The passionate relationship continues.

The problem of expectations

Under normal circumstances, this match would have caused even more excitement. Indeed, now, in fact, in the championship of Russia, only the championship title and the struggle for survival count. It is unlikely that anyone will remember the team that took second, third place. Under usual conditions, these positions would mean a lot: the distribution of places in European competitions and money, respectively.

But even under modern circumstances, the one-point difference between Rostov and Spartak promised a heated confrontation. Here you can add another constantly heated information background about Spartak, around Rostov and Valery Karpin, in particular. In general, they were waiting for bombs. At first it turned out to be something boring.

An attempt to lull

The first half merged into one thing in which there was no place for dangerous moments, but it was full – for fights, joints, showdowns that did not add any fun and dynamics. Perhaps the most memorable episode was the terrible injury of Kirill Shchetinin. The Rostov player collided with teammate Viktor Melekhin in the center of the field.

The blow was so strong and traumatic that Shchetinin was at first lost, then bled from the mouth. Obviously he has been replaced. And from the stadium the midfielder was taken to the hospital with a suspected concussion, contusion of the soft tissues of the cervical spine and damage to the teeth. The player himself complained of dizziness, nausea, headache.

From the point of view of the game, the first half turned out to be such that it is better to forget about it. The teams were evenly in possession of the ball. At the same time, the Rostovites struck five blows, four of which were performed by Mironov. And “Spartak” had only four attempts, two of which – from Sobolev. Both teams hit their target once. And the accuracy of their transmissions hovered around 80%.

Swing start

Something really interesting and edgy on the pitch started happening towards the middle of the second half. But already from the very beginning Spartak’s territorial advantage began to emerge. For one segment before half time, the red and white struck five to one blows to Rostov. But what was this blow: Mironov staged the most dangerous attempt in the first 70 games. No luck with accuracy.

Both coaches were not satisfied with the “peaceful” outcome of the match, so they were quite active, making reshuffles and substitutions based on the available resources. Although Spartak, apparently, also had to take a forced break. Jikia left, and Maslov appeared instead of him. On the one hand, the substitutions disrupted the rhythm of the match, which was already badly broken, and on the other, they made it possible to turn the tide of the match, which was swimming towards a goalless draw.

Fast

And one of the changes worked. And Valery Karpin. Oleksandr Selyava, who appeared in the 76th minute, celebrated a goal four minutes later. And his first goal for Rostov. He does it with a nice shot from the left after Nikolai Komlichenko’s discount. Abascal had little time to react. He threw Balde and Nicholson into battle. Moreover, the replaced Promes clearly showed dissatisfaction with this decision of the coach.

The last few minutes were fun. “Spartak” rushed to the assault and created a series of dangerous chances that did not reach scoring chances. A corner kick in the last seconds with the Spartak goalkeeper who has already entered someone else’s penalty area has not become effective so far. After hitting Sobolev, Golenkov could have saved, but the ball still flew into the net from his head.

In the last ten minutes of the match, that is, after a missed goal, Spartak took eight shots at the Rostov goal. Almost as much as both teams inflicted for the entire first half combined. However, only three attempts were accurate. And ball possession exceeded 67% in this segment.

Scandal

But even this miraculous save was not the main reason for discussions after the match. The draw itself did not provide enough emotional background to strongly sway the minds of football fans. In the end the teams were left alone. But here are some situations on the field that, of course, thrilled the audience. Ten minutes contained more significant events than the previous 80-odd.

In the last few minutes, everyone was nervous. “Spartak” – charged with salvation, “Rostov” – with salvation from attacks by “Spartak”. Any decision of the judges in such conditions was sharply perceived. And it so happened that these decisions at the end of the game followed in favor of the red and white.

When Selyava collided with Martins and the referee ruled it a foul, the Rostovites became especially furious. Mironov also received a yellow card for arguing with the referee. Then it was the turn of the yellow for Karpin, who also began to talk passionately with the referees. Not so much for Selyava’s foul, but for the evaluation of the nearby episodes, in which, after the clashes with Spartak, his defenses collapsed and the referee ignored everything.

When Spartak’s goal was scored, Karpin broke through again. Already after the final whistle he was not happy with Rostov’s record, but yelled at the judges, for which he saw a red card in front of him. It should be noted that the passions did not subside even when everyone left the stadium.

Rostov, for example, released a video with hints of unfair refereeing and with episodes where Karpin’s players fell and the referee missed. The Rostovite coach himself scolded the journalists, who asked what he was talking about in a relieved tone with the referee. And the ex-owner of Spartak Leonid Fedun did not miss the opportunity to make a sarcastic shot at Karpin:

Valera is a very emotional person. She is satisfied only with those penalties that Rostov hits, she considers the rest wrong. But she is normal. Is the match against Spartak crucial for Karpin? Absolutely. For him, these are the two most important matches of the season. It is important for him to beat Spartak twice in one season. Despite all the ex “Spartak” blood from the nose, I want to beat “Spartak”.

It would seem that there was an ordinary draw, and the game was far from ideal in terms of content. But the optimal recipe for “hot” worked: “Spartak”, Karpin, judges. In this season, without European cups for Russian clubs, we have to consume the domestic product with particular care, so to speak. And the degree of passion is high after almost every game, not to mention tours.