Zenit stepped over Dynamo – Kommersant

The leader of the Russian football championship “Zenith” beat “Dynamo” at the start of the 24th round – 3:1. Petersburgers have taken another important step towards the next title of the best club in the Premier League. Now they have 58 points. The nearest pursuer, Rostov, has 46 points so far and the match with Ural is in reserve.

For Zenit, Dynamo was one of the most difficult obstacles that remained on the way to the championship. There will still be a match with Spartak in the round, and the Petersburgers already wanted to approach him with a points reserve that would guarantee them absolute safety. Muscovites, on the other hand, were not averse to repeating their recent feat when they defeated Zenit on its field in the Russian Cup, although then they only succeeded in a penalty shootout. In addition, Dynamo also has plans for medals, albeit not gold ones.

The blue-and-whites were suspended by the central defender Saba Sazonov, a pupil of the St. Petersburg club, who became the champion of Russia in its composition, despite the fact that he spent only a few minutes in the final meeting of the 2020/21 season. However, even during the last match with Paris Nizhny Novgorod, Dynamo head coach Slavisha Jokanovic replaced him with Milan Maistorovic and, in fact, managed to play a little in the new center of defense under Zenit. As expected, the 18-year-old Serbian joined Roberto Fernandez. And the guests got sick forward Konstantin Tyukavin, instead of which Fyodor Smolov appeared from the first minutes.

Dynamo started the match quite confidently – and not only defended. Daniil Fomin struck a sighting shot on target, and Smolov could well dispose of the ball better, bouncing off goalkeeper Mikhail Kerzhakov. At the same time, Zenit had no moments at all for quite a long time. Petersburgers reached the penalty area, and there they ran into a fence. Only in the middle of the first half, Douglas Santos created sharpness by pushing Denis Makarov on the left and hanging on Mateo Cassierra. True, the Colombian was not given a good punch, and he simply stretched the Dynamo goalkeeper Anton Shunin.

Here Malcolm was already firmly attached to the ball, but he lacked accuracy. And then the Muscovites organized a most dangerous counterattack, when Smolov seemed to have prepared ideal conditions for Makarov to score a goal. However, he took a perhaps inappropriate pause and did not even finish off Kerzhakov, hitting the central defender Dmitry Chistyakov. “Zenith” responded with a long-range volley of Claudinho, which gave Shunin some inconvenience.

It would probably be logical if the first half ended 0-0. But in the 45th minute, Malcolm, for greater persuasiveness, as they say, painted a violation of the rules with light contact with Mumi Ngamalyo, and referee Vitaly Meshkov believed him, appointing a penalty. The Brazilian himself converted a 11-meter shot and with 17 goals became the sole leader among the top scorers of the championship.

With the score 1:0, Zenit already felt confident and skillfully kept the situation under control, although the hosts still did not shine in attack. Dynamo, with all their efforts to win back, had big problems with the development of the attack, so Jokanovic hurried to make a double substitution, releasing Yaroslav Gladyshev and Luka Gagnidze.

At the same time, the penalized Ngamalyo and Arsen Zakharyan left the field. In the previous round, the Serbian specialist pulled out the match with such substitutions, but it worked with Nizhny Novgorod, but it didn’t work with Zenit. Malcolm scored a double with a twisted kick from his left foot, and the chances of the guests to save became illusory.

Soon Shunin barely fought off Claudinho, and when Cassierra circled him and sent the ball into an empty net, Maistorovich secured the goalkeeper. Muscovites even reduced the difference to a minimum after Fomin charged from the penalty area. Still, there was no suspenseful ending. The Petersburgers caught the opponent on a mistake, and Malcolm added an assist to Andrey Mostovoy in addition to two goals.

Zenit won 3:1 and continues to move towards the fifth championship in a row. Now he has 58 points, and the gap from Rostov has increased to 12.

The closest pursuer still has a game with Ural, but in Yekaterinburg it will not be easy for him to score maximum points. In any case, Rostovites will no longer move closer to Zenit.

Meanwhile, on the first day of the 24th round, a crucial match between the teams fighting for survival in the Premier League took place. Khimki, which is in 15th place, hosted Torpedo, which is at the very bottom of the standings. The Moscow Region club was ahead of the Muscovites by only one point. The first half ended in a draw – 1:1, and in the debut of the second Ilya Stefanovich brought the guests ahead. Nevertheless, the hosts turned the game around and scored three goals in a short period from the 59th to the 67th minute, with Reziuan Mirzov (from the penalty spot), Vladimir Khubulov and Nemanja Glavcic (from the standard) scoring.

The victory 4:2 allowed Khimki to come close to Fakel with 17 points. Moreover, the Voronezh team lost to Orenburg at home – 1:3 – in the match with three penalties, two of which were put in their gates. So they have 18 points left.

Alexander Ilyin