Dynamo is in the top three, Krasnodar is the leader. Results of the first part of the RPL – Sport Mail.ru

MOSCOW, December 10. /TASS/. The World – Russian Premier League (RPL) teams went on a winter break after the 18th round of the championship, the program of which ended on Sunday with four matches. In the central game of the tour, Krasnodar defeated CSKA and retained its leadership in the RPL. The meeting in Voronezh was also interesting, in which Fakel played a draw with Dynamo Moscow.

In the first match of the day, football players from “Fakel” and “Dynamo” played. This season, in Voronezh, under unfavorable conditions, a match between “Fakel” and Moscow “Spartak” took place: then the field was damaged due to rain. The Fakel agronomists were well prepared for the game with Dynamo. On December 8, they carried out patching repairs to damaged areas of the lawn at the Central Trade Union Stadium, mowing and marking, after which the field was covered with a special coating. A week before the game, a drop in temperature was expected, which could interfere with the meeting, but an hour before the start of the game, the thermometer after measuring showed minus 6 degrees.

Before the game, Fakel organized a special program. Santa Claus appeared at the stadium, and all the fans were encouraged by bright music. Also during the week, drawings of interesting prizes were announced, including a laptop, a certificate for a fan shop and a food basket for the New Year’s table. All this was played out during the break of the match. Despite the bad weather, 6,254 spectators visited the stadium.

Dynamo opened the scoring in the 29th minute, this was done by striker Yaroslav Gladyshev. Fakel came back in the 79th minute. The main referee of the match, Rafael Shafeev, awarded a penalty due to a violation committed by blue and white defender Fabian Balbuena. Fakel forward Maxim Maximov scored the penalty kick and set the final score at 1:1.

Due to illness, Moscow team striker Fedor Smolov missed the match. Dynamo goalkeeper Anton Shunin entered the starting lineup and played his 359th match for the team; in terms of the number of games for the blue and white, he was ahead of Lev Yashin and moved into clear third place in the history of the club. Only defenders Alexander Novikov (395) and Alexander Makhovikov (363) are ahead. The game against Dynamo was striker Khyzyr Appaev’s 100th as part of Fakel.

Dynamo extended its unbeaten streak in the RPL to nine matches. The blue and white suffered their last defeat in the championship in September from Spartak Moscow (0:1). In all tournaments, Dynamo has not lost in 12 matches.

Ambivalent sensations

Dynamo board member Dmitry Gafin called the decision to award a penalty against the team a lightweight decision. “We’ll look at the episode with the penalty call again, but, for example, they sent me the opinions of several respected refereeing experts – and, to put it mildly, there are big doubts about this penalty,” Gafin told TASS. “It’s annoying for our players to see such easy decisions in such difficult matches that directly affect the result. [Милорад] Mazhich (head of the refereeing department of the Russian Football Union – TASS note) at a meeting with our team emphasized that in order to award a penalty, the referee must see good reasons, and not the first controversial contact, but Shafeev probably heard something else. We apparently need to score more goals so as not to leave any chances for both the opponent and other forces.”

“We made every effort to achieve a result in this match. There are different games, but we are definitely not ashamed of this one. The team fought, the team fought, the team played decent, men’s football. In very difficult conditions, especially for those South Americans who are playing in the RPL for the first season and have never played at such temperatures and on such fields before,” Gafin added.

The players agreed that the field was well prepared, but the weather conditions were still unfavorable. Dynamo forward Konstantin Tyukavin noted that the field was excellent. “It was a good, tough match, an excellent field, you can see for yourself that the football worked, nothing bothered us. It’s a pity that we didn’t win, one point is also good. Third place in the first part of the season is normal. We play football, we don’t think about anything,” he told reporters.

Brazilian Dynamo midfielder Bitello may have surprised fans by wearing only one sleeve of his thermal underwear. He has previously said that he enjoys playing so much. After the match with Fakel, the footballer admitted that he was used to the snow – earlier the Brazilian said that he saw snow for the first time this year. “I was and am still happy about the snow, I’m already used to it,” Bitello noted. “Of course, it’s getting colder now.” But nevertheless, everything is fine, today it was a rather difficult game, but we won a point. We end on such a positive note.”

Fakel midfielder Irakli Kvekveskiri said that the field was of good quality. “Today, of course, it was cold, it was difficult to play in terms of the weather, but we don’t choose it, it’s what it is,” he told TASS. — As for the field, thanks to all the people, it was much better than in previous matches, thanks to the agronomists and other people who came, cleaned, helped, cleared the snow. Thanks to our fans, there was great support today, as always.” Forward Maxim Maximov also believes that the weather conditions during the game were difficult.

Dynamo ranks third in the RPL standings, gaining 32 points in 18 matches. “Fakel” with 21 points is in 11th position. In the next round, which will take place in March 2024, the blue-and-whites will play Lokomotiv Moscow at home, and Fakel will meet Paris Nizhny Novgorod on the road.

Krasnodar retained its leadership

In the central match of the tour, Krasnodar beat CSKA at home with a score of 1:0. The only goal of the game was scored by midfielder Nikita Krivtsov in the 90th minute. Thanks to the victory, Krasnodar went on pause as the leader of the RPL, and the team gained 38 points in 18 matches. The gap from St. Petersburg Zenit is 2 points.

The last time Krasnodar defeated CSKA at home in the RPL was on May 15, 2022, when the meeting ended with a score of 1:0. CSKA is in eighth position with 28 points. In the next round, CSKA will play at home against Orenburg, and Krasnodar will meet at home against Rubin Kazan.

Also on Sunday, Rubin beat Kaliningrad Baltika 1:0 away.

Sochi played a draw with Orenburg at home with a score of 1:1. Rubin is in seventh place in the RPL standings, having scored 28 points in 18 matches, Orenburg (15 points) is in 14th position, followed by Baltika (13) and Sochi (11). In the next round, Baltika will play a match against Sochi at home.

The program of the 18th round of the RPL started on Friday, on this day Lokomotiv beat Ural at home with a score of 2:0. On Saturday, Spartak at home turned out to be stronger than Krylya Sovetov (3:0), Rostov drew away with Akhmat (0:0), Zenit defeated Paris NN at home (1:0) ).