Zenit defeated Ural – 4:1 – and regained the lead in the Premier League

In the 20th round of the Russian Football Championship, Zenit won a major away victory over Ural – 4:1, which brought it to first place. The club from St. Petersburg scored 40 points and surpassed Krasnodar by one point, having lost to Rostov the day before. Dynamo, which is in third place, beat Akhmat at home – 2:0. Now he has 38 points.

After Krasnodar’s defeat from Rostov, Zenit had an excellent chance to regain leadership in the Russian Championship. “Ural”, even on its own field, did not seem like an opponent capable of slowing down the St. Petersburgers on the way to this goal. The Ekaterinburg team was in 13th place and had lost the previous three matches, all to no avail. Perhaps their home victory over the same Krasnodar in the 16th round could have a little alerted Sergei Semak’s team. However, Ural have never defeated Zenit in the Premier League and only achieved a draw three times.

But they won’t score three points on their own, and the St. Petersburg team took a very long time to harness and were in no hurry to go anywhere. Perhaps the Ural frost caused some discomfort to the guests, whose starting lineup included eight South Americans, especially to newcomers Artur and Nino, who were still adapting to Russian football.

Zenit created the first truly dangerous moment, perhaps, only in the 37th minute, when Douglas Santos finished off Mateo Cassierra’s cross. That episode ended only with a corner kick, but it was this set piece that led to the goal. Artur crossed to the near post, Strahinja Erakovic made a pass to Douglas Santos, who headed the ball into the net as he fell. Soon Artur tried to score himself, but his tight shot from outside the penalty area was parried by goalkeeper Ilya Pomazun. This effectively ended the program of the sparse first half.

After the break, the hosts went to win back and grabbed the back. If in one case the Ural defenders managed to catch up with Andrei Mostovoy, who was running away one on one with the goalkeeper, then he rushed away from them as if they were standing and skillfully threw over Pomazun, who had thrown himself towards them. We also cannot fail to mention Wendel, who opened up the enemy defense with a pass from his own half of the field. In the middle of the second half, he and Mostovoy helped Cassierre score his 15th goal in the current championship, when the Brazilian crossed, and the Russian threw the ball to the Colombian on an empty net. In addition, Cassierra’s replacement, Ivan Sergeev, assisted by Claudinho, also distinguished himself. The striker beautifully dealt with Yegor Filipenko one-on-one and fired into the far corner. Before the final whistle, Eric Bikfalvi still cleared the score, and the St. Petersburg team won 4:1.

Zenit now has 40 points and is now the leader of the Premier League. Krasnodar lingered at 39 points, while Dynamo had a good opportunity to reduce the gap to one point.

Moreover, Muscovites hosted Akhmat, which solves very modest problems related to how to avoid participation in the play-offs or direct relegation to the first league.

True, the Grozny team has been regularly annoying Dynamo lately, and last season they actually won at the VTB Arena 3:0 and “sent” the head coach of the capital club, Slavisa Jokanovic, into retirement. In addition, now the current team coach Marcel Licka could not count on two system-forming players due to disqualification – central defender Fabian Balbuena and defensive midfielder Diego Laxalt.

As it turned out, such fears were not in vain. And although Dynamo started actively, and Konstantin Tyukavin and Jorge Carrascal almost scored an early goal, the guests responded with a counterattack, in which Evgeniy Kharin hit the post. And to Tyukavin’s shot followed by a save by goalkeeper Georgy Shelia, “Akhmat” responded no less sharply when Mohamed Konate almost pushed the ball into the goal from under Nicholas Marichal, who took Balbuena’s position. In retaliation, Marichal forced Shelia to save her teammates again after a corner kick, and for the Grozny team, Lechi Sadulaev prepared a scoring chance for the Brazilian Camilo, who shot from an advantageous position in a completely un-Brazilian way. It was alarming in the Dynamo penalty area and when Artem Timofeev put his head under Konate’s throw. The hosts’ goalkeeper Igor Leshchuk caught the ball, and then it was Shelia’s turn again, who parried Bitelo’s shot from close range.

And yet, Dynamo opened the scoring: Luis Chavez hit so hard from a distance that even Shelia did not help. Darko Todorovic could have restored equality, but he hit Leshchuk, and at the end of the first half, Akhmat was let down by Kharin. The midfielder wanted to earn a penalty, but received a second yellow card, which turned into a red one, for obvious simulation. Yes, and earlier he ran into a completely unjustified warning, yelling at the line referee.

In the minority, it was difficult for the guests to resist one of the leaders of the championship, nevertheless they fought for a positive result. And the Muscovites were simply lucky when Todorovic hit the post. But the Bosnian also had a scoring chance, which he also did not convert. The hosts secured themselves only when Tyukavin made his way to the goal, despite the resistance of the powerful Nader Gundry, and forced Shelia to make a mistake, after which he could only hit the empty target. Then Dynamo calmly brought the match to a 2:0 victory and with 38 points came close to Krasnodar.

Alexander Ilyin