The Zenit – Spartak match itself was considered the main one among the semi-final games of the Russian Football Cup that took place this week. But the resignation of Spartak head coach Guillermo Abascal contributed to even greater interest in the meeting in St. Petersburg. In the first match after the dismissal of the Spanish specialist, the red-whites tied with the St. Petersburg club and went to the “Path of the Regions”.
And Zenit advanced to the finals of the RPL Path, where it will meet with CSKA Moscow, which defeated Baltika Kaliningrad (2:0, 1:0 in the first match). Baltika also went to the “Path of the Regions”. Like Spartak, she will begin performing there from the second stage of the semi-finals. Two more participants in this stage were determined this week based on the results of the first stage – Dynamo Moscow defeated Orenburg away (4:2), and Rostov beat Ural Ekaterinburg away (3:1).
“Zenit” – “Spartak”
Two weeks ago, the first match of the RPL Path semi-finals between these teams took place in Moscow. And the first half of that game was one of the last periods when Spartak showed quality football under Guillermo Abascal. By the break, the red-whites were leading 1:0, but in the second half, thanks to Pedro's double, Zenit won 2:1 and gained a comfortable advantage before the return game.
Since then, Spartak had a strong-willed victory in the derby with Dynamo (2:1) in the championship, regarding which even the red-and-white players admitted that it was mainly won not due to their own play, but because of luck and Dynamo mistakes. And she only delayed Abascal’s dismissal for a week, which happened last weekend after losing away to the championship outsider Sochi (0:1).
The Spaniard was replaced as acting head coach by his assistant Vladimir Sliskovich. He made his debut in an away game against Zenit. It’s interesting that a month and a half ago, the Bosnian already led the team’s actions in St. Petersburg, and successfully. Then, in the first championship match after the winter break, Abascal could not be present on the sidelines due to disqualification, and under the leadership of his assistant, the red-whites drew 0:0.
Before the cup match, Sliskovic could not count on his main central defender Srdjan Babic. He had to be replaced by Nikita Chernov, who rarely received chances from Abascal this season. And Pavel Maslov returned to the lineup for the first time since the last game in St. Petersburg. But the main intrigue was whether Georgy Dzhikia, disgraced under the Spaniard, would take the field. Sliskovich did not risk releasing him from the first minutes.
The atmosphere at the Gazprom Arena, as always, was extremely vibrant. The stadium was almost two-thirds full. Zenit organized a rally to support people with autism before the match. The players of the St. Petersburg club took to the field wearing T-shirts with the slogan “Autism: I’m learning more about it.” And the referees came out wearing special headphones with a noise-canceling function, which helps people with autism feel comfortable in the stadium.
The match itself took place with Zenit having a total advantage. Twice in both halves, Spartak goalkeeper Alexander Maksimenko had to save the team in extremely difficult situations. And 12 minutes before the end of regular time, even the visiting goalkeeper could not have prevented the goal after Vyacheslav Karavaev’s shot, but the blue-white-blue defender shot from a meter above the goal. But this was not enough to move on. The red and white needed at least one goal against Zenit to try to advance further in the RPL Path following a penalty shootout. But the St. Petersburg club confidently controlled the course of the meeting and calmly brought the game to the end with the desired score of 0:0.
“We seriously analyzed Zenit’s tactics and prepared for it,” Spartak defender Nikita Chernov told Izvestia. — First of all, they showed high dedication. Well, Maksimenko saved us more than once – thanks to him we achieved a draw. In general, all the same components that allowed us to play 0:0 in St. Petersburg a month and a half ago. True, the tactics were different – before that we played with a 4-4-2 formation, but in the last match we played with a 4-3-3. This is the main change after Abascal's resignation. It worked well, although the result is the result – we wanted to go further, but were eliminated from the RPL Path. Well, we will try to win the Cup through the “Path of the Regions”. I think we can do this.
CSKA – Baltika
The current Russian Cup holder is approaching a second consecutive victory in this tournament. Things are going well for the army team in the championship – Vladimir Fedotov's team alternates victories with disappointing draws, but is only one point away from the top three.
And in the cup semi-final, even in the first game away, she secured a good start, defeating Baltika away 1:0. Just a month ago it seemed that the Kaliningraders were in a hopeless position in the championship. Having seriously strengthened themselves in the winter with newcomers, Sergei Ignashevich’s charges suffered a series of defeats and were stuck in penultimate 15th place, in the zone of direct relegation from the RPL, more than five points behind their competitors in the fight for survival.
But in the last three RPL matches they won two victories. Moreover, in the last round, Baltika shocked the audience by defeating Akhmat Grozny (7:1). This allowed them to get into the zone of transition matches. At the same time, in the Cup back in March, being in a hopeless situation in the championship, the team managed to knock out Lokomotiv Moscow from the RPL Path (1:1; 1:1, 7:6 on penalties).
Therefore, one could expect that Baltika would compete with CSKA even after failure in the first game. But in the away return leg, the army team decided the outcome of the confrontation in the middle of the first half, when, with an interval of two minutes, Fyodor Chalov scored from the penalty spot, and Abbosbek Faizullaev scored from the game. The score 2:0 remained unchanged. Now CSKA will play two matches of the RPL Path finals with Zenit in May. The winner will meet in the decisive game for the trophy in the super final, where the winner of the “Path of the Regions” will also compete.
“Until the penalty kick, we seemed to be playing on an equal footing with CSKA,” Baltika midfielder Vladislav Lazarev shared his opinion with Izvestia. “But then two goals knocked us out of balance. We will not give up, we will try to achieve victory in the Cup through the “Path of the Regions.” Even though we are fighting for survival in the championship, we don’t want to give up the Cup. Moreover, we are motivated by the atmosphere at such large stadiums as ours in Kaliningrad, Moscow arenas and St. Petersburg. Plus, the opportunity to play against top clubs like CSKA motivates me. Moreover, we are playing better and better this spring. The newcomers who came in the winter are gradually adapting to us; some of the legionnaires already understand the Russian language well. Communications on the field are being established, so there are no problems. The same victory over Akhmat with such a score inspires success. Especially when you get such a result of your hard work. I hope that after this we will gain even more momentum, solving our problems in the championship and the Cup.
“Orenburg” – “Dynamo”
The flood that began almost two weeks ago in Orsk raised doubts about the advisability of holding the April matches of the championship and the Russian Cup in the capital of the Orenburg region. Moreover, even on the eve of the championship match between Orenburg and Paris Nizhny Novgorod on April 14, a flood of water reached the city. Even one of the hotels where visiting RPL teams often stay was flooded.
But the area where the Gazovik stadium is located has so far avoided problems. Therefore, the RFU and RPL did not even particularly raise the issue of postponing the matches. As a result, Orenburg won against Nizhny last weekend, and on April 17 played a cup match with Dynamo.
Nevertheless, the RFU, as the organizer of the Cup, did not remain aloof from the problems of local residents. The organization's ambassadors, former Russian national team players Dmitry Sennikov and Igor Semshov, who came to the game, visited the victims of the disaster. They arrived at the temporary accommodation center in secondary school No. 32 and brought there washing machines, refrigerators, medicines and food packages. According to the RFU, he and his partners provided assistance totaling 10 million rubles.
Orenburg head coach David Deogracia carried out a wide rotation of the squad, which made Dynamo’s task easier. The blue and white also did not release all the players who usually play in the championship, but their reserves are of an extremely high level. Therefore, already in the 11th minute, Fedor Smolov opened the scoring. The intrigue remained until the middle of the second half, when Konstantin Tyukavin doubled the guests' lead.
Quite quickly, Mohammad Ghorbani reduced the gap in the score, but not even 15 minutes had passed before Denis Makarov again created a comfortable lead for Dynamo, and Jorge Carrascal completely killed the intrigue. Only in the last minutes did Orenburg respond with a goal scored by Jordi Thompson.
“Ural” – “Rostov”
Only a last-minute victory over Dynamo in the last round of the championship protected Ural from falling into the direct relegation zone. Viktor Goncharenko’s team continues an extremely difficult struggle for survival, which involves at least the last five RPL teams. Nevertheless, she did not give up trying to advance further in the Cup. So, in the last round, Ural knocked Lokomotiv out of the tournament (1:0).
And they could knock out Rostov, which is having a successful spring. The hosts opened the scoring in the 10th minute when Guillermo Schettine scored. And they held the advantage until the end of the first hour of the game, but then Ivan Komarov and Denis Terentyev turned the tide of the match. And just before the final whistle, Nikolai Komlichenko finished off Ural. And now Rostov moves on.
Immediately after the match between Zenit and Spartak, the RFU held the draw for the second stage of the semi-finals of the Russian Cup. According to its results, Dynamo will play with Spartak, and Rostov with Baltika. The winners of this stage will advance to the first stage of the finals. Its winner will play in the second stage of the final with the loser in the RPL Path final. The strongest at this stage will compete for the title in the super final with the winner of the RPL Path final.
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