“Spartak” showed a high cup capacity – Newspaper Kommersant No. 26 (7471) dated 02/11/2023
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In the Winter Cup of the Russian Premier League (RPL), a match took place that could be called a hidden final. “Spartak” beat “Sochi” with a score of 2:0 and ahead of schedule became the winner of the representative tournament.
Spartak and Sochi approached the face-to-face confrontation in the third round of the RPL Winter Cup with the best performance. Muscovites with five points were in first place, while Chernomortsy with three points were in second position, ahead of Krasnodar in terms of goal difference. It was enough for the red-whites to win the cup in the final match both in regular time and in the penalty shoot-out, and even one point scored left them with good chances of success. Sochi could intercept the trophy with a prize of 7 million rubles. only on the condition of a full victory.
However, cup after cup, and the teams continued to work according to their own plans. In particular, the head coach of Spartak Guillermo Abascal again put up the original version of the starting lineup, which now includes both new defenders – Alexis Duarte and Tomas Tavares, as well as striker Keita Balde. Perhaps the Sochi mentor Kurban Berdyev would also play newcomers if he had them, but he immediately released almost his best shots.
Spartak actively started the match, and again, as in the previous meeting with Krasnodar, Pavel Meleshin, who was put forward on the edge, stood out in its ranks. Already in his debut, the 18-year-old striker hit twice on goal from good positions, but missed both chances, although in the first episode he still hit the target. Sochi also gradually ran up, responding with two sharp attacks involving Georgy Melkadze. Muscovites goalkeeper Alexander Maksimenko even had to bail out the team when Duarte frankly yawned at the attacking Black Sea team and allowed him to take the ball behind him in the penalty area.
However, in the middle of the first half, Sochi ran into a classic counterattack after getting bogged down in the opponent’s half of the field. Balde brought one on one with goalkeeper Mikhail Ignatov, who started exactly from the center line and, not getting close to Denis Adamov, shot right into the corner. The Chernomortsy, however, had doubts about the correctness of the goal, and they made a request for an offside position, which was due to them according to the regulations. But referee Vladislav Bezborodov confirmed the goal. And closer to the break, Balde himself completed the swift combination of Spartak. Danil Prutsev threw Ignatov into the gap with a long-range pass, and he gave an equally flawless pass to the Senegalese, who skillfully hit Adamov in the opposite direction.
In the 45th minute, the red-and-whites conceded a curious goal, when the ball, after Timofey Margasov’s cut, flew to Sergei Terekhov, who sent it into the net. But in that episode, upon contact with Melkadze, Maksimenko fell on the lawn. The Spartak coaching staff also exercised their right to request, and the video review showed that the Sochi player really broke the rules. As a result, the score did not change, and the Muscovites retained the “plus two” advantage for the second half.
After the break, according to tradition, substitutions followed, however, they were not massive. At first, Abascal limited himself to only two permutations, removing Duarte and Tavares from the game. And this could well be regarded as the desire of the Moscow club not to take risks and not to miss the pre-season, but still a trophy. Moreover, Meleshin could very quickly finally kill the intrigue when he fell out on the gate after another successful action in the accompaniment of Ignatov. Adamov parried his blow. Then Abascal nevertheless refreshed the front line, which, with the advent of Alexander Sobolev and Shamar Nicholson, did not become less formidable. And by the 70th minute, the teams had actually come to terms with the result, and then the match was more like a training two-way match.
Spartak won 2:0 and confidently won the RPL Winter Cup. This is Abascal’s first trophy with the red-whites, who – which is probably much more important at this stage – have shown a fairly high readiness for the restart of the season.
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