“Orenburg” played a draw with Voronezh “Fakel” in the group stage match of the Russian Cup

The fourth round of the group stage of the “RPL Path” of the “Fonbet” Russian Cup ended with a meeting in which “Orenburg” did not play well during the main time of the home match with “Fakel”, which resulted in a goalless draw, but gained a bonus point in the penalty shootout and remained the leader of Group A .

This game made a strange impression. There was some kind of terrible dissonance in it. On the one hand, “Orenburg” seemed to convincingly illustrate the point of the magical transformation that happened to it after the unexpected appearance of the unknown Spaniard David Deogracia in the coaching post. Even in the “cup” squad, that is, whatever one may say, far from a fighting squad, he showed the same football that has helped the Orenburg team for a month now remain invulnerable in official matches, fight on equal terms with CSKA, beat Sochi and Lokomotiv, – trendy football, from possession, from passing, densely delineating the other half with lines of aggravating passes. On the other hand, the trendiness was contrasted with the constant, with its frequency, simply completely killing ideas about “Orenburg” as a new powerful force in domestic football, and failures in the rear.

As a result, in the first half, the hosts had a bunch of attacks that instantly disappeared from memory due to the lack of sharpness of attacks on the opponent’s goal, while the guests had a bunch of attacks that were stuck in it for a long time through the corridors laid by Orenburg’s carelessness.

First – on the left, through Khyzyr Appaev, then – on the right, through 16-year-old Andrei Ivlev. Ivlev generally had a magnificent chance – he just needed to get into the far corner. He didn’t hit.

And for dessert, Matvey Ivakhnov’s trick before the break, created out of nothing. The ball is in the penalty area, there is no time or space to swing. And Ivakhnov performs a sharp scoop without him at all, and the ball goes straight under the crossbar. “Orenburg” was saved from harm by the jump of goalkeeper Andrei Khodanovich.

The changes in the game that occurred in the second half, perhaps, slightly added solidity and severity to it, but certainly did not decorate it. This was the case when a straight course was laid out towards 0:0, and there were practically no opportunities to turn away from it. Well, except that in the end, Orenburg again started playing weird in defense and gave Maxim Maximov an almost clean one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Maksimov, however, did not even celebrate the goal he scored with the help of Orenburg defender Danila Khotulev, correctly feeling that he was offside.

The hosts seemed to be pricked by this attack, and they considered it necessary to respond to it with their own attack. The Torch survived.

The advantage of the Russian Cup regulations is that even a rather bland 0:0 will definitely be flavored with dessert in the form of a series of penalty kicks. This series brought success to Orenburg thanks to the unlucky penalty kickers of Fakel.

Alexander Dolgov managed to throw the ball into the milk, having already laid the goalkeeper on the lawn, and Maksimov shot at the crossbar.

The bonus point they gained allowed the Orenburg team to remain at the top of the Group A table. They are one point ahead of its favorite CSKA. However, neither one nor the other club has yet secured access to the playoffs from a tight quartet two rounds before the end of the group stage. Sochi is three points behind Orenburg, Fakel is four.

Alexey Dospehov