FC Ural Yekaterinburg 0-1 (0-1) FC Krasnodar
Goal: Smolov, 34 (Claesson).
FC Ural Yekaterinburg: Hodzyur, Chernov, Balažic (Haroyan, 9), Boumal, Kulakov, Merkulov (Ilyin, 72), Dimitrov, Yemelyanov, Yevseyev, Bicfalvi, Portnyagin.
FC Krasnodar: Sinitsyn, Petrov, Granqvist, Gritsayenko, Ramírez, Kaboré, Gazinskiy, Pereyra, Joãozinho (Ivan, 78), Claesson, Smolov.
Yellow card: Merkulov, 71 (attack breakdown).
Referees: Moskalyov (Voronezh), Zhvakin, Bolkhovitin (both Leningrad Oblast).
26 November 2017. Yekaterinburg. SKB-Bank Arena Stadium. Clear. –8 degrees. 2 938 spectators.
Eight degrees below zero centigrade was the air temperature in Yekaterinburg when FC Krasnodar and the local FC Ural entered the hard-frozen pitch at the SKB-Bank Arena. The black-green southern team is totally unaccustomed to play in the weather like that, for obvious reasons. Igor Shalimov’s team was not used to an early kick-off time scheduled for 11.30 am (MSK) either, that’s why the visitors spent some time early in game to adapt.
The Bumblebees had never been defeated at home this season, so they were of course eager to extend this unbeaten streak even more. Unfortunately for them, FC Ural boss Aleksandr Tarkhanov was forced to make some rearrangements to his squad very early when Balažic the centre-back suffered a sprain on a slippery turf and hence was substituted by Haroyan. This change did not affect the reliability of the home team’s defense however. The Orange and Black kept disrupting the Krasnodar attacking actions confidently even though the Bulls had established their control over the ball after the first ten minutes of the game.
Both teams created little danger to each other for quite a while, but gradually the pressure against the home goal became stronger. On the 34th minute the black-greens made a good use of their very first chance of the game. A scoring attack was launched in a flawless way as if it was conducted on an ideal pitch. Joãozinho found Claesson in the home penalty area with a penetrating pass at first, and the latter deftly turned around with a man on and found himself just in front of the goalie. The Swede took no shot though rolling the ball to the left instead, where Fyodor Smolov had no trouble to shoot it into the empty net.
The game became open right after that. One minute later Smolov barely missed scoring again when the ball he shot went a little off target. The Ural team retaliated with an attack that resulted in a shot on FC Krasnodar goal taken by Yevseyev. Sinitsyn parried this one, and even though Dimitrov finished the ball no goal was recorded due to his offside position. Soon afterwards Granqvist played the ball back to his keeper who slipped and was able to clear the ball from the goal-line in the very last moment. Late in the first half the visitors created two more decent chances. It was Joãozinho at first who missed by a fraction with his shot from outside the box, and then Smolov who failed to beat Hodzyur at close quarters.
This reckless type of football went on after the half-time with both teams actively trading attacks. Pereyra missed a chance to score ten minutes after game had resumed. His partners brought him to a rendezvous with the home goalie, but Mauricio decided to share the ball with Smolov the way Claesson had done in the first half. Now FC Ural defenders cracked this maneuver however and intercepted the pass all right.
The open nature of the game remained the same until the very full-time, but almost no solid chances were created to be a menace to the goalkeepers. This remained true even in the final fifteen minutes when the home team launched a general assault against the Krasnodar penalty area. Smolov was the closest to success in the second half. On one occasion FC Krasnodar centre-forward noticed the Ural keeper had left his goal area too far, so he attempted to shoot the ball above him from the centre of the pitch. It was merely a minor miss that prevented a masterpiece goal from taking place. As a result, 1-0 remained on the scoreboard until the full-time whistle, and the Bulls have become the first team to beat the Bumblebees at their own ground this season.