The match of the 7th round of the Russian Premier League with Spartak, held at VTB Arena, ended with the victory of our team with a score of 2:1.
Compared to the previous derby against Lokomotiv, there were two changes to the lineup: Konstantin Tyukavin returned to central attack, and Luis Chavez replaced the injured Anton Miranchuk. It's also worth noting that Andrey Lunev was included in the squad for the first time since July.
The home team dominated the early part of the match, enjoying noticeably more possession, but inaccurate passing prevented them from creating dangerous moments in their approaches to the goal. Late in the first 15 minutes, Dynamo finally launched an excellent, quick attack down the left flank: Artur sent a perceptive cross into the penalty area, and Bitello, in the style of Tyukavin, back-heeled the ball, but it wasn't strong enough to deceive Alexander Maksimenko.
Then the teams traded goals within four minutes. First, Spartak executed a superb move down the left flank: Marquinhos set up Danil Prutsev for a scoring opportunity, and he fired the ball into the near corner. Dynamo responded with a beautiful goal from Gladyshev: Yaroslav stole the ball from Nail Umyarov, advanced, and curled the ball into the top left corner from 18 meters!
After the goals, the game opened up and became a back-and-forth affair. Bitello passed from the right flank into the semi-circle, from where Tyukavin fired just wide. In the 34th minute, Juan Cáceres, Gladyshev, and Bitello executed a beautiful combination, resulting in the Paraguayan bursting into the penalty area and crossing to the far post, where Arthur literally smashed the ball into the net – 2-1!
The teams could have scored at least one more time in the remaining time. First, Prutsev cleverly played a free kick, and Manfred Ugalde fired from inside the box with virtually no resistance – fortunately, it went wide. At the opposite goal, Maksimenko made a poor save that sent the ball flying towards Caceres, but his shot went over the crossbar.
The coaches made no substitutions during the break, and the nature of the match, with its constant exchanges of attacks, remained unchanged. Ugalde burst into the penalty area from the left and fired a shot a meter wide of the post. Soon, Bitello received the ball in the center of the visitors' penalty area and passed it out wide, from where Chavez fired a first-time shot over the bar.
Dynamo dominated the rest of the match, but virtually all shots were blocked by the red-and-white defenders. The first substitution came in the 72nd minute, with Daniil Fomin replacing Chavez. The Blue-Whites were immediately left with one man down: Tyukavin elbowed Alexander Djiku and was shown a straight red card.
Sandro Schwarz responded by substituting the scorers of both goals for Ivan Sergeyev and Nicolas Marichal. Dynamo defended heroically for the remaining 20 minutes, allowing their opponents virtually no chance, with only a corner and an offside penalty.
Thus, Dynamo secured its third consecutive victory (in its third consecutive derby!) and climbed to third place in the standings. In the next round, the white-and-blues will host Orenburg at RZD Arena on September 12.
