The Bulls Have Resumed the Season with an Away Tie in Rostov

FC Rostov 1-1 (0-1) FC Krasnodar

Goals: Berg (Olsson), 13 (0-1), Popov, 90+11, penalty kick (1-1).

FC Rostov: Pesyakov, Chernov, Osipenko, Chistyakov, Bayramyan (Hadžikadunić, 62), Mamayev, Saplinov (Popov, 71), Zaynutdinov (Vedernikov, 86), Glebov (Normann, 71), Ionov, Shomurodov (Dolgov, 62).

FC Krasnodar: Safonov, Ramírez, Kaio, Martynovich, Petrov, Gazinsky (Chernikov, 64), Vilhena, Utkin (Suleymanov, 57), Olsson (Cabella, 75), Wanderson (Fernandes, 75), Berg.

Yellow cards: Shomurodov, 59, Saplinov, 64, Mamayev, 65, Zaynutdinov, 58, Dolgov, 90+16 – Chernikov, 79, Safonov, 89, Suleymanov, 90+7, Fernandes, 90+8.

Referees: Meshkov (Dmitrov), Averyanov, Bereznov (both Moscow).

1 July 2020. Rostov-on-Don. Rostov Arena Stadium. Cloudy. 28 degrees.

The match in Rostov-on-Don was supposed to become the third one for FC Krasnodar since the resumption of the season, but the destiny had it otherwise. To begin with, the game with FC Dynamo had been postponed due to the quarantine of the Moscow team. Later FC Orenburg suffered a walkover defeat after encountering the same COVID-19 epidemic. For this reason the black-greens had their actual restart of the Tinkoff Russian Premier League twelve days later than their competitors.

The game began in a slow tempo. The Bulls got hold of the initiative and scored an opener after a few decent approaches to the opposite box. Wanderson Maciel launched a quick attack and proceeded with a low cross, and Olsson managed to turn a rebound from Utkin into a flick. Finally it was Marcus Berg who shot the ball into the corner of the net.

In the time added to the first half that same Wanderson could have made the score double. His shots lacked some focus though, as the first one sent the ball right past the far goalpost, and in the second case Pesyakov successfully parried it.

FC Krasnodar had a great upper hand after the half-time interval and created numerous scoring chances. Berg, Olsson, Wanderson again, and Suleymanov, all of them could have scored a goal each, but something went wrong in every attempt of theirs.

The pay-off took place in the six minutes of the injury time, which ultimately dragged on for sixteen minutes. The ball brushed against Kaio’s hand in his box, hence Vitali Meshkov decided to order a penalty kick after reviewing the episode with the VAR system. Safonov came very close to saving the shot fired by Ivelin Popov, but he lacked just a few millimeters of reach. 1-1 tie as a result.