The first match of the final of the Russian Cup RPL Path, held at VTB Arena, ended with a score of 0:0.
After the match against Orenburg, the team's starting lineup was almost half-changed. Andrei Lunev and Daniil Fomin returned from injuries, Juan Cáceres and Roberto Fernández played on the flanks of defense, and Yaroslav Gladyshev was added to the attack on the right.
The first 15 minutes were spent reconnoitering, during which Dynamo actively pressed, and it worked once. Stanislav Agkatsev came out of the penalty area and hit his own defender. The ball bounced off Bitello, who tried to send it into an empty net, but his goalkeeper was saved by Vitor Tormena.
Soon after, Rubens made a pass forward, Konstantin Tyukavin cleverly missed the ball, and Bitello almost found himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but at the last moment, Lucas Olaza managed to clear the ball for a corner. Tyukavin then tried to repeat the trick with his first goal against Orenburg, but this time he shot low, and Agkatsev jumped to get the ball.
After a brief lull in the 41st minute, Cáceres played a long diagonal ball to Bitello, who was brought down by Valentin Paltsev just before entering the penalty area. Ivan Abrosimov immediately showed the defender a red card, but after reviewing the video replay, for some reason, he changed it to a yellow card. Meanwhile, Fernandez was unable to continue and was substituted for Dmitry Skopintsev. Immediately, Dmitry fired a powerful shot over the crossbar from the corner of the penalty area.
At halftime, Anton Miranchuk replaced Gladyshev, and the visitors made a triple substitution. Dynamo continued to dominate: Bitello curled the ball over the crossbar from the edge of the penalty area, Tyukavin pushed his opponent and fired from a less-than-opportune position, also over the bar, and Fomin, after a pass from Bitello from the center of the penalty area, hit a defender.
In the 61st minute, Timofey Marinkin replaced Rubens. Soon Skopintsev earned a promising free kick on the left flank, Bitello passed it into the center of the penalty area, over which Nicolas Ngamaleu soared, sending the ball into the right post - if it had hit the target, Agkatsev would not have helped his team.
The visitors were clearly playing second fiddle, relying on quick counterattacks, but David Ricardo, who came on for the second half, kept a close watch on John Cordoba. The Colombian was only brought into a scoring position once, and his attempt was unsuccessful. The White-Blues, however, continued to press: Cáceres fired a shot from 30 meters, which Agkatsev had no choice but to parry in front of him — no one had time to finish. After a cross from Ngamaleu, the ball bounced to Skopintsev, who scissored it wide.
In stoppage time, Dynamo gained a numerical advantage after Alexander Chernikov hit Cáceres in the face in our penalty area and was shown a red card. The White-Blues managed to create chances. First, Cáceres crossed from the right flank to the far post, where Skopintsev fired a one-timer into the net from the outside of the goal. Finally, in the sixth minute of added time, Ngamaleu headed the ball down to Tyukavin, who fired home, but the goal was disallowed due to a microscopic offside.
The final decision will be made in the return leg in Krasnodar on May 7, and Dynamo's next RPL match will be away against Akron on April 13.
