The eighth round of the Russian championship was completed by the main domestic football derby with the participation of two Moscow giants experiencing something similar to a crisis, in which the host of the CSKA match in the end still snatched the victory from Spartak, who was on a par with him – 1: 0. In the game for leadership in the championship, Zenit, thanks to including Artem Dziuba’s double, smashed Rubin very convincingly – 3: 1, and an unexpected draw between Lokomotiv and an outsider helped him to break away, already by four points, from pursuers Ural with the score 0: 0.
The simplicity and beauty of the catchy playbill of the Kazan match was added by the one that ended right in front of him in Yekaterinburg, from which no one, apparently, expected anything interesting. Ural, which was defeated just by Rubin a week ago, played host to the powerful Lokomotiv: from the top of the table – from Zenit – before this round they were separated by two points. That is, the guests’ usual win created a situation in which the success of Rubin was in fact in their favor, the railroad workers: they would remain in the first place.
But something extraordinary happened in Yekaterinburg. Terribly malleable in the previous round, Ural stood to death against Lokomotiv – bent, but endured. And he endured until the first zero draw in the current championship of Russia. In 61 matches, held before the Urals, at least one goal was scored. Lokomotiv missed the opportunity to climb to the top line of the table for at least a couple of hours, let Dynamo go ahead, and in the match between Rubin and Zenit, the degree of tournament intrigue increased to the limit: the victory of Kazan puts them in the lead.
However, the fact that it would be incredibly difficult for them to reach victory became clear quickly. This, playing with the “Ural”, they sparked an attack. It was with the Yekaterinburg residents a football genius who knew no obstacles, Anders Dreyer, who had been bought by Rubin before the transfer window was closed, and who opened the Russian part of his career with a hat-trick, looked like a football genius who knew no barriers. Now Rubin had to do about the same thing that Ural had done shortly before him in the match with Lokomotiv. Zenit lost the injured Serdar Azmun, but was still insanely persistent.
And it was not difficult to single out the most prominent character in his ranks. Last week, in the Champions League match against Chelsea, Claudinho was remembered, among other things, for the falsehood, the uncertainty, which in the game of the St. Petersburg newcomer against the English grandee was no less than a class. In Kazan, the Brazilian was much bolder, much more convincing. It appeared in different parts of the field. He broke into the penalty area and fell, begging for a penalty. At the same time, he managed to shout something to his partners, as if he had spent not a couple of years with them, but a couple of weeks, and knows perfectly well how to cheer up someone.
And Claudinho was the first to hug Artyom Dziuba when he finally scored his first goal of the season. He scored it, of course, with the help of the indefatigable Brazilian, his thin and soft pass. But Dziuba’s kick was also good. Seeing him, the coach of the Russian national team Valery Karpin certainly praised himself for his sagacity, for having included the “silent” striker for so long in the extended squad for the October selection matches for the 2022 World Cup.
Then Rubin lost Philip Uremovich, who was injured, and another pillar of his defense, Oliver Abilgore, made a loss, and Zenit played a very short and very clearly drawn combination. Recently, these were shown in abundance by the participants of the Moscow Beach Soccer World Cup. Artem Dziuba also played an important role in it, but in the decisive phase the Brazilians flashed: Malcolm threw on Claudinha, and he did not miss.
Rubin’s mentor Leonid Slutsky on the edge looked like a boiling kettle, from which clouds of steam accumulated inside were about to tumble down. It seems that in those seconds he was only thinking about how to hold out until the break. And there, perhaps, it will be possible to come up with something to stop the landslide.
But it didn’t work out. At the end of the first half, Zenit cut Kazan formations with a counter-attack dispersed from their own penalty, the point at which was put by Artem Dzyuba, who was frantic that evening.
The break, by the way, really changed something in this match for the better for Rubin. Well, or maybe it’s Zenit, reasonably considering the task completed, slowed down slightly. In any case, nothing terrible happened for him in the second half. The own goal of the St. Petersburg defender Dmitry Chistyakov was the only trouble for Zenit, which increased the lead over the pursuers to four points during those 45 minutes.
The main Russian derby, which crowned the eighth round, turned out to be sustained in a completely different style. Every second it reminded me that there were two extremely problematic giants who, of course, badly needed glasses, but did not want to lose them either. There were more than enough defensive achievements in the first half (defender Maximiliano Kofrie, who appeared in Spartak in September, for example, impressed with how clearly and rigidly he closed the nimble Chidera Ejuke), the attackers were in a bad way. It seems that no one wanted to risk it.
And it was absolutely unclear in whose favor the alignment was in this tight game. CSKA seemed to put pressure on it more often in the first half, and once it pressed down “Spartak” thoroughly – thanks largely to the right flank, Mario Fernandez, who healed the injury in time. Spartak attacked less often, but a little sharper. Although, whatever one may say, it didn’t come to the real, deadly sharpness. The closest to the goal was, after his raid and long-range strike, the central defender Georgy Dzhikia – the army goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev got the ball in the bottom corner.
And after the rest, a 100% chance was born – at Spartak. Ruslan Litvinov’s entry into the field was a personnel surprise from Spartak coach Rui Vitoria, in store for his army opponent Alexei Berezutsky. In the first half, Litvinov was engaged almost exclusively in destruction – and suddenly he connected and fired great. Akinfeev hit the ball, but hit it right on Esekiel Ponce. He hit from about the penalty spot, in fact, into an empty net and managed to miss.
The miss was followed by something similar to the onslaught of “Spartak”, which lasted, however, only five minutes. Then the game took on the same features again. The efforts of Alexei Berezutsky to somehow correct it looked more noticeable: by the middle of the second half, the army team made three replacements and slightly shaken up the alignment. In this sense, he deserved more luck, and she smiled at him a little over ten minutes before the final whistle. CSKA staged a tight siege of Spartak’s penalty area, and Anton Zabolotny got the rebound from Kofrie. He struck in touch and did not lose. The army team, having lost the second yellow card of Zabolotny, who earned “on the flag”, saved the win and broke away from the unfortunate neighbor by three points, rising from the middle of the table closer to a more honorable zone. Spartak, who last week lost to the modest Legia in the Europa League, also because of a goal missed at the finish line, have only been dreaming of honor.
Eighth round
Ural – Lokomotiv 0: 0
Rubin – Zenit 1: 3
Chistyakov, 67 (own goal) – Dzyuba, 24, 43; Claudinho, 29.
CSKA— “Spartak” 1: 0
Zabolotny, 81. Removal: Zabolotny, 90 + 1 (2 g. K.).
Tournament table
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