Zenit is a goal higher than Nizhny

In the 18th round of the Russian Football Championship, Zenit defeated Paris Nizhny Novgorod – 1:0, thanks to which it took intermediate first place with 36 points. Spartak also improved its position, winning back in the home match against Krylya Sovetov for a major defeat in the first round – 3:0.

The last match before the winter break was for “Spartak” fundamental importance. The team that inflicted their most painful defeat this season came to visit the Muscovites. At home “Wings of Soviets” They destroyed the red-whites with a score of 4:0, and in general the Samara team won three previous meetings in a row against them in different tournaments.

It’s quite natural that Guillermo Abascal’s team showed a high level of desire for revenge.

And for the Spanish specialist personally, it was fundamentally important to finish the first part of the championship on a positive note – including in order to reduce the likelihood of his resignation, which is constantly being discussed after another unsuccessful match played by the capital club.

Abascal himself missed the confrontation with “Wings” due to disqualification, imposed against him for the incident in Grozny, when the head coach of Spartak fell for the provocation of Akhmat midfielder Bernard Berisha and came into physical contact with him. But his absence seems to have only benefited him. Already in the second minute, Quincy Promes put the team ahead, processing a pass from Christopher Martins in front of the penalty area and shooting from under defender Roman Evgeniev. And by the eighth minute, the red-and-whites doubled their lead when Alexander Sobolev hit the ball, which bounced to him from another visiting center back, Alexander Soldatenkov. The same Promes and Sobolev could have scored at least a double in the first half. The Dutchman hit the crossbar and the post, and goalkeeper Ivan Lomaev prevented the Russian from scoring.

Immediately after the break, Spartak scored the third goal when the hosts spun a carousel in the Samara penalty area, and Martins hit the empty net.

At this point they calmed down a little and gave up the initiative, but at the same time they did not allow the opponent anything unnecessary. The Wings had virtually no scoring chances, and Muscovites goalkeeper Alexander Maksimenko, in fact, made only one save, parrying a point-blank shot from Amar Rakhmanovich in the first half of the match. The red-whites confidently won 3:0 and moved up to fifth place with 30 points, ahead of the Samara team in the standings.

Zenit hosted Nizhny Novgorod, who previously managed to score only two points on the road. In St. Petersburg, it was even more difficult for Sergei Yuran’s team to count on a positive result. The hosts opened the scoring after Wendel hit the crossbar from distance, and Gustavo Mantuan picked up the ball and crossed for Mateo Cassierra. The championship’s top scorer missed a meter from the end line, scoring his 14th goal. And nothing else interesting happened in the first half. Despite the disqualification of Strahini Erakovic due to too many yellow cards and the injury of another central defender, Dmitry Chistyakov, which he received during the match, the St. Petersburg team experienced absolutely no problems in defense.

In the second half, the guests began to open up more often and, as a result, run into counterattacks.

True, the national champions rarely brought them to their logical conclusion or beat it conveniently for Ivan Kukushkin, who replaced the ill main goalkeeper of Nizhny Novgorod, Artur Nigmatullin. Denis Adamov, who stood in the Zenit goal instead of Mikhail Kerzhakov, was left without a job. And when Dmitry Tikhy finally took a potentially dangerous shot after a corner kick, it was blocked by Vilmar Barrios. Towards the end of the meeting, Nizhny became completely bolder and sometimes openly acted as number one, but again without any specifics in someone else’s penalty area. The St. Petersburg team won a modest victory 1:0 and again led the Premier League with 36 points. Now they just have to wait until they play CSKA Krasnodar on Sunday, which currently has 35 points.

Alexander Ilyin