“Sochi” overtook the “citizens” in the standings of the championship of Russia

Krasnodar failed to pass CSKA in the Way of the Russian Premier League in the Russian Cup; the “bulls” also lost points with the outsider of the championship; “Sochi” convincingly defeated the “army” and overtook the “townspeople” in the standings

Lose undefeated

Last week, the “bulls” hosted CSKA in the second leg of the Russian Cup quarterfinals. After a 3-0 defeat in Moscow, Vladimir Ivic’s team needed to score more than three goals in order to advance through the upper bracket of the tournament. But that did not happen. It is clear that, having such a big advantage in the first match, the team of Vladimir Fedotov was not particularly zealous in Krasnodar. And the owners didn’t give them much trouble. Yes, the Bulls had some half-moments. They scored their only goal in the fiftieth minute, when Eduard Spertsyan circled the wall from a free kick and sent the ball into the corner of the goal. But one goal was not enough. CSKA moved on to the “Way of the Russian Premier League”, “Krasnodar” moved to the lower bracket of the tournament.

In the first match of the spring part of the Russian championship, the “bulls” hosted an absolute outsider – the Torpedo club. In seventeen previous rounds, the Muscovites won only one victory and three draws. The last goal in the Premier League “black and white” scored as much as the second of October last year. The team showed the worst performance.

Nevertheless, in Krasnodar, the Torpedo club was already leading in the ninth minute of the match. The guests organized a lightning attack: David Karaev walked along the right flank, and then shot into the penalty area, the debutant of the Russian Premier League – striker Ilya Stefanovich – from there shot into the far corner with a touch.

“Krasnodar” ran to recoup. But the “citizens” lacked swiftness and dynamics. The opponent who went on the defensive did not allow them to create dangerous chances. Only in the 24th minute of the match the ball flew into the net of the Torpedo goal. It was Moses Kobnan who took the ball away from Ivan Enin in the guests’ penalty area, reached the front line, passed to Kadi Borges – the Brazilian shot into the near corner. The projectile offensively flew between the legs of goalkeeper Alexander Dovbny. But the bulls did not have to rejoice for long. The chief referee of the match Evgeny Kukulyak watched a video replay of the moment and noticed that before the pass the Nigerian midfielder played along with his hand, so the goal was canceled.

The “Bulls” did not protest, but only increased the pressure on the opponent’s goal. In the middle of the first half, they managed to create several 100% chances. So, once Borges hit the crossbar. Once John Cordoba hit point blank – Dovbnya saved the gate. In another episode, the Colombian did not reach the ball to close the promising transfer of Spertsyan. The implementation of the owners was just disgusting. Although you can not blame only the “bulls” for this. Torpedo fought bravely, often turned on pressure already in the middle of the field, entered into single combats, carried out dangerous counterattacks – in general, they did not look like a hopeless outsider of the tournament.

After the break, Vladimir Ivic did not make any substitutions. The game continued according to the same scenario. Only the club “Torpedo” has already begun to play for time on the sly. Many joints began to occur on the field, the guests lay on the field for a long time.

At the sixtieth minute, the ball in the Torpedo penalty area hit Ilya Kutepov. Krasnodar demanded a penalty. But Kukulyak, after watching the video replay, concluded that the game was in a natural position.

Nevertheless, the pressure on the Torpedo gate only intensified. First, Cordoba hit the post, and in the next attack, Ilzat Akhmedov shot into the center, where Sergei Petrov brought the ball into an empty net on the move – 1: 1.

“Torpedo” faltered, and Krasnodar took good advantage of this. The hosts began to create moment after moment, bringing the case to the second goal. In the seventieth minute, after a quick attack, Eduard Spertsyan, who cut off the Muscovites with an excellent pass, allowed Cordoba to go one on one and shoot into the corner of the goal – 2: 1.

Ivic reacted especially emotionally to this goal. The coach began to make substitutions, removed Moses and Akhmetov. They were replaced by Alexey Ionov and Olakunle Olusegun. A few minutes before that, Andrey Talalaev released Igor Lebedenko onto the field. The veteran of the Russian Premier League easily figured out one of the Torpedo attacks, without too much fuss in touch, driving the ball into the goal of Matvey Safonov – 2: 2.

There was little time left – Krasnodar began in a hurry to regain victory. The hosts were able to create a 100% scoring chance, but it never turned into a goal. Pupil of the “bulls” Alexander Koksharov beat from the penalty area. No one interfered with the eighteen-year-old football player, but he missed. In general, Krasnodar made nineteen shots on goal during the match – seven of them hit the target. But this was not enough to defeat the weakest team in the championship. After eighteen rounds, Krasnodar is in eighth place in the standings with 26 points.

The match with Torpedo was the first game in which a Fan ID was required to enter the Krasnodar stadium. This collapsed the attendance of local matches. If at the last game with CSKA 26314 spectators came to the arena, then only 7965 people attended the match with Fan ID – a figure that is quite predictable, but most likely temporary.

Operate as efficiently as possible

The match of the eighteenth round of the Russian championship between Sochi and the army team was completely different. This game was the return of coach Kurban Berdyev to Russian football. The debut as a coach of Sochi turned out to be spectacular. It was no surprise to anyone that under the leadership of the Turkmen, the Sochi team will play defensively. The hosts only had the ball 45 percent of the time. The quality of the game was amazing though. Sochi acted in such a way that the opponent could create little. CSKA scored only five shots on goal throughout the game.

In this fight, Soslan Dzhanaev stood at the gate in Sochi. Vanya Drkushich, Artem Meshchaninov and Sergey Terekhov acted in defense at the start. On the edge – Artem Makarchuk and Kirill Zaika. In the support zone – Christian Noboa and Ibragim Tsallagov. Playing along are Artur Yusupov and Vladislav Sarveli. On the edge – Georgy Melkadze.

The first dangerous moment in the game happened only in the 26th minute. Jorge Carrascal gave a pass to Moises. The defender immediately fired a shot into the center of the penalty area, where Fedor Chalov played a great lead, but shot close to the post.

The first serious moment at the gates of CSKA happened only in stoppage time of the first half. After drawing a free-kick, Noboa hung in the center – from there a discount followed in the goalkeeper’s area, where Terekhov had a good chance to hit his head. The ex-goalkeeper of the national team Igor Akinfeev prevented the defender of the Russian national team from doing this.

Immediately after this moment, two dangerous responses from CSKA followed. First, Carrascal shot into the corner of the goal, but Dzhanaev came to the rescue here. In the next attack, the Colombian hit again, but missed the target.

In the second half, the nature of the game has not changed. Reliable play in defense did not allow CSKA to create dangerous chances. “Sochi” acted as the second number, and at one fine moment delivered two blows, which turned out to be the most effective. At the 72nd minute of the match, the “resorts” carried out a lightning attack, Yusupov from the depth of the field gave a pass to Luka Djordjevic, who had left a minute ago, the striker was in front of Akinfeev and hit hard under the crossbar. The goalkeeper has to pull the ball out of the net. Another six minutes – and the Montenegrin striker scored a double. First, Nikita Burmistrov ran with the ball along the right flank, shot at the near post, Makarchuk tried to shoot at the goal, but could not. The ball bounced off Willian Roshi and hit Djordjevic’s leg, the forward didn’t lose his head – 2:0.

CSKA turned out to be powerless in the face of such tactics – the army team just had to finish the ball. The game of the “holidays” did not differ in any kind of entertainment, but its result exceeded all expectations. It is not surprising if Sochi in the rest of the season will spoil the mood of many noteworthy favorites. After eighteen rounds, Barsy are in seventh place with 28 points in the standings.