No Points Given Away to FC Rubin and 3rd Position Kept by the Bulls

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SOGAZ Russian Football Championship. MD 13. FC Krasnodar – FC Rubin (Kazan) – 2:0

FC Krasnodar – FC Rubin (Kazan) – 2:0 (1:0)

Goals: Petrov, 8 (Wánderson, 1:0), Laborde, 72 (Ari, 2:0).

FC Krasnodar: Dykan, Jędrzejczyk, Granqvist, Martynovich, Petrov, Gazinskiy (Adzhindzhal, 67), Akhmedov, Pereyra (Ari, 46), Izmailov, Joãozinho, Wánderson (Laborde, 61).

FC Rubin (Kazan): Ryzhikov, Nabiullin (Dyadyun, 61), Kvirkvelia, Kambolov, Kuzmin, Ozdoev (Azmoun, 63), Georgiev, Eduardo, Karadeniz, Kanunnikov, Portnyagin.

Yellow cards: Ari, 88 (unsporting behaviour) – Georgiev, 49 (foul play).

Referees: Matyunin (Moscow), Kulalayev (Volgograd), Minevich (Smolensk).

9 November. Krasnodar. Kuban Stadium. Clear. 15 degrees. 10 120 spectators.

 

The match vs. FC Rubin became the 25th one for FC Krasnodar in 115 days. There was a two-week pause ahead for the national teams’ fixtures and then the black-greens would face another tournament spurt and finish the calendar year with 6 matches in 20 days. It is rather new for a young club to operate and play in such a pace, and its players did not lack so much bodily powers in the recent games as they did the mental component: the team looked physiologically emaciated. However, the clash against the Kazan team had a great tournament meaning for the Bulls as it was the match with their direct competitor in a fight for the EUFA Cup positions in the domestic league table, so the possible loss might have been a major setback for FC Krasnodar throwing them down the ladder. That is why players of Oleg Kononov took to the field stringing up all of their remaining powers and applying all the resolution they had.

Due to various reasons the Bulls found missing a few players, so Kaleshin, Burmistrov, Bystrov and Mamayev stayed off the match sheet. The away team lacked only the most experienced centre back César Navas due to his injury, so he was replaced by Kambolov in the starting lineup. As early as on the 3rd minute the Krasnodar team after starting the match in an active way found the first crack in the visiting team’s line of defense. Izmailov broke away from his marking opponent in the centre and made a pass on the right to Wánderson, and the latter within the penalty area made a solid shot next to the goalpost of Ryzhikov’s domain. 2 minutes later same centre forward of the home team had one more chance to score when Joãozinho and Izmailov confused the defenders with their short passing, but the bent shot by the No. 14 came out a bit inaccurate once again. Having failed in finishing Wánderson proved himself greatly as an assistant; on the 8th minute he received the vertical pass from Akmedov, one-touched the ball in front of Sergei Petrov who burst into the visiting teams’ box along the left inside position and knocked the ball into the closer corner of the net. 1:0!

After an early opener the Bulls kept harassing the defensive lines of FC Rubin. Both Akhmedov and Joãozinho took turns to test their luck with medium-distance shots; the former shot off target, the latter with his non-kicking right foot did not make a shot strong enough to really create a problem for Ryzhikov. On the 21st minute Matyunin the ref observed a foul by Martynovich in a duel with Eduardo half a meter away from the home penalty area line. The Kazan team took very long to prepare for this potentially dangerous set piece, but in the end Georgiev merely gave the defensive wall a strength test but did not make it fall apart.

By the middle of the first half the away team gradually managed to adjust the game. On the 34th minute FC Rubin created their first dangerous episode. Kanunnikov received the ball on the right flank of the attack and made a through-pass to the centre on approaching Portnyagin, but the latter’s shot was blocked in the very last moment by Jędrzejczyk; the ball hit the Pole’s leg and whistled away over the crossbar.

A couple of minutes later the left fullback Petrov once again switched to attack unexpectedly for the Kazan team, but this time the visitors managed to neutralize his break-through with their collective effort. On the 41st minute another commotion in FC Rubin’s penalty area was finished with Akhmedov’s shot on the run, but the ball hit some of the defenders on its way and arrived to Ryzhikov as a spent one.

For the second half Ari took to the field in FC Krasnodar’s squad after replacing Pereyra. FC Rubin made an aggressive start and, frankly speaking, one could feel uneasy for the black-greens. It was exactly the beginning of the second half in the recent games when they conceded goals which became critical. However nothing of the sort happened now. Moreover, after the half time the Bulls clenched their teeth and kept standing firm, and the away team in comparison seemed a bit tired as if it were them and not the Krasnodar team who came back from a UEFA Europa League match in Germany just 57 hours ago.

On the 51st minute Joãozinho the perpetuum mobile of FC Krasnodar sped up the home team’s attack in the centre and made a classy through-pass to Wánderson, but Francisco lacked either speed or strength to get to the rendezvous with Ryzhikov. 5 minutes later a set piece at the home goal turned into a sharp counterattack of the Bulls which was finished with the same Joãozinho’s kick from the corner of the penalty area, but the ball passed a fraction off the far corner of the net. With an hour into the game the opponents made a trade of the dangerous episodes. At first Portnyagin won the air duel with Jędrzejczyk, so Dykan had some trouble parrying his shot rebounding from the ground, and then Ari repeated the “feat” by Wánderson and screwed up a solid one-one situation with the keeper allowing the defenders to catch up with him.

FC Rubin boss Rinat Bilyaletdinov made a “Hands on deck!” call and let two forwards out, Dyadyun and Azmoun, instead of defender Nabiullin and halfback Ozdoev. Oleg Kononov substituted a bit tired Wánderson for Laborde as a counterplay; in the middle of the second half he was also forced to make the last sub because Gazinskiy injured his shoulder and was replaced by Adzhindzhal on the pitch. All of these rearrangements benefited the black-greens; FC Rubin opened up completely and started to miss one lunging attack after another finally letting a second goal in on the 72nd minute. Sergei Petrov started a scoring attack with a vertical pass on the left flank, Ari avoided being offside and made a through-pass in the centre to Ricardo Laborde who had loads of time to solve the episode. The Colombian did everything in cold blood; he waited until Ryzhikov started falling towards the second goalpost and made a strong low shot next to first one. 

Even with 2:0 on the scoreboard Kazantsy kept going forward stubbornly almost with their whole team, and the Bulls made a good use of the gaps in their opposition’s defense for their sweeping attacking actions. Ari burst into the box and tried to make his famous parachute shot, but the defender managed to block it. A bit later Joãozinho finishing the three-on-two attack hit the ball centimeters away from the second goalpost of Ryzhikov’s net. The black-green’s “team engine” No. 22 had one more chance to score as late as in the injury time, but his luck went against him anew. That is to say, against him personally, not his team. This day FC Krasnodar displayed some real bull’s temper and achieved an unquestionable victory which allowed the Club to keep its third intermediate position in the table before the two-week interval in championship commences.