Beating the Grozny Team flew the Bulls up to the 3rd Position

FC Krasnodar – FC Terek (Grozny) – 2:0 (0:0)

Goals: Joãozinho, 60, from penalty (1:0), Laborde, 77 (2:0).

FC Krasnodar: Dykan, Jędrzejczyk, Granqvist, Martynovich, Kaleshin, Gazinskiy (Petrov, 81), Akhmedov, Mamayev (Adzhindzhal, 71), Joãozinho, Wánderson (Laborde, 64), Ari.

FC Terek (Grozny): Hodzyur, Utsiev, Semyonov, Komorowski, Kudryashov, Adílson Warken (Lebedenko, 77), Maurício, Ivanov, Rybus, Aissati (Bokila, 79), Aílton.

Yellow cards: Ari, 63 (foul play), Laborde, 76 (foul play), Gazinskiy, 79 (unsporting behaviour) – Komorowski, 74 (foul play).

Referees: Lapochkin, Golubev, Lebedev (all Saint Petersburg).

27 October. Krasnodar. Kuban Stadium. Cloudy. 2 degrees. 3000 spectators.

On Monday night Krasnodar hosted the match between the two neighbors in the Russian championship table both aspiring to qualify for the UEFA Cups next season. In case of a win in this clash both the Bulls and the Grozny team would have a chance to make one more step up the tournament ladder, so none of the opponents suffered any lack of motivation.

The difference was that after a break in the championship due to the fixtures of the national teams FC Terek was playing just its second official match, while the match vs. Grozny team was the third one for the Bulls in the last 9 days. Moreover, the opponents the black-greens had faced in the previous matches were rather strong: FC Zenit Saint Petersburg and VfL Wolfsburg from Germany, and they really made the Bulls devote all their energies to fight them. The coaching staff and FC Krasnodar medical service made all they could for the football players to recover for the clash vs. the team from Chechen capital. Nevertheless, FC Krasnodar boss Oleg Kononov could not rely upon all his players in the upcoming game with Bystrov and Izmailov still injured and Pereyra the Uruguayan having joined them in the infirmary due to an injury in the recent clash against the Germans. The home substitute bench seated just 7 players out of 12 allowed by the regulations; two of those were Lanin, the young pupil of the Club Academy, and Sigurðsson, one of the team’s key central defenders. It turned out that the Head Coach picked Martynovich, who had rarely made the starting 11 this season, over the somewhat tired Icelander.

As for the away team boss Rashid Rakhimov, he was not experiencing any major problems with the physical condition and health of his players, so the Grozny team basically fielded their best lineup to the pitch of the Kuban Stadium.

The air temperature dropping almost to zero and the strong wind chilling to the marrow provided for nearly winter weather that scared away the heat-loving supporters of FC Krasnodar, so most of them preferred to watch football on TV at home in more pleasant circumstances. Alas, the new comfortable arena of FC Krasnodar will be finished only in a year or so, but once it is ready no weather caprices will interfere with watching football live and scare the people away. As for now the Bulls were forced to play on the windswept Kuban Stadium with its stands accommodating no more that three thousand supporters that cold Monday night.

Fortunately the pitch itself was in an excellent condition and both teams started the match in a rather active way. The Krasnodar team tried to take the ball under their control, by the away players carried out a very dense pressing and disrupted most of the Bulls’ attacks as early as the far outskirts of their penalty area. At the same time the Grozny team utilized every opportunity to counterattack, and they made Dykan nervous on the 11^th minute; however Aílton failed to meet the drill cross by Aissati and his second attempt to shoot ended in nothing.

The black-greens managed to approach close to Hodzyur’s domain only on the 25^th minute when Akhmedov penetrated the FC Terek’s box along the left inside position and centered the ball to Joãozinho, but the latter’s shot on goal lacked some strength to become an opener. Several seconds later the No. 1 of Grozny team made a well-played coming out of the goal area barely leaving Ari behind who was racing to be the first on the ball.

In the first half the defenders generally outplayed the attacking players, and if the latter did manage to attempt a shot the ball would fly off target. This was the case, for instance, on the 35^th minute when Krasnodar-Brazilian Joãozinho made a shot out of the box, and on the 40^th minute when his fellow countryman Aílton tried to threaten the home goal from 12 meters.

The end of the first half observed the logical 0:0 on the scoreboard and the supporters had every right to expect more interesting football in the second half. Indeed, after the interval FC Krasnodar added to their activity and Joãozinho, the team engine, got his partners worked up all right. On the 47^th minute he made a shot from 20 meters, but his aim was too high. Four minutes later No. 22 of the Bulls was running at full speed to the second goalpost to meet the drop by Akhmedov, and he missed it just a bit. Finally, after an hour in the game the Brazilian gained his end. He and Ari started to pass the ball back and forth in the away box, and the sequence was interrupted with Kudryashov’s hand. Lapochkin the ref immediately pointed to the penalty spot, Joãozinho approached it and made a confident low shot into the corner. 1:0!

FC Terek now had no reason to play defensively any more. The Grozny team went forward en masse, but the Bulls’ defense was ready for it. The black-greens defended selflessly and in cold blood, so everything that the away team gained were the knocked heads of Martynovich and Jędrzejczyk who kept playing to the end of the match with the Shchors-style head bandages.

The change in score and game character were responded to by Oleg Kononov with the subs: first, Laborde took to the field replacing Wánderson, and a bit later Adzhindzhal substituted Mamayev. On the 77^th minute one of these subs snapped into action. Ricardo Laborde caught the failed lateral pass of Komorowski, made an easy runaway from the sliding tackle by the tired Ivanov and implemented an efficient one-on-one situation with Hodzyur sending the ball into the net by the second goalpost.   

In the remaining time the score, if it could, would have changed to even greater advantage of the home team. FC Terek opened up completely and started missing one counterattack after another. On the 84^th minute Laborde could add an assist to his scored goal when he brought Joãozinho to the rendezvous with Hodzyur; his partner outplayed the keeper but his shot from an acute angle was parried by a defender who in due time placed himself on the goal line. A few minutes later the goalkeeper warded off the shot by Adzhindzhal after a beautiful combination of the Bulls. The 89^th minute was marked with one more dangerous lunge by Laborde, but Semyonov managed to interrupt his drill cross. In the injury time Martynovich made a solid shot from the free kick earned by Ari. Hodzyur made the last save in the match which wouldn’t have saved his team from defeat anyway. FC Terek lost 0:2 and dropped to the 7^th position, while the win allowed FC Krasnodar to ascend to the third position in the tournament table.