From the meeting between Zenit and Rostov, they expected an answer to the main question: does the St. Petersburg club really have absolutely no equal rivals in Russia? It turned out that there is such an opponent, although he does not have such a margin of safety.

Rostovites head coach Valery Karpin showed how to play against the best team in Russia.

Leaders Match

In the first half, both teams showed a game that you usually expect from the leaders of the championship. A minimum of dangerous moments, a maximum of tactical and contact struggle. Rostovites competently defended themselves, not allowing the central figures of the anti-aircraft attack to reveal their strengths. Malcolm, Claudinho, Wendel and Mostovoy didn’t get enough space and time to create a witticism.

Perhaps the only truly dangerous moment in the first half of the game was Vyacheslav Karavaev’s hit on the crossbar after Douglas Santos’ serve. A very revealing moment: the full-backs created the main chance to score.

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There were approaches and the guests. They, by the way, unlike Zenit, delivered two shots on target. However, this statistic has long been recognized by most experts as nonsense. It remained to be hoped that after the break, the best RPL teams would play such football, after which you would not have to think about numbers at all.

Two balls and a free kick

The second half began with Zenit attacks. The hosts tried to put pressure on Rostov, but soon the game leveled off again. And the hosts managed to make the St. Petersburg fans really nervous.

In the 61st minute, Valery Karpin’s team carried out a quick attack, as a result of which Douglas Santos cut down Kirill Shchetinin on his own penalty area. Sergey Karasev immediately pointed to the point, but that’s bad luck: at the time of the attack, there were … two balls on the field!

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As a result, Pavel Kukuyan, who was in charge of VAR, took up the episode, and he brilliantly figured out the episode. It turned out that there was no penalty at all: Douglas fouled before the penalty area. In this situation, they completely forgot about two goals, although if Maxim Osipenko had scored after the set piece (and he was very close!), the Zenit team would definitely have questions for the judges.

Worthy opponent

After that, Zenit responded with Malcolm’s crazy moment. The Brazilian was obliged to score after a pass from Claudinho, but let down a non-working right. The Blue-White-Blues began to take advantage, and the game became more nervous. Skirmishes, rough fouls – all this testified to how important the end result is for the players.

The Rostov players were especially emotional. They have not lost anything to Zenit in terms of the game. If this team had a longer and better bench, perhaps it would have managed to fight the hegemon at a distance. If in the summer Rostovites competently strengthen, then maybe they will be able to compete for gold!

In the meantime, we have to state a sad fact: the draw of the first and second teams of the RPL finally killed the championship intrigue this season. Now the focus is exclusively on the fight for silver and bronze medals.

MIR RPL. 23rd round

Rostov (Rostov-on-Don) – Zenit (St. Petersburg) – 0:0