The meeting of the 1st round of the group stage of the FONBET Cup of Russia, held at VTB Arena, ended with the victory of our team with a score of 3:2.
As promised by Valery Karpin, the roster for the cup meeting has been updated almost completely. Leon Zaydenzal – Dmitry Alexandrov formed the center of defense, and 20-year-old Maxim Balakhonov made his debut on the right flank of the defense.
Sochi residents also did not field the main squad, and the first minutes turned out to be chaotic. Gradually, Dynamo seized the advantage and began to create a sharpness at the gates of Alexander Degtev. First, Nicolas Ngamaleu was knocked down 16 meters from the goal, and Denis Makarov from the penalty line shot a low shot into the hands of the goalkeeper. After a couple of minutes, Moumi ran away from the defender and gently hung on the far post, where Ivan Sergeev sent the ball with his head along the hinged trajectory exactly into the corner, distinguishing himself in the second match in a row.
A five-minute period of Victor Okishor's activity followed: at first he beautifully walked away from the guardian and fell into the penalty area after contact, but the referee's whistle was silent, then his shot was blocked at the last moment by a defender, after which he received a yellow card for disrupting a promising attack of the guests. Zaydenzal could have scored, waiting for Degtev's mistake, but his shot from a few meters went over the crossbar.
At the 33rd minute, Sochi residents also waited for their moment - Zakhar Fedorov struck the rally after a cross from the left flank, and Igor Leshchuk parried the ball in a jump. However, he was powerless when Dmitry Vasiliev was the first on the rebound after a corner and irresistibly shot into the corner from behind the penalty box - 1:1.
A minute later, the guests were already counting. Okishor made a mistake with a pass in the center of the field, Martin Kramarich brought Fedorov one-on-one with Leshchuk with a long pass, and the Sochi striker took his chance. In the end, the teams did not use one good moment each: Makarov shot from the penalty area centimeters from the bar from the right, after which Leshchuk neutralized Kramarich's one-on-one exit.
There was a double substitution during the break – Nicolas Marichal and Alexander Kutitskiy, who tried on the captain's armband, came out instead of Gagnidze and Skopintsev. In one of the first attacks, Makarov beat his opponent on the flank, entered the penalty area and spun the ball into the crossbar, after which Egor Smelov beautifully punched through himself from 18 meters – it's a pity that it was inaccurate.
In the 57th minute the score was even. Balakhonov played a good pass from the right flank, Sergeev jumped out from behind the defender and sent the ball into the net, repeating his goal to Rostov. Next, Makarov took Ivan out for a hat-trick, but this time the ball missed the left post of Degtev's goal.
Gradually, the Dynamo squad began to be updated – Daniil Fomin, Yaroslav Gladyshev and Bakhtiyor Zainutdinov appeared on the field, to whom Karpin gave 15 minutes in his debut match. Their Kazakhstan station wagon was held on the left edge of the attack. From there, a dangerous attack soon came – Marichal hung on the far post, and Makarov shot his head above the goal.
In the end, both teams could snatch victory. Fomin did a great job spinning the ball from the free kick into the top corner, where the goalkeeper of the guests still got it. Already in added time, Kirill Kravtsov hit the crossbar after drawing a corner. And yet, at the last minute, the scales tilted in our direction: Degtev deflected a point-blank shot from Zainutdinov, Makarov gave a corner to the near post, and Fomin sent the ball to the far corner in an ideal trajectory!
In the next match Dynamo will play away from Krasnodar on Saturday, August 2.
