"Spartak" was interrupted at the most interesting place - Sport - Kommersant
In the 20th round of the Russian Football Championship, one of the leaders, Spartak, was defeated. Muscovites lost on the road to Orenburg with a score of 0:2 and can now not only let Zenit lead the Premier League by 11 points, but also let Rostov pass to second place, still two points behind them. Meanwhile, Dynamo defeated Ural 1:0, while Lokomotiv defeated Krasnodar 3:2, losing 0:2.
Match "Spartak" with "Orenburg" opened the program of the 20th round. Everyone knows that the Ural club is exceptionally good on its artificial field. In nine previous home meetings, he suffered only one defeat with seven victories. It seemed that Marcel Lichka's team would be weakened by the departure of one of the top scorers in the championship, Vladimir Pisarsky, who previously played under the name Sycheva, but no. Having defeated Sochi 4-0 away, she showed that she can be strong without him.
Now Spartak has also inherited from Orenburg. Already by the 23rd minute, the contender for the silver medals was burning 0:2. At first, the creative Anton Zinkovsky so “created” in the middle of the field that he lost the ball, which Dmitry Vorobyov immediately delivered to Yuri Kovalev, who went one on one with the goalkeeper and confidently dealt with Alexander Selikhov. And soon Brian Mansilla easily ran away from Daniil Denisov on the left flank and shot at Vorobyov, who scored the second goal with his heel. Moreover, the hosts continued to torment Spartak with their counterattacks, and he acted extremely unsuccessfully in a positional attack.
For the red-whites it was the worst match in a long time, and everything went to the fact that their ten-game unbeaten streak would be interrupted in Orenburg.
Moreover, the guests were teetering on the brink of a major defeat. Already in the second half, Mansilla could score twice - Selikhov saved Spartak. Only after an hour of the game, scoring chances began to appear at the gates of Nikolai Sysuev, but Ruslan Litvinov and Shamar Nicholson missed them, and Alexander Sobolev hit the post. Muscovites were also lucky when Lucas Vera missed an almost empty target. However, Nicholson made some unimaginable miss from two meters. "Spartak" lost 0:2 and, left with 40 points, risks losing the second position in the championship, which in case of a victory over "Khimki" on Sunday, "Rostov" can take. Meanwhile, the capital club has already lost the captain and central defender Giorgi Jikia due to injury.
A difficult trip to the Urals was waiting and "Dynamo"who stayed in Yekaterinburg. "Ural" Viktor Goncharenko stopped losing a long time ago, namely after the tenth round, when he lost at home to Akhmat. And if the hosts were clearly on the move and on the courage, then the Muscovites felt the consequences of the extra-expensive cup match with Zenit. In addition, the guests also experienced personnel shortages, given that the disqualified Mumi Ngamalyo and Daniil Fomin were added to the group of injured players.
Yekaterinburg tried to crush the weakened Dynamo in the opening, but it survived, reduced the level of pressure on its goal to a minimum and almost took the first half.
Arsen Zakharyan fell right on goalkeeper Ilya Pomazun, who managed to parry a solid shot at close range. After the break, Ural attacked Dynamo again and forced them to defend a lot. However, they endured and, at a convenient opportunity, stung the opponent with their own attacks, one of which ended in a goal by Denis Makarov. True, the vigilant VAR found offside in that episode. But in the end, the blue and white still snatched the victory. In the 89th minute, everything was decided by Konstantin Tyukavin, who was assisted in someone else's penalty area by Yaroslav Gladyshev. And the hosts still ran into a red card head coach Goncharenko. Having won 1:0, Dynamo with 35 points unstuck from CSKA (32) and pulled up to Rostov (38).
Attracted attention and the match with the participation of another Moscow club - Lokomotiv hosted by Krasnodar. The railroad wanted to extend the winning streak to three meetings and move even further away from the zone of joints with representatives of the first league. Kuban also had a chance to catch up with CSKA located in fifth place, which has a difficult game ahead of Zenit. They also created the first scoring chance, when Eduard Spertsyan's uncaptured shot was deflected by the crossbar. And then the guests performed an exemplary corner. The master of set pieces Spertsyan filed exactly for Junior Alonso, and the Paraguayan defender scored from under Artem Dziuba, who was guarding him.
Lokomotiv could quickly restore equality, but Francois Camano inexplicably missed after Igor Smolnikov's cross. On the other hand, John Cordoba from Krasnodar rammed the Muscovites' defense, dragged the ball into the penalty area and sent it into the net with the help of a rebound from Herman Conti. Then the hosts became active again, and Anton Miranchuk did not use another great chance. They didn't even convert the penalty awarded for Spertsyan's violation at Smolnikovo. Dzyuba approached the "point" and frankly spied, trying to outwit the goalkeeper Stanislav Agkatsev, who guessed the attacker's plan and calmly took the ball.
But Lokomotiv did not give up and immediately after the break reduced the difference with the efforts of Dmitry Barinov, as well as Sergei Pinyaev, who assisted him.
Already in the 51st minute, Maxim Glushenkov, who came on as a substitute, evened the score by playing a 1-2 with Dziuba. Inspired by success, the railroad rushed to finish off Krasnodar, and only Agkatsev prevented Rifat Zhemaletdinov from doing this with a spectacular save. However, the guests still faltered under the frantic onslaught of red-green. At the 63rd minute, Christian Ramirez got a second yellow card, and almost immediately Dziuba brought Lokomotiv forward, watching for a rebound from the crossbar.
True, in the 72nd minute, the teams were again equal, after Smolnikov also left the field for two warnings. And already Krasnodar rushed to save the match, in which passions boiled until the final whistle. But the Muscovites did not give up the hard-won victory - 3:2, which allowed them to rise to the 11th line with 22 points.
