the courage of the coach and the lack of will of the team.

The acting head coach of Fakel, Dmitry Pyatibratov, took responsibility for the mediocre match with Spartak and answered the correspondent of our publication on the most pressing question.

Cup of Russia. Group B. 2nd round. Tushino. Spartak 3:0 Fakel. Goals: Meleshin, 4, Promes, 34, Sobolev, 76.

The head coach of “Spartak” Guillermo Abascal surprised not like a child. The hosts entered the game with the Voronezh team in a 3-4-1-2 formation. Whether the arrival of Mevli, or two defeats in a row in the RPL, or the status of the match, it is not clear what influenced this. But the fact remains that for the first time in the season, the red-whites played with a trio of central defenders.

The hosts practically deprived the Voronezh club of the ball and space and easily won big, leading the Russian Cup group. Already in the 4th minute, the 18-year-old striker Meleshin opened the scoring, masterfully playing on rebounds like an adult. Goalkeeper Aleksey Gorodovoy had no chance.

For the second time, the guests got the ball out of the net after a strike from Promes. Quincey mathematically accurately calculated the flight path of the leather sphere, sending it at the 34th minute into the Torch gate. For the entire first half, the guests were honored only once to hit the target Alexander Maksimenko. No matter how a hundred fans of the coolest “home” club in the country tried to “drive” their forward, the players were deaf to the calls.

The second half changed little. The triple replacement of the Fakel coach, who became the king of the post-match press conference, did not solve anything. Neither Akbashev, nor Ivakhnov, nor Maximov could even come close to the Spartak goal. Like Appaev, Dmitriev and Gongadze, who came out, either it was not their day, or they simply played without desire on the emerald lawn of the arena in Tushino.

Yuran and Fedun, who watched the match, were most likely upset. The first is from the fact that his possible team is so incompetently “merges” the game. And the second – because of the passivity of the former “native” players, who did not follow the path of “Zenith”, and did not send a bag of balls to the guests’ goal.

Summed up the final minutes of the meeting, who replaced Sobolev. Alexander masterfully completed the multi-way combination of the Spartacists, in which Jikia pulled the ball, bounced back with Promes and rolled out to Sobolev. The latter sent a football projectile into the Policeman’s net.

“Torch” seemed to have come to the capital specifically for Spartak to test out a new scheme for them. The passivity and inertia of the Voronezh residents must have cost them dearly. Their coach did not come to the press conference for a very long time, apparently he “denounced” the policy of the “party and government” to the players who “slept through” the entire match.

For Spartak, one should only rejoice. The new formation strengthened the control of the ball and allowed the laterals Rasskazov and Klassen to operate as high as possible and give width in attack. True, they did not always succeed. On someone else’s half of the field, the hosts, in my humble opinion, lacked a link in the central zone. Prutsev and Zobnin were more inclined towards destruction, and Ignatov was unproductive in opening.

The scheme with three central defenders in theory can suit red and white, make the game more varied and unpredictable, and therefore more interesting for the audience. Let’s see how it will work in Sunday’s match against the dismantled Lokomotiv.

Due to the “heart-to-heart talk” between Dmitry Pyatibratov and his players, the Spartak coach even had to be the first to come to the press conference. Standard TWO questions from the correspondent of our publication.

Are you satisfied with the first match of Mikhi Mevli?

– Oh sure. Very pleased with his debut. From the very first minutes he showed a willingness to help the team. Knowledge of the language and the championship allowed him to quickly adapt. Mevlya spent 80 minutes and I am pleased with his performance. We understand that we have one more additional option.

The scheme with five defenders – an isolated case?

– It does not depend on the match. This shows the growth of the team. We used this scheme, played dynamically. This will be another option in the future.

Not all journalists waited for acting. Fakel coach Dmitry Pyatibratov. But those who remained were convinced of the courage of the interim leader and the sincerity of his answers. There are two traditional questions from me.

Why did the club part ways with Vasilenko?

– The club and Oleg Petrovich decided to mutually terminate cooperation. At the meeting, he and Roman Guramovich (general director of the Askhabadze club – author’s note) shook hands and remained on friendly terms. Communicating with him personally, I also realized that everyone was happy with the decision.

One shot on target today. What do you say to the fans?

– We are ashamed. I apologize to the fans for the lack of will, I could not reach out to the players. Football for us is not a holiday, but life. To achieve something, you need to work. Once again, I apologize to all the fans. I’m ashamed.

For a long time, journalists have not heard such a thing from the coach of a football team. As young people say – Respect and Respect to Dmitry Pyatibratov.

Vladimir Sabadash.

Photo – the author.