Fakel started the season very badly. 0 points scored in the RPL and a defeat in the Russian Cup. The team even opened a new stadium after losing to Akron. And eight goals conceded in three matches is not a typical story. Igor Cherevchenko learned from last season that he focuses primarily on defense. And then there are so many failures at the start. It is not for nothing that the coach organizes a large rotation in every match. We saw this in the match against Krasnodar.
However, Murad Musaev’s situation is not any better. Two draws at the start of the season with a very mediocre attack. Then the match against CSKA in the Cup, which gave hope of returning to that style. After all, John Cordoba returned and it quickly became clear how dependent the team was on its leader. But immediately after the Cup I had to go to Voronezh, where there was artificial turf and a very difficult opponent.
In fact, from the first minutes the home team showed that there would be no chaotic football this time. It is time to achieve results. And they do not want to lose twice in a row at their stadium. They put together a tight defence with Sergei Bozhin, Ryan Senhadji and Max Dziov in the centre, who were supposed to contain the lonely Cordoba. Looking ahead, let’s say they succeeded. John tried to act in his own way, grab onto balls, beat his teammates and speed up. But nothing worked for him at all.
The Voronezh team practically did not think about attacking in the first half. They completely gave the ball to the opponent, who had it about 70% of the time. But the Krasnodar team was unable to establish any system in the attacking game. The ball rarely moved forward, most of the passes were cross-field or back. Yes, this can be attributed to the density in defense. On the other hand, last season some proved that even in such a situation you can play and win. But Krasnodar did not seem to know how.
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Of course, there were moments in between. In the 11th minute, Eduard Spertsyan crossed well from a free kick and Diego Costa jumped higher. But the Brazilian missed the target. The density increased with each minute, there were more and more fouls, the referee showed three yellow cards only in the interval from the 24th to the 27th minute. Doctors often ran onto the field. In general, Voronezh had everything except football. And it started to rain. It seemed that this would increase the pace of the match and provoke the creation of chances. No, Krasnodar simply did not come up with anything. And the Voronezh residents were happy with everything.
“Fake” – “Krasnodar”
Photo by: FC Krasnodar
Oddly enough, Musaev did not change anything after the break. Although changes were suggested both in attack and in midfield. Maybe the coach expected everything to change by itself? He didn’t expect it. And around the 60th minute, Murad Olegovich began to get noticeably nervous. First he took Danila Kozlov and Alexander Chernikov off the field. And then Cordoba and Kevin Castano. But the script did not change, despite all attempts to revive the match.
In the 75th minute something interesting happened: Spertsyan scored after all. He had not had time to score against Moses Cobnan before, but in the next attack he pushed the ball into the net. True, the referee immediately raised the flag. The video assistants confirmed his decision: Eduard was offside.
And Fakel scored very soon! At the end of the match, the game really opened up a bit. Khyzyr Appaev picked up the ball near the goal line, crossed the ball into the penalty area and from there Dylan Mertens fired a powerful shot into the corner. The Voronezh residents even celebrated. But then the video assistants noticed that before Appaev’s pass, the ball went out of bounds.
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These few minutes really turned out to be the brightest of the match. Then there was again an ideological impasse: some tried, but failed. And the second were happy with everything. The final 0:0 is a pattern. Krasnodar cannot score for the second consecutive RPL match. And in only three matches in the Russian championship, the team has one goal. This is unlikely to suit the club and the coach.
