The meeting of the 1st round of the Russian Premier League, held at VTB Arena, ended with a score of 1:1.
For his first official match as Dynamo head coach, Valery Karpin fielded all the strongest available players, including newcomers Ivan Sergeev and Maxim Osipenko.
It was the blue and whites central defender who could have become the author of the first goal of the season already in the 4th minute - Juan Caceres put a good cross from the right flank to the far post, where Osipenko was the first to get on the ball, but shot a little higher. A couple of minutes later, he also won the aerial duel after a throw-in, and only Maxim Borisko's efficient game allowed him to get ahead of Nicolas Ngamaleu.
And then the Baltika scored in almost their first attack. Vladislav Saus took the ball well on the right flank, got away from Dmitry Skopintsev and made a cross in the center of the penalty area, where Andrei Lunev did not reach the ball, and Brian Gill scored into an empty net.
Dynamo continued to put pressure on the guests' goal. Yaroslav Gladyshev hit great from behind the penalty area - Borisko pulled the ball out of the corner. Immediately after that Yaroslav made a cross from the corner to the near post, where Roberto Fernandez hit the goalkeeper. Gladyshev then tried to execute the "dry sheet", but the ball landed on top of the goal net.
In one of the counterattacks, Gill brought Sergei Pryakhin one-on-one with Lunev with a hidden pass, and our goalkeeper did not disappoint the fans. A little later, he also made a powerful shot from a free kick, and again Andrei rescued the team. The end of the half took place with the overwhelming advantage of the hosts – there were a lot of crosses, set pieces and blocked shots, but the score did not change before the break.
In the second half, Nicolas Marichal took the field instead of Fernandez, and the score was equalized two minutes after the resumption of the game. And again the set piece worked – Bitello from the corner rolled the ball under the kick of Caceres, and the defender sent it to the far corner. There is the first goal of the Paraguayan defender in Russia!
Ngamaleu and Sergeev's replacements for Ulvi Babaev and Denis Makarov were called upon to speed up the game in attack. Daniil Fomin earned a dangerous free kick, from which Bitello struck well, but Borisko again showed a good reaction. With another free kick, Makarov threw the ball both over the wall and the goal.
But the most dangerous moment happened in the 78th minute. After a throw-in, Makarov headed the ball to Fomin, the captain pierced it to Gladyshev, who shot close to the nine with his right foot. In the remaining time, Dynamo pressed, but there was not enough strength for another goal.
Dynamo will host Rostov in the next round on July 26. Buy tickets to VTB Arena on our website.
