The match of the 27th round of the Russian Premier League, held at VTB Arena, ended with the victory of our team with a score of 2:0.
Rolan Gusev significantly reshuffled his lineup after the match against Rubin. Kurban Rasulov returned to goal, Luis Chavez appeared in the holding midfield alongside Danil Glebov, and Arthur moved to the right flank of the attack. But the biggest surprise was the introduction of Milan Majstorović, who hadn't played since September 29, 2024, forming a central trio alongside Maxim Osipenko and David Ricardo.
The game started without any warm-up. Sochi quickly brought on Mikhail Ignatov to strike, and only Osipenko's dedicated play kept the Muscovites out of trouble. In the counterattack, Bitello earned a corner, which he cleverly passed to Juan Caceres, who narrowly missed the ball and ultimately crossed it to Konstantin Tyukavin, whose captain's shot went just over the target.
In one incident, Rasulov, under pressure from Ignatov, failed to clear the ball out of the penalty area, but he made amends by diving at Vladimir Ilyin's feet. A little later, Majstorovich made a perfect sliding tackle to prevent Roman Yezhov from escaping toward our goal. And in the 11th minute, Dynamo capitalized perfectly on an opponent's mistake: Marcelo Alves misdirected a back pass, Arthur's second touch sent the ball to Tyukavin, and Kostya sent the ball right into the corner!
The blue-and-whites played with alacrity and moved the ball quickly, not shying away from long range. While Sochi goalkeeper Alexander Degtev handled Osipenko and Bitello's shots confidently, he barely parried Luis Chavez's left-footed shot with a diving save. A little later, Tyukavin took a spinning shot from inside the penalty area – and Degtev again saved his team. Meanwhile, Dynamo were extremely strict defensively, preventing Sochi from penetrating the penalty area.
At halftime, Nicolas Ngamaleu replaced Majstorovic, and the blue-and-whites regrouped. It was the Cameroonian who doubled the lead in the 52nd minute: he found Bitello in the penalty area, who made a beautiful backheel pass, and Mumi lobbed it gracefully over the goalkeeper.
The attacking line continued to change: first Ivan Sergeyev and Daniil Fomin came on, followed by Yaroslav Gladyshev. And soon another substitution could have resulted in a decisive goal. Dmitry Skopintsev made his way to the penalty area and passed to Gladyshev, who beat a defender with a flick and fired over the crossbar from a great position. Another impressive run by Skopintsev ended with a wide shot from 20 meters.
The visitors became more active towards the end of the match and created several dangerous moments: Dmitry Vasilyev hit the crossbar after a corner, and François Kamano, alone in the penalty area, beat Rasulov and sent the ball into the net from a tight angle from the outside of the goal. The White-Blues could have made the score even bigger in stoppage time, but Degtev first stopped Sergeyev's breakthrough and then stopped Gladyshev's curling shot from the spot.
Now Dynamo will play away against Lokomotiv in the next round on May 1.
