The match of the 22nd round of the Russian Premier League, held at VTB Arena, ended with the victory of the guests with a score of 3:1.
Compared to the match in Rostov-on-Don, the blue-and-whites made two forced changes: Timofey Marinkin and David Ricardo took the places of the suspended Rubens and the injured Maxim Osipenko. Luis Chavez, who underwent cruciate ligament surgery in his right knee this summer, made his first appearance this season.
The match started at a brisk pace, with the teams attempting to quickly penetrate the center of the field while remaining cautious in their own penalty area. In one incident, there was concern for Artur, who fell to the ground after Alexander Sobolev stepped on his ankle with his entire foot. Fortunately, our number eleven quickly returned to the game.
The visitors took every opportunity to shoot at Kurban Rasulov's goal. Maxim Glushenkov fired twice from long range, but both times the ball flew just a meter wide of the goalpost. In the 22nd minute, two Dynamo players rushed to meet Luis Enrique's shot from 15 meters out. The ball soared over the penalty area, and Juan Caceres was unable to stop John John, who headed it into the top right corner.
After conceding a goal, the blue-and-whites came back into action and quickly equalized. Nicolás Marichal found Cáceres on the flank, who beat his opponent with a flick and crossed with his left foot into the goal area, where Artur cleverly leaped out from behind Gustavo Mantuan and headed the ball into the corner – 1-1!
But that wasn't all. Glushenkov beat Cáceres on the flank and crossed into the penalty area. The ball bounced off Marichal's foot to Sobolev, who fired it past Rasulov from a few meters away. Dynamo managed to create one chance to equalize before the break: Bitello rolled a corner into the penalty area, from where Artur fired over the crossbar.
For the second half, Roberto Fernández replaced David at center back. Zenit tried to keep the game dry, while Dynamo tried to create danger, but it only worked after Konstantin Tyukavin's unorthodox play. First, he broke away from a defender and fired a dangerous cross across the goal, but Artur missed by a few centimeters. Kostya then sent Artur a graceful pass toward the goal, who rounded the goalkeeper, but his shot from a tight angle was off target.
Immediately after this episode, the Brazilian was replaced by Ivan Sergeev, and Dynamo for some time switched to a game with two forwards. A little later, Yaroslav Gladyshev, Ulvi Babayev and El-Mehdi Mauhub refreshed the attack.
Unfortunately, the desired effect of the substitution was not given, and the dangerous moment happened only in added time, when Daniil Fomin punched his head into the hands of Denis Adamov. And this was already at the score of 1:3 – Glushenkov completed a beautiful combination with an unstoppable blow.
Next Dynamo will play at home with Orenburg on April 4. Buy tickets to VTB Arena on our website.
