The leaders flared up with newcomers – Newspaper Kommersant No. 160 (7361) of 09/01/2022
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All the favorites of the next domestic football season successfully started their performance in the Russian Cup, which has undergone a radical change in format. Following Spartak, who started in the tournament the day before, confident victories in the matches that opened the group stage were won by two other clubs included in the top three of the national championship. Zenit and CSKA beat Fakel and Torpedo 2:0. And the loss of “Khimki” with the same score to “Krasnodar” was the last for the coach of the Moscow Region team Nikolai Pisarev, who did not last even a month in it.
For those who are not indifferent to them and who were inspired by the club’s vigorous start in the championship, the army team’s first cup match of the season became a reason to believe that it has a large margin of safety. It seems that there are a lot of players in the roster who are more suitable for the definition of “reserve”, but the playing style is still the same as in the championship, a spectacular style.
The Premier League newcomer held out against CSKA for about a quarter of an hour. And then the guests unleashed a chic attack, in which Adolfo Gaich recalled that, although now he mostly sits on the bench in official matches, he was once considered a very good center forward. He opened perfectly in the penalty area, took a couple of steps, freed himself from guardianship and famously hit. Torpedo goalkeeper Alexander Dovbnya managed, but the rebound went to the young army man Nikita Ermakov, who has about the same status in the championship as Gaich, an understudy. Ermakov shot the empty net.
CSKA, having scored, did not cheat on itself and played the favorite football of its new coach Vladimir Fedotov, in which ingenuity is an important component. But for the time being, “Torpedo” somehow managed to keep a backlog that provides intrigue. Moreover, in the second half there was an episode when the Torpedo team almost equalized the score. The flank standard resulted in a killer shot on goal, passing the army goalkeeper Vladislav Torop. However, Konstantin Kuchaev showed amazing discipline, not leaving the “safety” post on the “ribbon”, and the ball was beaten off.
And soon insanely active, as if he was promised a ticket to the starting lineup for a quality game in this match, Adolfo Gaich flashed once more. Now the striker took advantage of the help of 18-year-old army debutant Matvey Lukin, who had just appeared on the field. Lukin cut out a magnificent pass to his partner on the move from the center line, and Gaich, having fallen out on Dovbnya, did not spare the goalkeeper.
In another match in army group D, something like a sensation happened. The outsider of the Russian championship “Ural” with the same score – 2:0 – defeated the former club of Vladimir Fedotov “Sochi”, the silver medalist of the previous championship, which may have become a little weaker, but at least is in the top five of the current championship.
Russian flagship Zenit started the reformatted Cup of Russia with the same match against a club that played in the second division last season, and also defeated it confidently, despite suspicions that the Zenit team could save energy. In the end, on Sunday they will have a too principled and too important match in the national championship – against Spartak, who is only one point behind. The Spartacists, who found themselves in the group stage of the Cup in the same quartet B as the Petersburgers, opened their performances in this competition the day before, suffering, but beating – 1:0 – “Wings of the Soviets”. “Zenith” his victory was given a little easier.
He tormented the Torch for half a time, missing chances, before waiting for a happy rebound. Zelimkhan Bakaev fired from afar, and his teammate Mateo Cassierra turned out to be in the way of the ball, changing the direction of the ball’s flight so that the goalkeeper Alexei Gorodovoy had no prospects of catching it. Then it was the turn of Zenit goalkeeper Ivan to shine. The Brazilian, acquired in the summer, played for the Petersburgers for the first time and showed that he was fine with both the reaction and the jump when he got a “dead” blow from Alikhan Shavaev in the bottom corner.
“Zenith” immediately responded to this injection with his own, much more painful. Douglas Santos performed a neat corner kick, and Cassierra closed it in a jump, hitting the ball into the net. This time, the terrible luck of the attacker was out of the question. A successful first half for Zenit was followed by a fun second half, in which both teams could score goals. But somehow it didn’t work out with them.
With the same somehow fantastically popular score that day – 2:0 – both matches in Group A ended. Pari Nizhny Novgorod defeated the unstable Lokomotiv, and Krasnodar – the crisis Khimki. For Khimki, their loss was the fourth in a row after the dismissal of former coach Sergei Yuran in August and resulted in another radical personnel decision. Even before the match with Krasnodar, various sources claimed that the Khimki management, known for its impatience, was considering the option of resigning Yuran’s replacement Nikolai Pisarev, even if he had a chance to work in the Moscow Region team for less than a month. And after another misfire, Roman Teryushkov, a member of the club’s board of directors, confirmed to TASS the information about the termination of the contract with the mentor. Pisarev’s successor is already known: this is Spartak Gogniev, who previously headed Alania Vladikavkaz.
The latest gaming slot of the day was filled with matches in group C. Akhmat broke the tradition of the evening by beating Orenburg – 3:1. Rostov and Dynamo, two powerful opponents, followed the trend. Rostovites in their field looked for most of the meeting more, or something, charged to fight than Dynamo, and hit the opponent’s goal twice, not allowing the opponents to distinguish themselves with their bright line of attack. It even found a place for Arsen Zakharyan, about whom various sources have recently been talking about as a player who is about to move to Chelsea.
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