The unsuccessful season of the Kuban clubs becomes a reality

The crisis continues

In the twentieth round of the championship of Russia, the bulls played on the road against Lokomotiv. The capital’s team obviously did not have a good season: for a long time it was at the bottom of the standings. But the match with the “citizens” gave hope that the situation is improving.

The duel was amazing. True, the fans of the “townspeople” did not get joy from this spectacle. The team of Vladimir Ivic entered the game without Matvey Safonov. The goalkeeper of the Russian national team fell ill and was on the bench. Instead, Stanislav Agkatsev stood at the gate. The “Bulls” began to put pressure on the move, took the initiative into their own hands, had more possession of the ball, and had a territorial advantage. Lokomotiv met the guests high, and this allowed them not to bring things to dangerous moments near the gates of Ilya Lantratov. No matter how hard the midfielders of Krasnodar Moses Kobnan and Olakunle Olusegun tried, they did not succeed. Nevertheless, the “bulls” managed to press the opponent to their gates, and dangerous moments appeared at the same time. On the twenty-fifth minute, Eduard Spertsyan hit the crossbar. Four minutes later there was a goal. All the same Spertsyan first hung on the left flank to the gate from the corner. Here, Junior Alonso freed himself from Artem Dziuba’s guardianship and, in a jump with his head from the goalkeeper’s line, cut the ball into the net.

The Bulls continued to take the initiative and scored the second goal ten minutes later. John Cordoba took the ball away from Herman Conti close to the railroad’s penalty area, made his way to the goal and shot low from the center. The ball ricocheted from the Argentine, creeping in the tackle, flew into the right corner. For the entire first half, the “bulls” hit the target only twice, but both shots were productive.

It would seem that the score 0 : 2 by the end of the first half should have made the game of the guests even more confident, and the hosts should have faltered. But the opposite happened. “Railroad” seemed to have received a fresh influx of strength after the second missed goal and rushed to recoup in the last minutes of the first half of the match. Already in stoppage time, there were two controversial episodes in the penalty area of ​​the “black-greens”. In the first case, Alonso’s handball did not pull, according to the chief referee Kirill Levnikov, on penalties. But after Spertsyan stepped on the foot of Igor Smolnikov and the former Krasnodar defender fell to the lawn, the referee pointed to the spot. Dziuba came out to take a penalty. The striker sluggishly rolled the ball down a little to the left of the center – Agkatsev calmly caught the ball.

During the break, Lokomotiv coach Mikhail Galaktionov made a double substitution. François Camano was replaced by Rifat Zhemaletdinov, Anton Miranchuk was replaced by Maxim Glushenkov. Game guests has changed dramatically. They began to play faster, more aggressively. Krasnodar, on the contrary, was confused and eventually conceded two goals in four minutes.

First, Sergey Pinyaev broke through from the right flank into the penalty area almost from the front line, shot to the left and slightly back at Dmitry Barinov, the midfielder hit hard from the bottom. Agkatsev kicked the ball aside – a projectile from Sergei Volkov’s leg flew into the goal. It happened at the forty-seventh minute. Almost immediately, Glushenkov broke into the penalty area, hung on Dziuba, ran further to the goal, Artem made a discount with his foot – the midfielder sent the ball into the net without delay – 2: 2.

Lokomotiv continued to develop success, and it did it excellently. Christian Ramirez was sent off for hitting Barinov’s neck with his hand. Krasnodar remained in the minority. At the sixty-fifth minute, Dziuba brought Lokomotiv ahead. After Glushenkov’s filing into the penalty area, Barinov hit the crossbar from a corner. The forward was first on the rebound. Dziuba scored a goal with his head in a jump.

Krasnodar had a chance to at least recoup. On the seventy-second minute, Smolnikov received a second yellow card for hitting Kadi Borges (the defender was excellent against his former team). The line-ups leveled up again. But at the end of the game, the “railroad” had more chances to score. Lost victory – what could be more offensive? The careless attitude of Krasnodar is simply amazing. Despite the replacement of the coach, the crisis in the club continues.

After the twentieth round, they are in eighth place in the standings with 29 points.

In the meantime, the date of the semi-final match (the first stage, “The Way of the Regions”) of the Russian Cup between Krasnodar and Rostov became known. The game will take place at the Black-and-Greens’ home on April 6th. The match will start at twenty o’clock.

Berdyev can’t cope?

No less interesting and surprising was the duel between Sochi and Fakel. It was also held as part of the twentieth round of the Russian Premier League, but in Voronezh. It seemed that after the defeat (0 : 4) from Orenburg, the Sochi residents would draw the appropriate conclusions and definitely recoup for such an offensive failure. In addition, the opponent is a newcomer to the Premier League, coming after nineteen rounds in fourteenth place in the standings. It is certainly easier to take points from such a person than from the rest. But no matter how!

Yes, injuries did not allow Kurban Berdyev to use the entire personnel arsenal of his capabilities. The leaders – Christian Noboa and Luka Djordjevic – did not come to the game. And here, during the warm-up before the match, Soslan Dzhanaev and Vanya Drkusich were injured. They were replaced by Denis Adamov and Artem Meshchaninov. As a result, just a depressing game performed by “holidays”.

The hosts acted better and more efficiently. At the thirty-first minute they earned a penalty. Ibragim Tsallagov tried to intercept the ball from Ilnur Alshin and played with his hand. Chief referee Artem Lyubimov took advantage of the video replay, after which he appointed a penalty kick. Georgy Gongadze volunteered to shoot from the spot. The attacker hit hard, very close to the bar. Adamov guessed the direction, but was powerless.

Yes, throughout the first half, Sochi had more possession of the ball, but in sharpness and the number of chances it was clearly inferior to the opponent. Surprisingly, Berdyev could not change this situation in the second half. He made substitutions only in the sixtieth minute of the match, removing three players at once, but did not guess at all with them. But Dmitry Pyatibratov was effective in permutations. Defender Ruslan Magal, who replaced Ilnur Alshin, scored the second goal ten minutes later. First, Evgeny Markov passed low into the penalty area. There, Magal outplayed the defender, earned some money and shot into the far corner. Six minutes later, Matvey Ivakhnov received a discount from Vyacheslav Yakimov and shot right into the corner – 3: 0.

Sochi was defeated emotionally. Immediately after the goal, Georgy Melkadze received a yellow card for a go-ahead, then he began to argue with the chief arbiter, for which he got a second yellow card.

For the entire game, the “southerners” struck only one shot towards the goal. At the same time, the “holidays” never hit the target. But “Torch” hit on goal thirteen times, for which he received the victory. This defeat could be considered an accident, if not for the previous rout perpetrated by Orenburg. Is it really time for Berdyev to retire?

After twenty rounds, Sochi has twenty-eight points to its credit and ranks ninth in the standings. The season at the Kuban clubs is clearly unsuccessful.