The struggle in the upper and lower parts of the standings of the Russian football championship intensified after the 17th round. Petersburg “Zenith” in its field lost points in the match with “Rostov” (2: 2), and gave the Moscow “Dynamo” lost at home to Krasnodar (1: 2). The crisis continues in the Moscow Lokomotiv, which lost home to the Yekaterinburg Ural (0: 1), which left the relegation zone. And the capital “Spartak” took over the Grozny “Akhmat”, having won the first victory in two months in the RPL. At the bottom of the table, Khimki lost at home to their rival in the struggle for survival, Tula Arsenal (1: 2).
All matches were held as part of a rally of fans who left the stands during the meetings in protest against the detention of fans in the CSKA fan sector during the army team’s home game in the 16th round against Zenit St. Petersburg (0: 2). This is what fans of 11 out of 16 teams did. Recall that on November 28, police and riot police officers detained at least 408 people because of the pyrotechnics lit on the podium.
Zenit – Rostov
For this match, Zenit head coach Sergei Semak rotated, leaving Dejan Lovren, Serdar Azmun and Vilmar Barrios in reserve. As a result, the team played extremely poorly in the first half and Rostov took the lead 2: 0. First, Dmitry Poloz converted a penalty, and then Nikolay Komlichenko doubled the score with a brilliant dodge blow.
True, Claudinho very quickly reduced the lag of the hosts with an equally beautiful blow. And Semak, even before the break, replaced Dmitry Chistyakov, who was hanging on a yellow card, with Lovren. During the break, Barrios and Azmun also entered the field, replacing Alexander Erokhin and Malcolm who were not in the game.
20 minutes before the end, Claudinho leveled the score from the penalty spot, and his team created a few more chances, but did not put the squeeze on Rostov. Nevertheless, she managed to escape defeat, and the Rostovites still cannot break away from the relegation zone from the RPL.
“If anyone had said before the match that there would be a draw, Rostovites would probably be happy,” the former head coach of Rostov Sergey Balakhnin told Izvestia. – But now they can complain about the missed 2: 0. Nevertheless, the very nature of the game suggests that the result is good for them. Zenit is stronger both in composition and in the game, but, as Semak said after the match, his team started the meeting below their capabilities, made mistakes that led to goals from Rostov. And “Rostov” in the first half struck only two hits, and both were assists. As for the rest, “Zenith” surpassed the rival in both shots and possession of the ball. Therefore, Rostovites can write down this result for themselves.
Spartak – Akhmat
With three victories in a row in November, Akhmat moved up to seventh place and approached the European competition zone. This made him a favorite in the away match against Spartak stuck in the middle of the table. Nevertheless, in a home match against a club from the Chechen Republic, the red and white quickly took the lead after a goal by Alexander Sobolev.
True, very soon the red-and-white striker was sent off the field for a rough play. And Grozny at the end of the first half equalized – Daniil Utkin scored again. But Andrei Talalaev’s charges could not take advantage of the numerical advantage. Moreover, in the last minute of the match, Quincy Promes brought Spartak the first victory in six rounds in the Russian championship – in the last two months, the red and white won only in the Europa League. They are now in ninth place, four points behind the European competition zone. Akhmat is one point ahead of Spartak and remains seventh.
Lokomotiv – Ural
The Yekaterinburg club went to Moscow after four draws in a row. And Loko failed in November without scoring a single victory. Lost in the majority victory over Spartak (1: 1), losses at home to Grozny Akhmat (1: 2) in the Russian championship and Rome’s Lazio (0: 3) in the Europa League, defeat away from Tula Arsenal (1: 3) put them on the brink of relegation from the European competition zone.
The crisis continued on Saturday. At the end of the first half, a foul by Tino Barely in his own penalty area led to a penalty, which was converted by Rafal Augustyniak. And right after the break, the Dutch defender committed another violation of the rules, was sent off for a second yellow card and left the hosts in the minority.
Towards the end of the meeting, the railroad workers tried to storm the Ural gates, hit the crossbar twice, but in the end suffered a third consecutive defeat in the RPL and are now in sixth place, falling out of the European competition zone. Having failed the beginning of the season, Ural have lost only twice in the last 10 matches. In these meetings, Igor Shalimov’s charges conceded only four goals.
Khimki – Arsenal
After the first half, Khimki were leading 1: 0, but played very poorly. The Tulyaks outplayed the hosts, who, due to injuries, had used up three substitutions by the 25th minute. After the break, “Arsenal” added more, leveled the score, and at the end of the meeting gave the opponent a shot, thanks to which he pulled himself out of the zone of transitional matches. And Khimki are stuck in last place.
“Three substitutions influenced the course of the meeting, a slot was used up, which did not allow rebuilding in the second half,” said Roman Teryushkov, a Russian State Duma deputy, a member of the Khimki supervisory board, to Izvestia. – After the break, Arsenal completely outplayed us and deservedly won. They also lost due to the disqualification of Brian Idova, who retired at the end of the meeting. But nothing, you need to get ready and prepare for a difficult trip to Grozny, where you need to fight for points.
Dynamo – Ufa
Dynamo from the very beginning did everything to use Zenit’s misfire. In the first minutes, they got the majority after sending off Vyacheslav Krotov from Ufa for a rough foul against Sebastian Shimanski, due to an injury who left the field. On the 29th minute, Denis Makarov opened the scoring. Very soon, Ufa had another send-off – Egas Kasintura was kicked out for a foul of the last resort.
Dynamo created a lot of chances, but the guests resisted and gave up only at the end of the game, when Arsen Zakharyan put the winning point from Makarov’s pass. The blue and white are approaching Zenit, only two points behind.
“The matches where the opponent was in the minority were not our best,” Dynamo coach Andrei Voronin told Izvestia. – And the game against Ufa was not the best. But the main thing is that we took three points. We must move on. The game will be forgotten, but the points will remain.
Sochi – Krasnodar
The southern derby was formally the centerpiece of the tour, with both teams at the top of the table. In the 19th minute, due to a goal by Matteo Casierra, Sochi took the lead, but soon Victor Klasson equalized from the penalty spot. At the beginning of the second half, he brought Krasnodar ahead.
The hosts created a lot of chances and could well have saved the match, but in the end they did not put the squeeze on the “bulls” even after Grzegosz Krychowiak was removed from them. Now these teams have an equal number of points – they are tied for third or fourth places, seven points behind Dynamo.
Also in the last round, CSKA Moscow beat Krylya Sovetov Samara away (1: 0), while Nizhny Novgorod beat Rubin Kazan (2: 1) at home.
Scheduled for next weekend, the 18th round will be the last before the two-month winter break in the RPL.
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