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 with Orenburg, the starting lineup of the team changed by almost half. Andrei Lunev and Daniil Fomin returned from injuries, Juan Caceres and Roberto Fernandez acted on the edges of the defense, and Yaroslav Gladyshev appeared on the right in the attack.
The first 15 minutes were spent on reconnaissance, during which Dynamo very actively applied pressure, and once it worked. Stanislav Agkatsev went outside 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 backed up by Vitor Tormen.
Soon Rubens made a throw forward, Konstantin Tyukavin cunningly missed the ball, and Bitello almost jumped out one–on-one with the goalkeeper - at the last moment Lucas Olasa managed to knock the ball to the corner. Next, Tyukavin tried to repeat the trick with his first goal against Orenburg, but this time he shot low, and Agkatsev got the ball in a jump.
After a slight lull in the 41st minute, Caceres gave a long diagonal to the move of Bitello, who was knocked down by Valentin Fingers before entering the penalty area. Ivan Abrosimov immediately showed the defender a red card, but after watching the video replay for some reason changed it to yellow. Meanwhile, Fernandez was unable to continue the game and was replaced by Dmitry Skopintsev. Immediately Dima was firmly attached from the corner of the penalty area over the cross.
During the break, Anton Miranchuk replaced Gladyshev, and the guests made a triple substitution. Dynamo continued to play with an advantage: Bitello was spinning from the edge of the penalty area – over the crossbar, Tyukavin pushed his opponent and struck from a more comfortable position – also higher, Fomin, after Bitello's discount from the center of the penalty area, hit the defender.
In the 61st minute, Timofey Marinkin appeared on the field instead of Rubens. Soon, a promising free kick on the left edge earned Skopintsev, Bitello served in the center of the penalty area, over which Nicolas Ngamaleu soared, sending the ball to the right post – if he had hit the target, Agkatsev would not have helped his team.
The guests clearly played the second number, hoping for quick counterattacks, but John Cordoba, who came out for the second half, was carefully guarded by David Ricardo. Only once the Colombian was brought to the strike position, and his attempt was unsuccessful. The blue and white ones continued to press: Caceres gasped from 30 meters so that Agkatsev had no choice but to fight off in front of him – no one had time to finish him off. After the Ngamaleu overhang, the ball bounced to Skopintsev, and he "scissors" punched next to the bar.
In added time, Dynamo gained a numerical advantage after Alexander Chernikov hit Caceres in the face in our penalty area and saw a red card in front of him. And we managed to create blue and white moments. First, Caceres hung from the right flank to the far post, where Skopintsev punched into the net from the outside of the goal. Finally, in the 6th minute Ngamaleu made a discount with his head on Tyukavin, who shot the visitors' goal, but due to a microscopic offside, the goal was canceled.
As a result, everything will be decided in the return meeting in Krasnodar on May 7, and in their next RPL match Dynamo will play away from Akron on April 13.
