The match of the 2nd round of the Russian Premier League, held in Kaliningrad, ended with the victory of the home team with a score of 2:1.
Sandro Schwarz made no significant changes to the starting lineup that played the week before against Krylia Sovetov. He was forced to field Kurban Rasulov in place of Andrei Lunev, who had picked up an injury in training. Timofey Marinkin and Juan Cáceres were benched.
Dynamo started the game well, and in the third minute, Dmitry Skopintsev delivered a precise cross into the penalty area, from which Yaroslav Gladyshev fired the ball over the crossbar. Konstantin Tyukavin then spotted Daniil Fomin's run, but Evgeniy Latyshonok, who had just come out of goal, beat the captain to the punch.
The next twenty minutes were tense, filled with challenges, tackles, and fouls. Just after half an hour of the match, Bitello created two chances for his teammates: first, after his precise cross from the right flank, Arthur shot into the near corner, and a minute later Tyukavin sent the ball under the crossbar with a turn – both times Latyshonok saved his team.
Rasulov, who had touched the ball only a handful of times in the first half, really came into his own in the 45th minute, when he had to parry a difficult long-range shot from Sergei Varatynov from 25 meters out – a save that Kurban made with confidence.
The White-Blues again started the second half more actively than the hosts. Tyukavin and Bitello's breakthroughs were stopped by defenders in the penalty area, and Maksim Shnaptsev managed to dive in front of Artur's shot from a tight angle. The most dangerous moment, however, arose from a corner kick, when David headed the ball straight into the top right corner, but Varatynov put his head in the way and saved the Kaliningraders.
The corner kick proved decisive for the Kaliningraders in the 57th minute – Nathan Gassama passed the ball to the far post, where Nikolai Titkov headed it into the empty net. Rasulov immediately blocked a dangerous shot from Maksim Petrov, and Mingiyan Beveev almost curled it into the far corner from the edge of the penalty area.
Dynamo's coaching staff responded to these events with a triple substitution: Leon Zaydenzal, Danil Glebov, and Gladyshev left the field, making way for Caceres, Marinkin, and Ivan Sergeyev. One of Juan's first moves on the field proved unsuccessful – he hit Bryan Gil in his own penalty area, leading the hosts' top scorer to convert the penalty.
Dynamo played the ball from the center of the field and immediately pulled one back. Ivan Sergeyev crossed from the right flank toward the goal area, and Arthur headed the ball into the corner. Soon, Sergeyev dangerously shot just wide of the post from the rebound. Caceres nearly made amends, firing from distance, after which the ball hit a defender and hit the post. Tyukavin finished it into the net, but the linesman raised his flag.
The remaining time saw plenty of approaches, pressure, and crosses, but no goals. As a result, we suffer our first defeat of the season. Our next match will be the opening game of the cup campaign in Voronezh against Fakel on August 5th.
