The meeting of the 1st round of the World 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 white 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 shot 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 riding fight after throwing an out, and only Maxim Borisko's efficient game allowed him to get ahead of Nicolas Ngamaleu.
And then the Baltics scored, in fact, in their first attack. Vladislav Saus took the ball well on the right flank, got away from Dmitry Skopintsev and shot in the center of the penalty area, where Andrei Lunev did not reach the ball, and Brian Hill 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 Yaroslav hung 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.
The guests also snapped periodically. In one of the counterattacks, Khil brought Sergei Pryakhin one-on-one with Lunev with a hidden transfer, and our goalkeeper did not disappoint. A little later, he also powerfully applied 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 overhangs, standards 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 standard worked – Bitello from the corner rolled the ball under the kick of Caceres, and he 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 both the wall and the gate.
But the real moment happened in the 78th minute. After drawing an out, Makarov threw the ball to Fomin with his head, he pierced it to Gladyshev, who punched over 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.
