between Spartak and Dynamo, in fact, was a derby of losers this week. Fans of both clubs have not yet recovered from the recent fiasco in the Cup of Russia, where the red and white lost to Ural Yekaterinburg, and the white and blue lost on penalties to the middle peasants of the First League – Togliatti Akron. Hopes that Spartak will be able to impose a fight on Zenit for gold in the championship are also not justified. In four rounds, held after the winter break before the start of the 22nd round, they scored only four points, missing Rostov to second place in the standings. However, Dynamo’s harvest – six points – was not much richer, that is, a victory in Tushino was required by both.

Two of the strongest performers and leaders of the Spartak dressing room, the top scorer of the championship Quincy Promes and defender Georgiy Jikia, could not help their team due to injuries. Therefore, in the attack, the hosts, along with Alexander Sobolev, left the Senegalese Keita Balde, and a couple in the center of defense were Ruslan Litvinov and Nikita Chernov.

The first half turned out to be very lively and productive. Already in the seventh minute, taking advantage of the failure in the Dynamo defense, Sobolev, who was left alone in front of the goal after the transfer of Daniil Khlusevich from the left flank, opened the scoring with a point-blank shot.

Almost immediately, Sobolev had a chance to make a double. But the next goal was scored by the guests, who in the 35th minute carried out a quick attack. After Konstantin Tyukavin threw the ball over goalkeeper Alexander Selikhov, defender Daniil Denisov, who came on as a substitute instead of Khlusevich, who was injured, seemed to save his goal, but Arsen Zakharyan, who played to finish off, turned out to be at the right point.

However, the teams went to the break with the score 2:2. First, another inaccuracy of the Dynamo team in the middle of the field led to the fact that Mikhail Ignatov found his pass to Balda, who immaculately outplayed goalkeeper Anton Shunin. And already in stoppage time, the guests were lucky when drawing a corner: Selikhov played unsuccessfully at the exit, and the ball, hitting Sobolev’s leg, bounced into the goal.

In the second half of the meeting, emotions whipped over the edge, and the chief referee Sergei Ivanov showed four yellow cards. And there were only two heads. The 66th minute turned out to be lucky for Dynamo, which scored another curious goal. Denis Makarov excelled, making a cross from the right flank, as a result of which the ball, without hitting anyone, flew into the far corner of the goal past Selikhov. Spartak was destined to recoup in the very end. The penalty awarded for the violation on Roman Zobnin was converted by Sobolev with a shot into the bottom corner. In stoppage time, the hosts could have won, but Shunin saved his team by catching the ball after Christopher Martins hit.

As a result, a productive draw was recorded – 3:3, which, however, did not suit both teams.

Spartak is still in third place with 42 points, but CSKA, in case of Sunday’s victory over Khimki, will reduce their gap to a minimum. Dynamo, which is in sixth place, has 36 points, and it is still difficult for him to qualify for a place in the group of winners.

In two other matches of the 22nd round, held on Saturday, in the first match, Torpedo, under the leadership of the new head coach of the Spaniard Josep Clotet, outplayed Fakel Voronezh in his field – 2: 0, and Akhmat defeated at home with the same score “Ural”. The Torpedo team are still in last place, but having scored 13 points after their third victory in the current tournament, they have caught up with Khimki, who have a match in hand. As for the Grozny club, it has the same 36 points as Dynamo.

Evgeny Fedyakov