“Spartak returns to its level” – Kommersant FM

Zenit has seriously reduced the gap with the RPL leader Krasnodar. After a home victory over Samara team Krylya Sovetov (3:1) in the 12th round, the defending champion moved into second place in the standings, five points behind Krasnodar. Kommersant FM sports commentator Vladimir Osipov followed the developments in the country’s football championship.

There were more than enough surprises in the 12th round. Dynamo and Lokomotiv, who were expected to have a fun game, ended up in a goalless draw. Also, the Rubin-CSKA match ended without any goals scored. The army team lost points again and can’t get out of the middle of the standings. Even the leader Krasnodar played a draw with Baltika (2:2).

But Spartak seems to be slowly returning to its level. The red and whites finally won, beating Paris NN 2:0. I am sure that the fact that Spartak head coach Guillermo Abscal grew a mustache made many people smile. Against the backdrop of talk about the return of Stanislav Cherchesov, the situation generally became anecdotal: it didn’t work out with Cherchesov, but the people’s team still has a “mustache of hope”. Speaking seriously, the leadership of the red and white did the right thing, leaving the Spaniard at the helm, football expert Igor Shalimov is sure:

“A person will come who will also want a 3.5-year contract, the same penalty, the same salary. Then he will look and say: “To achieve my goals, I need 20 million, we need to slowly send these, take these.” It seems to me that they definitely don’t need to touch anything until winter. And if you are preparing a new coach, then in general it’s better to do it by the summer, by the next season.”

The home victory allowed Spartak to rise to fourth place and get closer to Zenit and Samara Wings, who swapped places in the table after the head-to-head meeting. Zenit took second place, and the Wings dropped to third place. The Samara club was unable to resist the pressure of the reigning champion, although the first half in St. Petersburg ended without any goals scored.

But the second half turned out to be mega-effective, especially the ending. When injury time began, Zenit was leading 2:0. and the game ended 3:1. So the Zenit players once again proved that they can get anyone out of the way, especially if we add to their skill the attitude that the hosts’ goalkeeper Denis Adamov spoke about after the victory: “You know, now, it seems to me, all games are like finals.” , because you can’t lose points, you already lost a lot at the start of the championship. That’s why we approach every game as if it were a final.”

The Rostov players need to go into every game with the same attitude. After all, after the record outsiders Fakel and Sochi won victories, Rostov found itself in the direct relegation zone – in 15th place. True, Valery Karpin’s team was not there for long. A 3:0 victory over Akhmat corrected the situation, and Rostov moved into 10th place.

There were a lot of judges’ sandals in the 12th round. The strange decisions of the referees, who for some reason do not give red cards where it seemed unavoidable, raise questions. Ural head coach Viktor Goncharenko remained eloquently silent regarding the refereeing. And Paris NN coach Sergei Yuran could not remain silent: “Enough of these moments, really. I’m getting a little tired of these double standards.”

It seems that the new chief of referees, Serbian Milorad Mazic, is unable to reduce the number of refereeing errors. We can only wait for a truly loud scandal that will lead to new changes in the most problematic department of our football.

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