The leadership of the Nalchik “Spartak” in the championship of Russia haunts many. Is it a good thing - the debutant of the Premier League leads the standings, and not after several games held, but at the end of the first round, in the midst of the season! Nevertheless, the championship favorites will have to come to terms with the role of pursuers for some time: “Spartak”, “Lokomotiv” and CSKA in their next matches could not win, and the game “Rubin” with “Shinnik” was postponed to Wednesday.
The 13th round was opened (it was numbered 12 on the calendar, but we will be guided by the actually played number of matches) on Friday Moscow Spartak and Ramensky Saturn. The head coach of the red and white Vladimir Fedotov was forced to make changes in the composition due to the disqualification of Roman Pavlyuchenko (the latter played the day before for the second composition and scored a goal in the match, which led the Spartak doubles to the leaders of his tournament): the attack line was Nikita Bazhenov and Fernando Cavenaghi. Once again, Maxim Kalinichenko was left out of the application - according to Fedotov, he would "return to the squad as soon as he got in shape." “Saturn”, in turn, introduced to the public his newcomer, the Slovak midfielder Branislav Fodrek. He did not ruin the game, although he did not stand out anything special on the field.
The match in “Luzhniki” was dictated by the hosts, but for a long time the Spartak team failed to realize their chances. Bazhenov was especially unlucky, who could have beaten former teammates three times just before the break. In one case, Captain Geder saved their ramen, in another, Bazhenov didn’t really hit the ball, and once again the bar of their own goal played for the guests. Apparently, the new uniform turned out to be lucky (blue t-shirts, dark blue underpants), in which the players of “Saturn” entered the Luzhnovsky field. It was really fitting to change the old one: Saturn won its last victory on May 6 in Rostov, and after a pause in the championship, the team took only a point in three matches.
Luck did not leave guests until the 78th minute, when the ball finally ended up in their goal. After the corner executed by Mozart, a discount on Martin Jiranek followed, and the Czech defender struck past his compatriot Antonin Kinski. The “Saturn” had very little time to recoup, but the time this team Vladimir Weiss properly disposed. First Branislav Obzhera and Alexei Eremenko played a simple two-run, and the striker of the Finnish national team equalized. And at the end of the match, the Ramenites could snatch victory, but now fortune turned to face the Spartacists.
According to a different scenario, the next Moscow match took shape: Lokomotiv - Tom. Here, the guests did not at all feel like guests - on the contrary, from the very first minutes they made the railroad workers doubt their mastery. Half of the “Loco” it took to level the game, and only after that more or less dangerous situations began to arise at the gates of Vasily Khomutovsky. Before the break, however, goals were not scored, as in the previous match.
But immediately after the pause, Lokomotiv succeeded in a magnificent counterattack. Fending off after a corner, Cherkizov in an instant brought the ball to someone else's penalty area. Malkhaz Asatiani, Dmitry Loskov and Diniyar Bilyaletdinov made just one touch of the ball, and Dmitry Sychev, who played for almost an hour with a micro-injury received at the beginning of the game, completed the combination.
But here, the hosts could not keep the winning result. The return attack “Tom” was just as fast and good. True, Alexei Polyakov repelled the first hit of Denis Kiselyov, but Pavel Pogrebnyak, who came in, finished the ball into the net. Draw 1: 1.
Exactly the same result was recorded in the match CSKA - “Wings of the Soviets”. But here Muscovites had to recoup. After the final whistle, the head coach of the army Valery Gazzaev admitted: “With such stuffiness as it was today (the game started at 14.00. -“ Newspaper ”), it is easier for the team playing on the counterattacks. We played attacking football for 90 minutes, but not could realize their moments. I wonder how we managed to achieve a draw. "
In fairness, it should be noted that the “Wings” assists chances were also many. In particular, in the last minute of the first half, Marko Topić fled from the army defenders from his half of the field and, although not attacking from the most convenient position, managed to send the ball between Igor Akinfeev's legs. The second half was replete with interesting episodes, in one of which the referee Igor Egorov removed two Brazilians - Samarussian Branko for provocation (second yellow) and Muscovite Daniel Carvalho for pushing the opponent. A minute later, another red card was shown - to Christian Angbwe for a rough game. And although there were only a few minutes until the end of the match, the army team managed to use the numerical advantage. With a smart hinged strike, Miloš Krasic sent the ball into the far corner of the goal and saved one point for his team.
Thus, the Spartak Nalchik went to the home match with “Amkar”, already knowing that all competitors lost points. Presumably, this information added confidence to the leader who opened the account in his first attack: Sergei Serdyukov took advantage of the sluggishness of the defenders. After 20 minutes, Denis Evsikov did the same after drawing a free kick. Having two goals for handicap, the Spartak players subsequently confidently played in a row and brought the matter to their eighth victory in the championship, simultaneously increasing the gap from the closest pursuers.
And the most productive (so far) match of the tour ending on Wednesday was played in Vladivostok. The local “Luch-Energia” scored “Rostov” four goals, conceiving half their goals. The victory allowed the Far East to rise one line in the table, ahead of “Moscow”, which on Sunday dropped out of the Intertoto Cup. Wards Leonid Slutsky lost in the second leg of the third round of the Berlin “Hertha" 0: 2.
Mikhail MELNIKOV