The match of the 6th round of the group stage of the FONBET Cup of Russia, held at VTB Arena, ended with the victory of our team with a score of 4:0.
Dynamo entered the decisive group stage match in black uniforms, timed to coincide with Lev Yashin's birthday, with the following lineup: Igor Leshchuk in goal, four Latin American players in defense, Daniil Fomin and Danil Glebov in the defensive midfield, and four young players from the club's academy in attack. Notably, they were also facing two more Dynamo Academy graduates: Ivan Lepskiy and Roman Evgenyev.
The start of the match, in which both teams needed a win to advance to the upper bracket of the playoffs, was rather cautious. In the first 20 minutes, only one shot was fired – Viktor Okishor, from 16 meters out, fired weakly and right into the hands of Nikita Kokarev.
But a less than stellar start paid off with a stunning goal in the 22nd minute: Yaroslav Gladyshev passed from the flank to the center, Fomin crossed to the penalty area, where Konstantin Tyukavin carefully placed his foot so that the ball flew over a defender and right to Ulvi Babaev, who was running into space, who hit the top corner of the Krylia Sovetov goal with an incredible volley!
Having seized the advantage, the blue-and-whites continued to dominate possession and undermine the opponent's defense. Fomin tested Kokarev's reliability with a long-range shot, and the Samara goalkeeper did not let his team down. In the 36th minute, Roberto Fernandez spotted Okishor's opening, who rolled the ball into the penalty area to find Babaev. Ulvi turned and fired into the near corner, and Kokarev was again on target.
Krylia Sovetov, meanwhile, could come up with nothing but constant passes to Vladimir Ignatenko, who was repeatedly outpaced by Dynamo defenders. As a result, their shots tally after the first half was a resounding zero.
The second half opened with a pass from Rubens, a poor clearance by a Krylia Sovetov player, and a shot from a good position by Gladyshev, which the defender blocked. Babaev continued to be the most active in the final third, earning two dangerous free kicks within three minutes, almost directly in the center of the goal. While Gladyshev fired well over the bar, Fomin's curling shot hit the post and flew into the net – 2-0!
A couple of minutes later, Leschuk passed the ball into the fray, Ilzat Akhmetov got ahead of Fomin, played a one-two with Fernando Costanza, and scored against us. Fortunately, the VAR referees called the Brazilian offside and disallowed the goal. Soon after, a triple substitution brought on Maksim Osipenko, El-Mehdi Maouhoub, and Ivan Sergeyev.
Less than five minutes later, Maouhoub shielded the ball well with his body and passed it to the accelerating Babaev, who outran a defender, calmly dribbled past Kokarev, and scored into a virtually empty net. No one could stop our number 17 that day. In the 78th minute, he picked up a rebound in the semi-circle and fired an unstoppable shot into the bottom left corner, repeating Maouhoub's achievement last year against Krylia Sovetov!
In this episode, the Samara goalkeeper was injured, and another former Dynamo player, Evgeny Frolov, came on to replace him. He was the one who prevented Babaev from scoring four goals, parrying a beautiful curling shot in the final minutes.
Thus, Dynamo finished second in Group B and will now play two matches against Zenit in the RPL Path quarterfinals in November. Dynamo will also play their next RPL match away against the St. Petersburg team on Sunday, October 26.
