CSKA Moscow and Spartak tied in within the 21st round of the Russian Premier League (RPL). The Sport correspondent states, not without sadness: this main derby of the country, left without goals, has become the most boring in recent times.
Russian Premier League (RPL) April 25, 2024 • starts at 20:30 Completed
CSKARussia0 : 0
Spartak Mo SkvaRussia
Troubles of the army team and successes of Spartak After the defeat from Akhmat, CSKA approached the derby with catastrophic losses: red cards left Vladimir Fedotov without Willian Rocha and Igor Diveev, and an extra yellow – without Abbosbek Faizullaev. Moreover, due to injury, the hosts could not count on Maxim Mukhin. Yes, the “red-whites” also have losses (Viktor Moses, Roman Zobnin and Georgiy Dzhikia are recovering – we won’t remind you why Quincy Promes won’t play), but the army team’s losses seem more noticeable.
The guests also had successes in their recent matches against their main opponent (they haven’t lost for two years: two wins and draws in four meetings). And the dismissal of Guillermo Abascal benefited Spartak: the defeat of Rostov with a score of 5:1 last weekend and not a single defeat in five games under the leadership of acting head coach Vladimir Sliskovich (three wins and two draws with Zenit total difference 13:1).
What could cheer up CSKA fans before a difficult match? Perhaps a cute video appeared on the club’s social networks, announcing the most important meeting on Peschanaya Street.
45 minutes of boredomEven though the teams were outside the top 3 of the standings and had no chance of winning the championship race, sparks were expected from the Muscovites from the starting whistle. .. And we got a very boring first half, in which, with the exception of a couple of tight shots from outside the penalty area, there was not a single dangerous moment in the possession of Igor Akinfeev and Alexander Maksimenko.
Let's be honest: we saw the brightest highlight even before the players entered the field – the way Pelageya performed the song of the Lyube group “Horse” was amazing.
But let's get back to football. And let’s note the moment at the equator of the 45-minute period when the ball hit Fedor Chalov in the army penalty area. The Spartak players immediately began to show that there was a handball – chief referee Vasily Kazartsev, who did not record a lot of violations, did not give a penalty, noticing a hit in the thigh.
The teams went into the break with zero hits on target.
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The second half turned out to be more interesting. There were more emotions and fighting (the only thing worth mentioning was the terrible episode with the knockout after Christopher Martins was hit in the head by the ball), and with them came dangerous moments. CSKA's first chance came in the 66th minute, when, due to a defensive error by Spartak, Ivan Oblyakov went one on one and missed, aiming for the far corner. The guests responded with lightning speed: Alexander Sobolev turned beautifully in the penalty area, leaving the defender out of action, and was already raising his leg to shoot. However, he didn’t hit the ball, but his namesake Zdelar, who “covered” the forward in time.
And the fans at VEB Arena saw the first shot on target in the 80th minute. But we saw it! Sobolev crossed into the penalty area, and substitute Anton Zinkovsky fired into the corner. Captain Akinfeev coped.
Neither the substitution nor the Spartak penalty in the last minutes changed the zeros on the scoreboard. The teams were never able to open the scoring – perhaps a draw was a fair outcome of the “battle” in Moscow, in which Spartak’s Maksimenko entered the game only after the 92nd minute.
Neighbors in the standings For the first time since October 2003, CSKA and Spartak failed to score against each other. It’s hard to deny that the match was disappointing – perhaps if we had seen at least one goal, the impressions of the central match of the tour, postponed due to the March presidential elections in Russia, would have been different.
Spartak with 39 points is in sixth place in the standings RPL, CSKA are right behind him (the “red-blues” have one point less). The Moscow clubs have difficult matches ahead: on April 28, the “red-whites” will fight at home with “Lokomotiv”, and the army team will try to take away the victory over “Baltika” from Kaliningrad.
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