Spartak broke the terrible streak! But the victory over Sochi is clumsy and painful.
Anatoly Romanov September 16, 2023, 21:20 Moscow time
Defender Babich saved the team from another point loss in the final minutes.
Spartak broke a black streak of four games without a win in the RPL. The summer debutant’s goal in the final minutes gave the rojiblancos three points.
Litvinov was not included in Spartak’s request. The team’s coach, Guillermo Abascal, explained the absence of a player who, in the opinion of many fans and experts, should not have left the team: “Litvinov was injured before being sent to the Russian national team, to which he knew him and spoke, however, he played the 90 minutes. In our opinion, this is not the solution that was needed. That is why he is not on the list.”
The Spaniard’s words sounded especially interesting in the context of Valery Karpin’s recent statement that he would not allow injured players, like Pinyaev’s Lokomotiv, to enter the field of the Russian national team.
In the first minutes of the game there was a real hurricane on the field. The Spartak team went ahead, created chances and… almost gave Dmitry Khokhlov’s team a goal. Southern Nigerian newcomer Agbalaka, making his RPL debut, crossed from his left flank under Denisov, Duarte unsuccessfully carried the ball through the middle and Sochi scored. Everything would have gone well for the Sochi team if it weren’t for one detail: the offside. The referees made the right decision by disallowing Selikhov’s goal.
After that, the Sochi team relied on defense, almost the entire team sat behind the ball line. A terrible streak of five defeats in six rounds forced the guests to play for the result, without hesitating to gain time already fifteen minutes into the first half. Abaskal was very unhappy with the time it took for former Spartak goalkeeper Zabolotny to get the ball out of the goal and constantly turned to referee Chistyakov. But Khokhlov’s tactics, which included a large number of minor fouls, worked in Sochi’s favor. Furthermore, the southerners’ game was reinforced by a forced substitution: already after half an hour, the injured Kravtsov was replaced by his most intelligent player, Noboa.
If at first Spartak seemed quite solid in attack (Sobolev moved well, the center forward participated in almost all combinations), creating a numerical advantage on the flanks and half-bands, then the Sochi team put out the fire in the red-and-white game . . Thus, before the break, Abascal’s team, with 75% possession of the ball, was limited to only five shots and three shots on goal that were not particularly dangerous. The locals took advantage of the scoring opportunities in such a match with enormous difficulty and little by little, as if the toothpaste in a crumpled tube was running out.
The most surprising thing is that nothing changed in Spartak’s game after the break. Of course, due to the pause in national team matches, the quality of football is often affected for teams that have national teams in their squad, so it was not worth expecting a great show from the red and whites, even if they really wanted to break their winless streak. streak. But in the second half Spartak’s calm disappeared completely. Here, the main problem for Abascal was not the absence of Litvinov, although he acted in the center of the field. What would have happened if the match had not been moved from Sochi and the Spartak players had played on the terrible Fisht grass?
Only when the Sochi players, tired of playing without the ball, got hooked, did Abascal’s team create their first real scoring opportunity, 20 minutes before the end. This was done by Bongonda, perhaps the fastest of Spartak’s attacking group in the match against Sochi. The Belgian Congolese’s astute emergence into the free zone and a timely pass gave Promes the opportunity, but the Moscow leader’s header from the goalkeeper’s corner was not ideal. Zabolotny saved. Curiously, Abascal immediately rested Bongonda, although there seemed to be more obvious candidates for the replacement.
Results of the summer transfer market in the Russian Championship
RPL clubs earned more from transfers than they spent. All summer transitions in images.
It’s not uncommon for a game that was boring for most of the game to have an exciting ending. Furthermore, Sochi, having used up all five of their substitutions midway through the second half, lost the injured Drkusic and finished the match with ten men. Spartak had a great opportunity to put pressure on their opponent, who remained in the minority. But the Spartacists seemed to run with weights on their feet. Medina wasted a crazy opportunity, missing an empty corner from five meters: the locals did not create anything else until extra time. But in the 90+2 minute, Spartak still scored! The red and whites spun the carousel in the Sochi goal and Babich, who arrived for the final assault, pushed the ball into the net.
This is the Serbian rookie defender’s second goal.
