“Rostov” passed along the “Nizhny” – Sport – Kommersant

In the lower part of the play-off bracket of the Fonbet Cup of Russia on football, all semi-finalists were determined. Following Akron, Krasnodar and Dynamo, Rostov became one, defeating Paris Nizhny Novgorod 1-0. In this match, everything was decided by the exact blow of Roman Tugarev.

Just four days ago, Nizhny Novgorod and Rostov played each other in the Russian Championship, and now they met in a cup match, only having exchanged stadiums. In the 19th round of the national championship, the club from the banks of the Don won 2:1 at home. Then the decisive goal was scored in stoppage time from a penalty, which fully fell under the definition of “controversial”. In addition, according to experts, the referees erroneously counted the first goal of the Rostovites. And in terms of the game itself, Nizhny looked no worse then, so the next confrontation between the teams was absolutely unpredictable.

In principle, the Cup is always a separate story, which was once again proved, for example, by the first semifinal match of Krylia Sovetov with CSKA, when the Samara team gave the army team a fight (2:2) immediately after a major defeat from them in the Premier League (0:4 ). In addition, both Rostov head coach Valery Karpin and his colleague from Nizhny Novgorod Artem Gorlov made an extensive rotation of lineups that were strikingly different from those that started the recent meeting in the championship.

Home walls gave Nizhny Novgorod additional confidence, and they did not hesitate to impose their will on an opponent who is much higher in the Premier League standings.

In the championship, Rostov is still third and competes with Spartak for second place. However, the attacks of the hosts lacked an accentuated ending, and the ball practically did not reach the goalkeeper of the guests, Sergei Pesyakov.

Nizhny Novgorod goalkeeper Artur Nigmatullin was also mostly bored, but closer to the break he still experienced several unpleasant moments. And when Nikolai Komlichenko closed Roman Tugarev’s serve with his head, Nigmatullin, together with the barbell, had to save his partners at all. I still remember the blow of the midfielder of Rostovites Alexander Selyava from the penalty area. In that episode, probably, Nigmatullin would not have helped if Karpin’s ward had been a little more precise. So the zeros at the end of the first half were rather in favor of Nizhny.

In the debut of the second half, Rostov again tried to open an account, in which Tugarev scored two blows. But the hosts again gradually pushed the game away from their own goal to someone else’s, although they were still limited only to approaches to the penalty area. But the guests went into it, and Tugarev had a great moment after a heel pass by Yegor Golenkov. Fortunately for Nizhny Novgorod, he gave the goalkeeper a chance, and Nigmatullin scored another save.

Only in the 79th minute did Pesyakov finally manage to help out, when Nikolai Kalinsky decided to shoot from afar, and Momo Yansane ran into finishing moves. The goalkeeper fought back, and in response, the Rostovites effectively played a corner. The ball jumped out of the thick of the players to the far post, and persistent Tugarev hammered it into the net.

Nizhny had very little time left to get away from defeat and bring the match to a penalty shootout. The hosts tried to arrange a bulk, but “Rostov”, reliably defending throughout the meeting, did not flinch even in a tense endgame. Karpin’s team turned out to be stronger again – 1:0 – and made it through the “Path of Regions” to the semi-finals of the lower bracket of the play-off of the Russian Cup.

Alexander Ilyin