Dziuba returned and sealed the victory for Lokomotiv. Terrible field in Sochi played for his team
Anatoly Romanov August 27, 2023, 22:15 Moscow time
Muscovites interrupted the losing streak.
Lokomotiv broke a three-game losing streak with a win in Sochi. Now the railwaymen are only one point behind Spartak and CSKA.
Dziuba returned to Lokomotiv, having missed the last two rounds through injury. But Pinyaev, for the first time this season in the RPL, left the base and remained on the bench. Mikhail Galaktionov’s team suffers without the former captain of the Russian national team in attack, and on the terrible field of the Fisht Stadium, due to which the match was in danger of being transferred to another stadium, the physical qualities of the players came out victorious. It’s very difficult to play fast, combined football on a pitch like that. Whether they want it or not, players will simplify the game, although Dmitry Khokhlov’s team, it must be admitted, has not abandoned his style.
But in these circumstances, it is not surprising that Lokomotiv and Sochi worked out every dangerous moment. In the first half hour, Dziuba did not find the ball in the area of the southerners, and the railwaymen created almost nothing. But at the end of the third of the game, a discount from the center forward for Glushenkov gave Galaktionov’s team a great opportunity: Loko finally hit the ball well and almost scored. A few minutes later, Dziuba touched the ball in the Sochi box for the second and last time before the break. Artyom took a good position anticipating the center from the left, won the air from Miladinovic and headbutted off the ground. In general he did everything necessary, but the goalkeeper Zabolotny responded with a nice save.
The first half statistics (0-4 in shots on goal) attest that Loko, with its relatively simple football, scored more per goal than Sochi. The hosts in the creation tried to take advantage of the wide positions of the full-backs Makarchuk and Margasov, who in 45 minutes made the greatest number of touches to the southerners, however, the marriage in the foreign third broke everything built by the Khokhlov team. Goalkeeper Lantratov, probably, was surprised that he was idle all the time.
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After the break, the match, from which a high pace could no longer be expected due to the Sochi heat, was interrupted by breaks due to injuries to the southerners. In one of the episodes, Dziuba accidentally stepped on Miladinovic’s foot – the Serb came to his senses for a long time and had to freeze. And in the 56th minute, Loko still scored with the help of Artyom. The center forward took the ball, put the body to Miladinovic and passed the ball to Glushenkov. The forward was free in the semicircle, they gave him three touches to hit. Glushenkov scored and received a friendly kiss from Dzyuba during the goal celebration. Such a scandal will not cause.
Lokomotiv with the score 1-0 did not close, but due to the accumulated fatigue of the players, more gaps appeared, due to which Sochi had the opportunity to attack even at high speed. But the marriage spoiled everything: more often than usual Noboa was wrong, whose passes turned out to be inaccurate due to the poor quality of the field. There were still a lot of martial arts left, fighting for rebounds. Sochi failed to achieve the main thing – to hit Lantratov’s goal. The former Loko Ignatiev striker, unable to prove his worth, left the field after an hour of play. Ivan never shot, nor did he pass under attack.
The end of the game would have been more interesting if the railwaymen had lost and the locals had defended the victory. But Sochi does not have as much ability to escape in the last minutes, like Galaktionov’s team. This time the Loko center-backs succeeded: the southerners didn’t get it right even once. The statistics of accurate shots at the end of the match turned out to be simply terrible for Sochi – 0:9!
Lokomotiv was even closer to the second goal. And curiosity. Zabolotny punched Dzyuba, took the ball from him and almost yielded to the center forward, perhaps the funniest goal of his career.
