“Ural” at the top – Newspaper Kommersant No. 58 (7503) dated 04/05/2023

Ural became the first finalist of the RPL Way Fonbet Cup of Russia. The Yekaterinburg club in the semi-final stage passed last year’s winner of the Spartak tournament, which now has to survive in the Way of Regions, beating it in the second leg at home – 2:1. And in this part of the grid, Akron, a club from the second-ranking division, created a new sensation by knocking out the Moscow club for the third time in a row. Now Dynamo turned out to be his victim, having lost to Togliatti at home after a goalless draw in regular time in a penalty shootout.

Ural, which plays so well in the Russian Cup that if it had transferred this efficiency to the national championship, it would have fought not for a warmer place in the middle of the table, away from the relegation zone, but for medals, added to the collection of scalps taken in the reformatted tournament the scalp is very valuable.

Having had a good fight with Spartak in Moscow (there was a draw with a score of 1: 1), Yekaterinburg at home appeared as a team of even more biters and snatched victory in a fun match.

True, the Spartacists also bit into it. And they could well have opened the scoring when Keita Balde hit his head literally at close range, and even with a rebound from the lawn. It is terribly difficult for goalkeepers to take such balls, but Ilya Pomazun “Ural” helped out. A few minutes later, the hosts flashed Ibrahima Cisse. “Ural” took a corner, and it seems that “Spartak” fought back, taking the ball out of the penalty area. But Cisse adjusted to the takeaway and struck from the summer with two and a half tens of meters simply amazing.

And after the break sparkled Spartak Ruslan Litvinov. His overhead pass from his own half of the field looked amazing – long, gently gliding directly at Balda’s foot, so that it did not need to be processed, losing pace. The forward did not let the masterpiece go to waste, as if breaking through from under the defender.

Ural was helped by the flair of coach Viktor Goncharenko. In the middle of the second half, he made a whole series of substitutions, including by releasing Eric Bikfalvi and Fanil Sungatulin on the field. In the episode that ruined Spartak, Bikfalvi threw the ball near the penalty line to Sungatulin, who turned it into a corner. It turned out almost as beautifully as in the case of Cisse’s goal.

So Ural, which before the start of the Russian Cup did not at all draw on his favorite, found himself in the final of the play-off “Ways of the RPL”. His opponent at this stage will be determined on Wednesday in the second leg, in which CSKA hosts Krylya Sovetov. In the Samara meeting there was a draw – 2:2. Spartak, which has recently looked so-so in the national championship, will also continue to play in the tournament thanks to the “double elimination” scheme. He will play in the second semi-final stage of the play-off “Path of Regions”.

In another match of the day, already within the framework of the first semi-final stage of the lower bracket, Akron Togliatti, which had destroyed “Torpedo” And “Locomotive”stood in Moscow to the death against the third capital opponent in a row, even more powerful than the previous ones.

Dynamo entered the match with a club from the second-ranking Russian division in a line-up very similar to a combat one, and pressed on so tightly that there were no suspicions about its mood – no, they wanted to solve everything without hassle, in a quick way. It didn’t work out quickly.

Dynamo had a lot of chances in the first half. Konstantin Tyukavin alone has so many that if he showed a decent percentage of sales, it would be more than enough for the hosts to lead by the break with a big score. But goalkeeper Sergei Volkov flew like a bird at the Akron goal, and the defenders, not sparing themselves, lay down under other people’s blows.

In the second half, of course, nothing fundamentally changed. Dynamo pressed, and Akron’s amazingly strong and lucky defense held on, albeit sometimes quite thin. As in the moment with the blow of Yaroslav Gladyshev in the end, when the ball, threatening to hit the net, was stopped by defender Ivan Chudin.

In general, Akron magically scratched out a penalty shootout, a genre in which it excelled in the confrontation with Lokomotiv. And in it, Volkov performed God knows what a feat in a row, taking a blow from Daniil Fomin. Then another Daniil, Lesovoy, also missed Dynamo, and the Togliatti club, this unexpected cup upstart, found itself as high in the top tournament as it had apparently never dreamed of being.

Alexey Dospekhov