Derby CSKA and “Spartak” Russian fans are always waiting with a special feeling. Whatever the position of the teams, the atmosphere around the so-called “Russian Clasico” is never insipid. This is not Liverpool – Man City.

So it was this time too. The teams grappled and did not release each other for the entire 90 minutes. As a result, the winner was not revealed, but the audience was given a chic show. And coaching decisions deserve special attention.

The outcome of the meeting was decided by Fedotov’s unexpected move!

Hope for Gayich …

From the first minutes it became clear that the opponents did not intend to sit on the defensive. The days of closed and boring derbies are over – now such matches are won not by defense, but by attack. So at the VEB Arena, the teams rushed forward and did not stop until the whistle for a break.

At the same time, there were not so many real scoring chances. Sharp approaches, counterattacks, playing without a center of the field – yes. But the real danger arose only due to the strange clouding that came over Roman Zobnin.

The Spartak midfielder was moving forward with the ball, when he suddenly felt discomfort. Zobnin stopped and gestured to his opponent, Milan Gayich, who was running after him, that he needed a pause. Only now the Serbian defender of CSKA did not notice (or simply did not want to notice) the opponent’s request. Gayich picked up the ball, turned around and made a long throw forward. Fedor Chalov calmly won the fight against Mikhi Mevli, went one on one and opened the scoring.

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The Spartacists argued, insisting that the game should have been stopped and Zobnin should have recovered. However, the referee of the meeting Sergey Karasev remained adamant – 1:0. After all, a Red-White player could simply kick the ball over the side, and not rely on the nobility of the opponent.

The game didn’t change much after the goal was scored. All the same fast attacks, all the same intensity of passions. Towards the end of the first half, Alexander Sobolev, with a characteristic wave of his hands, called on the fans of his team to turn on the light. They answered instantly – and Karasev’s whistle for the break simply drowned in the noise of the stands.

Sobolev bypasses the greats

During the break, Abascal made substitutions, which were designed to strengthen the game in attack and prevent potential errors in defense. Instead of defensive midfielder Ruslan Litvinov, attacking midfielder Anton Zinkovsky appeared. And Mikha Mevlya, because of whom the Red-Whites missed, was replaced by Pavel Maslov. At the same time, Abascal abandoned the scheme with three central defenders, with which he began the meeting. This experiment did not justify itself.

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But Zinkovsky’s exit immediately bore fruit. Anton beat Jorge Carrascal on the right flank, moved to the center and sent the ball to the far corner of Igor Akinfeev’s goal with his left foot. Another brilliant goal from the former Wings player – and it is still not clear why Abascal releases him more often as a substitute than in the starting lineup. At the moment, this is one of the best players in Spartak.

But the “red-whites” also have one more leader – Alexander Sobolev. 4 minutes after Zinkovsky’s goal, the striker, who until recently bore the offensive nickname Dolphin, brought his team forward. Alexander impeccably realized a one-on-one exit, and his favorite partner, Quincy Promes, made an assist to the attacker. Now Sobolev has already scored in 8 matches in a row. How do you like that, Erling Haaland?

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Fedotov’s brilliant move

Vladimir Fedotov reacted radically. The star legionnaires of CSKA left the field – Jesus Medina and Jorge Carrascal. The latter was clearly very dissatisfied with the decision of the coach and expressed something to him, sitting down on the bench. Instead of foreigners came Ivan Oblyakov and Nikita Ermakov. In part, it was like a gesture of desperation.

However, it turned out that Fedotov knew what he was doing. At least Oblyakov’s exit paid off almost immediately. Ivan was on the right flank and hung in the penalty area. There the ball found Chalov’s head – and Fedor scored a double. He had never scored against Spartak in his entire career, and then he immediately fired a doublet!

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The camera snatched out Medina and Carrascal, with the departure of which CSKA ran again. It seems that Fedotov proceeded from the fact that these two are not too fond of working out in defense. And indeed, as soon as Jesus and Jorge left the field, the density in the defensive actions of the army immediately added. Ingenious is not always easy – sometimes you need to do something non-obvious.

In a sense, the match was generally a triumph of coaching ideas. Abascal guessed right with Zinkovsky, Fedotov guessed right with Oblyakov … However, the tactical struggle was not at all boring, as it sometimes happens. The game had the perfect balance of nerves and football thought. More derbies like this!