The Bulls have a chance to win a prestigious trophy

FC Krasnodar advanced to the next stage of the Russian Cup and moved up in the national championship; PFC Sochi dropped to tenth place in the Premier League standings – MK in Kuban about the main sporting events in the Krasnodar Territory.

Left “Ural” and CSKA

Last week, the “townspeople” played in the Cup of Russia. As part of the first final of the Path of Regions, the Bulls hosted Akron, representing the First League. Before this meeting, the team of Evgeny Kaleshin, by the way, a native of Krasnodar, who played for the Bulls and was a coach at the Black and Green Academy, won seven matches in a row in this tournament, knocking out the capital’s Torpedo, Lokomotiv, Dynamo and ” Spartacus”.

Akron seriously prepared for Krasnodar. Togliatti, of course, acted from the defense, the second number, but at the same time they managed not only to carry out attacks, but also to make the hosts nervous. The Bulls, who regularly score several goals per game, couldn’t help it.

In the first half, Eduard Spertsyan hit Akron’s goal, but the ball flew over the crossbar. In the 31st minute of the match, Ilzat Akhmetov, being in the opponent’s penalty area, gave a great back pass to Joao Batchi – the Angolan had a great chance to score, but he was beaten by the guests’ goalkeeper Sergei Volkov. Perhaps it was the most dangerous moment in the first half. At Krasnodar, Mikhailo Banyats could have checked in before the break, but Volkov was again at his best.

Akron responded with dignity. First, after one of the strikes performed by Nikita Saltykov, the ball ricocheted from Caio almost flew into the goal of Matvey Safonov. And four minutes before the end of regular time of the first half, the same striker, picking up the ball from the penalty area, hit on goal – the ball ricocheted near the top nine. In the first half, Krasnodar claimed a penalty after a collision in Akron’s penalty area between John Cordoba and Ivan Chudin, but chief referee Artem Chistyakov did not award a penalty kick.

After the break, the Bulls’ Colombian striker headed the ball into the visitors’ goal, but the referee considered that the goal was scored from an offside position. Akron responded with a shot from Andres Ponce, but the ball went over the crossbar.

In the second half, the “bulls” began to put pressure on the guests, but, as in previous matches, they squandered a lot of chances. So, after the transfer of Spertsyan, being at the penalty spot, Banyats hit in touch, but the ball flew over the gate. Then Cordoba after the transfer of Christian Ramirez hit the crossbar. Even later, Batchy hit low – Volkov repelled the threat with his foot.

At the 84th minute, during one of Akron’s rare attacks, the lights went out in the stadium. The game stopped, which was to the benefit of the hosts. As a result, the match ended in a goalless draw, which means that the winner had to be determined through a penalty shoot-out. Both teams have already won cup matches thanks to the good execution of penalty kicks, but here Krasnodar’s class played a decisive role. Volkov conceded all four goals of the Bulls. Spertsyan, Cordoba, Akhmetov and Batchi hit in different ways and did not miss. But the goalkeeper of the Russian national team Safonov beat off the blows of Yevgeny Pesegov and Vladimir Azarov. As a result, 0 : 0 (4 : 2) – with such a score, the “bulls” went to the second final of the “Path of the Regions”. There, the team of Vladimir Ivic will fight with Ural. The meeting will be held on May 17 in Krasnodar. In case of victory, the “bulls” will play in the superfinal at Luzhniki on June 11 against CSKA.

Four days after the victory over Akron, Krasnodar hosted Wings of the Soviets as part of the 26th round of the Russian Championship. In this game, the guests needed more victory. Igor Osinkin’s team may well fall into the zone of play-offs. Krasnodar won’t achieve anything significant in the Russian Championship this season. But on this day, Ivic turned 46 years old. The holiday was not supposed to be overshadowed.

Samarans started this meeting better, acted more actively, put more pressure, tried to control the ball. But the Bulls were able to create the first truly dangerous moment in the game. In the fifth minute, Olakunle Olusegun fired a strong shot from outside the box, but missed the goal. For more than ten minutes there were no dangerous moments in the game. At the sixteenth minute of the match, the Samarans organized a counterattack, Vladimir Pisarsky gave a pass to Benhamin Garre, who, in turn, burst into the penalty area along the right side and delivered a classy blow. The ball bounced off Junior Alonso’s thigh and flew into the nearest upper corner of Safonov’s goal.

Krasnodar seemed to wake up after a missed goal. The hosts began to actively attack and create scoring chances. First, Spertsyan missed after a great cross from Sergei Volkov. As before, Cordoba was very active. At the 32nd minute, an event occurred that predetermined the outcome of the entire meeting: Pisarsky decided to work on the defensive and demolished Volkov. For a foul, the Krylia Sovetov striker received a yellow card, which turned out to be the second in this match. It is noteworthy that before that, for some reason, Pisarsky grabbed Christian Ramirez by the neck, for which he received the first warning.

Left with ten men, the Samara team tempered their attacking ardor and, in fact, began to act to keep the score. Krasnodar began to play more boldly. Already four minutes after the removal, Akhmetov shot into the goalkeeper’s area, where, after a rebound, the ball flew into the goal. Volkov’s headbutt only accelerated his flight.

After Krasnodar equalized the score, the guests pressed closer to their gates, which did not contribute to the entertainment of the match. The hosts continued to look for approaches to the opponent, but before the break they could not really create anything.

In the second half, the game continued in the same spirit. “Bulls” pressed – the guests defended. Kevin Lenini had a good moment in the 54th minute of the match. Cape Verdet caught the ball on his foot and shot from the fly, but missed the goal. Then immediately Moses Kobnan hit well from under the defender, Samara goalkeeper Bogdan Ovsyannikov jumped out and moved the ball over the crossbar.

“Wings of the Soviets” began to respond only in the second third of the match. So, in the 66th minute, Dmitry Tsypchenko hit the post after hitting his head. Gradually, the initiative began to move away from the owners. But the guests failed to create truly dangerous moments. The hosts, though not as active as at the beginning of the second half, but responded. There was a good shot by Vyacheslav Litvinov, which was deflected by the goalkeeper of Krylia Sovetov. After hitting Kobnan and rebounding, the ball almost flew into the corner of the guests’ goal. The case went to a draw.

Seeing that time was running out, the “bulls” organized an assault on the opponent’s goal and got the result. In the 89th minute of the match, Alonso gave a pass to the right flank, where Volkov made a pass to Cordoba in touch. The Colombian was accurate this time: the score was 2:1.

The victory allowed the “bulls” with 42 points to rise to sixth place in the standings. Perhaps the “bulls” will take fourth or fifth place at the end of the season, but they are unlikely to be able to cling to the top three. The next game for the Ivic team is away against Zenit. In this round, the St. Petersburg team secured the championship ahead of schedule. It is possible that in the next round they will be poorly motivated to play. On the other hand, it would be better for Krasnodar to save its energy for the cup meeting with Ural, where the Bulls still have a chance to win the first trophy in their history.

Not even Noboa saves

Sochi played away at Lokomotiv in the 26th round. In this meeting, the “railroad” immediately began to act as actively as possible and create dangerous moments for the opponent. Artem Dzyuba especially tried to score. Southerners were simply confused by such pressure. At some point, Christian Noboa almost “brought” the ball into his own net. Then Artur Yusupov interrupted the most dangerous transmission. Gradually, the pace of the meeting slowed down, stops began to occur. A few minutes later, the same Bars midfielder had a great chance to open the scoring, but, having hit the goal, he hit the post. Lokomotiv drew conclusions from this episode, pulled themselves together and scored in the 41st minute. First, Dmitry Barinov ran to the penalty area, passing the ball to the center. There François Camano jumped and headed into the far corner, Denis Adamov eliminated this threat, but Nair Tiknizyan was the first to rebound, finishing the ball into an empty corner of the goal.

In stoppage time of the first half, Artem Karpukas burst into the penalty area, received a return pass from Maxim Glushenkov and shot on goal. Adamov again repulsed this threat, but the midfielder picked up the ball and already effectively hit the goal.

After the break, the Sochi residents seemed to have been replaced. They came out charged, played faster, more aggressively. At the same time, the team of Dmitry Khokhlov still had problems in defense.

At the end of the match, the game went, as they say, without the center of the field. The goal came in the 75th minute. Rifat Zhemaletdinov made a pass through the center, Wilson Isidor went one on one with Adamov and shot into the bottom corner – 3: 0.

Immediately after that, Igor Smolnikov brought a penalty to Lokomotiv. Christian Noboa shot from eleven meters, but Ilya Lantratov guessed the direction of this blow. The victory allowed the “railroad” to bypass “Sochi” in the standings. Khokhlov’s team, after 26 rounds with 34 points, is in tenth place in the standings. Leopards have a home game against Rostov ahead.