Autumn exacerbation: how the competition for leadership has intensified in the RPL

Following the results of the ninth round of the Russian Football Championship, which ended on Monday, the race for gold intensified. This happened due to the home defeat of the leading Krasnodar from Zenit (0:2). The club from St. Petersburg got close to the leading group, and the main beneficiary of the Bulls' misfire was CSKA Moscow, which won a strong-willed away victory over the outsider of the RPL Sochi (3:1). In addition, Spartak Moscow managed to win at home against Krylia Sovetov Samara (2:1), and Lokomotiv Moscow again missed a victory in the last minutes, this time following a guest match with Dynamo Makhachkala.

Krasnodar — Zenit

After the away draw with Baltika (0-0), it seemed that Zenit had little chance of success in Krasnodar. The St. Petersburg club looked too weak in Kaliningrad, where its opponent was more likely to be closer to victory. That match showed that Sergei Semak's players continue to have summer gaming problems, which led them to the ninth round only in sixth place.

But in the confrontation with the leader and the reigning champion, Zenit has transformed. But Krasnodar could have scored first — in the first minute, Joao Batchi hit the visitors' goal from a good position after Lucas Olasa's shot, but Denis Adamov, the goalkeeper of the blue-white-blues, saved his team. Then for almost an hour there was a viscous game. Closer to the 60th minute, Vitor Tormeno almost opened the scoring, but the ball went just past Zenit's goal.

A minute later, the Petersburgers scored. After a backhand pass from Luis Enrique, Maxim Glushenkov sent the ball into the Krasnodar net from the corner of the goalkeeper's net. Before the end of the game, the hosts had several opportunities to equalize. It is especially worth highlighting Viktor Saa's blow to the bar. But in the end, Zenit had the last word in the last minutes of the meeting. Glushenkov broke through with the ball into the opponent's penalty area, and with his pass Luis Enrique doubled the advantage of the guests, who, thanks to this victory, reduced the gap from the leading Krasnodar to three points.

— The match could have ended with any outcome, but the realization of the moments decided everything, — Maxim Demenko, a former Krasnodar and Zenit midfielder, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — If Butchy had scored at the beginning of the game or Saa in the second half, when he hit the post, the game could have ended in a draw or even a victory for the hosts. But Zenit played very well this time and used their scoring opportunities when Glushenkov and Luis Enrique showed their individual skills very well, which only intensified the fight for gold.

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Dynamo (Makhachkala) — Lokomotiv

Lokomotiv started the championship well, winning the first four matches. But in the next four meetings, he invariably had draws. This does not prevent the "railwaymen" from remaining in the group of leaders, but it significantly undermined their chances of first place.

Another problem arose during the trip to the Makhachkala Dynamo. For a long time, Loko had great difficulty opening the Dagestani club's tight defense, but in the 54th minute Zelimkhan Bakayev still managed to open the scoring. He also made his team's life much more difficult by getting sent off after 10 minutes for a second yellow card.

It came out sideways in red and green at the very end of the meeting. Once again, they missed the victory in the last minutes. Previously, this happened to them in home matches with Rostov (3:3) and Samara Krylia Sovetov (2:2). This time, Tunisian striker Hazem Masturi hit a free kick, the goalkeeper of the guests Anton Mitryushkin hit the ball, but the Angolan striker of Makhachkala Miro scored a return goal.

After a fifth consecutive draw, Lokomotiv is two points behind the leading Krasnodar, but has already dropped out of the top three. Dynamo Makhachkala retains the 12th place with a margin of two points from the transition zone and three from the relegation zone.

"You're gradually starting to lose interest in the Lokomotiv game after such draws," Nikolai Naumov, former president of the Railwaymen, said in a conversation with Izvestia. — At the beginning of the season, there was a struggle and fire in the actions of the team, but after the first loss of points, it all somehow began to fade. Big questions to the club's management and coaching staff that their players have such an attitude against the background of the opportunity to compete for medals and even the championship. All this is on the wane, and without serious motivation, you can't beat such a militant team as Dynamo Makhachkala. The inability to play until the end of the match, which leads to goals in the last minutes, raises very big questions. Yes, Loko is technically undefeated in the championship and remains close to first place, but with such a game, it won't even be in the top three at the end of the season.

Spartak — Krylia Sovetov

Spartak, stuck in the middle of the table, had an equal number of points with Krylia before this round, so it was difficult to call the red-and-whites the clear favorite of the meeting. And the Samaritans showed that they look no worse than their opponent, opening the scoring in the sixth minute thanks to Vladislav Ignatenko's goal.

This led to the fact that Spartak had already used up four of the five substitutions by the beginning of the second half. Two of them were made during the first half of the meeting, and two were made during the break. The head coach of the hosts, Dejan Stankovic, who took these steps, watched the match from the podium, because two days before he received a month's suspension from the RFU KDK. This was the result of his insults to the referee during the break of the previous championship match against Dynamo Moscow (1-1).

Considering that this is not the first time the Serbian specialist has caused such scandals, he was given such a harsh punishment, as a result of which he will miss five matches — four in the championship and one in the Russian Cup. But he managed to guess from the podium with one of the substitutions — Manfred Ugalde, who came on in the second half, scored twice against Krylia and brought his team a strong-willed victory. The Red and white team moved up to sixth place, four points behind the leader. Samaritans remain at the end of the top ten.

"Our team played a good first half and deservedly led," Nikita Chernov, defender of Krylia Sovetov, told Izvestia. — If we had played the same way after the break, we could have won. But the guys got tired after doing a lot of running work. Nevertheless, I think we played for a draw, but Spartak had one man, Ugalde. And he decided the outcome of the meeting due to his individual skill.

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The leading Krasnodar will host Zenit, which is six points behind.

Sochi — CSKA

The last match of the tour, which took place on Monday evening, almost brought a sensation. Sochi led 1-0 after the first half thanks to Anton Zinkovsky's goal. Moreover, in terms of the quality of the game, he also looked better than CSKA, which in the eyes of many experts was the favorite in the fight for the championship during the summer break. The Army team won four times and drew three times in the first seven rounds, with two draws in the top matches — away with Zenit (1:1) and at home with Krasnodar (1:1).

After the September break for the national team matches, Fabio Celestini's team unexpectedly lost to Rostov, who were at the bottom of the table (0:1). And they could repeat this failure in the previous round following the results of another southern exit. It was important for Sochi to cling to this game, as the team had failed to start, scoring only one point at the moment. During the break for the national team games, the club changed the head coach — Igor Osinkin came instead of Robert Moreno.

He started with an away defeat against his former team Krylia Sovetov (0:2). But the first half of the game against CSKA gave hope for Sochi to overcome the crisis. However, their efforts came to naught in the middle of the second half, when Ivan Oblyakov equalized the score from two penalties, and then put CSKA ahead. Moreover, the first penalty was very controversial. Towards the end of the meeting, the hosts had several chances to escape defeat.

But in the end, they conceded more when Sochi goalkeeper Yuri Dupin ran into the penalty area in the last minutes during a corner kick at the opponent's goal. His team failed to create danger in that episode, but eventually lost the ball, and as a result of a quick counterattack, Matvey Kislyak hit an empty net. As a result, the Army team came in second place, one point behind the leader. Sochi remains last — it is already six points behind the zone of transitional matches.

Four more matches also took place in the last round. Kaliningrad "Baltika" played a draw with "Rostov" (0-0) and continues to go undefeated in the championship, remaining in third place. Kazan "Rubin" drew away with Tolyatti "Akron" (2:2), losing 0:2. Dynamo Moscow won 3-1 on the road against Orenburg. Akhmat Grozny snatched a 2-1 away win against Pari Nizhny Novgorod in the end and continues its unbeaten streak in the championship, which began after the appointment of Stanislav Cherchesov as head coach — now it has six matches.