Dinamo is close to breaking the hegemony of Zenit, which has won the last five Russian championships. Today it is hard to believe that just a few years ago the capital’s blue and white team played in the FNL. And it was the St. Petersburgers who sent the Moscow team there. In May 2016, Dynamo fans and players experienced completely different sensations than in May 2024. Then, after a big defeat against Zenit (0:3), the legendary club for the first time in its history left the elite.
By name, on that sad day, Dynamo had a team on the field fully prepared for combat. Vladimir Gabulov is in goal. In defense are Dmitry Zhivoglyadov, Sebastian Holmen, Vitaly Dyakov and Andrey Eshchenko. Igor Denisov, Anton Sosnin, Alexey Ionov, Roman Zobnin, Alexander Tashaev – in the center of the field. Fatos Bechiraj is on attack. It is curious that three of them were Zenit students and three others later moved to Spartak. Another interesting fact: on the Dinamo bench were goalkeepers Anton Shunin and Igor Leshchuk, who are still in the team.
Before the last round, Dinamo was in 14th place, with 25 points, the same as Anzhi, which was in 13th place. “Ufa” and “Mordovia”, with 24 points each, looked fearfully into the abyss from the relegation zone. Dinamo would have remained in the elite even in case of their own defeat, if other Moscow teams had helped: a victory for Lokomotiv over Mordovia and Spartak over Ufa was needed. The railroad workers helped by destroying the houses against the locusts – 3:0. But the Spartak team did not help its main rival and lost in Ufa with a score of 1:3. A goalless draw in Samara was enough for Anzhi.
Zenit finished third and could no longer catch up with CSKA and Rostov, who, in addition to medals, received two tickets to the Champions League reserved for Russia. The match with Dynamo was a farewell for coach André Villas-Boas: the Portuguese announced in advance his departure from the St. Petersburg club. Despite the lost fight for the championship title, Villas-Boas received a warm farewell. In the 2015/2016 season, his team brought St. Petersburg a brilliant Champions League (five wins in the first five rounds of the group stage), and a year earlier AVB had already won gold. Zenit fans applauded Villas-Boas at the end of the match and for sending Dynamo to the FNL: the relationship between the team’s fans is as hostile as possible.
“Dynamo”
Photo: Alexander Mysyakin, “Championship”
In the decisive match of the season at the Khimki Arena, in front of 12,407 spectators, Dinamo only created one scoring chance, but it lasted an hour. After that, Zenit eliminated the opponent with two precise shots in three minutes. Artyom Dzyuba, who spent his first season as a member of the blue-white-sky team, first scored off a pass from Oleg Shatov and then assisted Alexander Kokorin. The former Dynamo player, together with Yuri Zhirkov and Artur Yusupov, destroyed his former team – the evil irony of football. It all ended with a penalty converted in the 90+2 minute by Domenico Criscito.
As soon as the match ended, former Dynamo coach Andrei Kobelev, who was fired three rounds before the end, admitted:
“This is the darkest day, probably not even this year, but in my entire football life. Dynamo has never been relegated. As a coach I am responsible for the result. I don’t want to blame anyone. It is clear that he is guilty. But the feelings are twofold. “Three rounds before the end of the championship, I think we could correct the situation.”
Now, eight years later, Kobelev speaks a little differently about what happened in 2016:
“With three games left, firing the coach is one of the options that I did not understand. I do not exempt myself from responsibility, but I do not believe that he is the only one to blame. It won’t work on me alone either.”
Kobelev was fired after a big derby defeat against Spartak (0-3) in the 27th round. At that time Dinamo was still five points clear of the relegation zone, but the winless streak reached six games. Youth team coach Sergei Chikishev was assigned to the last three rounds, and all three meetings ended in defeats: against Rostov (1-3 at home), Kuban (0-1 away) and Zenit. But what could the new boss change?
ANDREY KOBELEV
Photo: Alexander Safonov, “Championship”
The usually terrible season has reached its logical conclusion. At first, the management intended for the players to be in the top three and win the Russian Cup. Dinamo’s budget was estimated at 55 million dollars. However, despite the club’s capabilities, problems fell on the team one after another.
In the summer of 2015, it became known that UEFA had suspended Dynamo from participating in the Europa League due to violations of the blue and white rules of financial fair play. The Moscow club’s sponsorship contract did not meet market conditions and the share of footballers’ salaries in the budget exceeded the maximum allowable 70%. Dynamo cut salaries and parted ways with high-paid stars. They either hired newcomers from a lower level to replace them or promoted their own juniors to the rank and file. For example, in the winter transfer market Eshchenko, Holmen, Bechiraj and the Belarusian national team midfielder Stanislav Dragun arrived.
In July 2015, coach Stanislav Cherchesov left, with whom the team reached the top 4 and had a memorable season in the Europa League with six wins in six group stage games. Against the background of all the changes in the club, he was suddenly replaced by Kobelev, who had previously been appointed sports director of Dynamo. Kobelev called for reinforcements, but the team only lost great players. The catastrophe was slowly approaching. If after seven rounds the blue and white team shared fifth place in terms of points, they entered the winter break in 11th place. And in the end they suffered eight defeats in nine games.
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Shunin remembered the emotions of that day in May 2016: only he and Leshchuk, who had never played, remained from the team eight years ago.
“The team goes out, fights, tries, but nothing works. Zenit scores first, second, third… And you feel completely helpless. This is a terrible feeling, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. After the game I didn’t want to go out, I wanted to disappear, to fail.”
But the following year, Dynamo and Shunin became FNL champions. Anton played the most minutes in the victorious 2016/2017 season. Perhaps in today’s blue and white lineup the goalkeeper deserves the gold more than anyone, due to his loyalty to the Club.
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Dinamo only has to avoid losing to Krasnodar. He does not collapse psychologically under pressure, like eight years ago in the match against the Villas-Boas team. Taking the league title away from Zenit would be the best revenge for the blue and white.
The text uses quotes from interviews for Sport Express and Sports.ru.
