In the last round of last season, the home game against Spartak was decisive for Igor Osinkin’s team: in case of defeat, they went to the play-offs. Then the Samara team managed to win, including due to a penalty missed by Promes.

On Sunday, “Wings” hosted “Spartak” already in the role of one of the leaders of the championship: a great start lifted the Volga team to second place. After 90 minutes, it became obvious that the Samara team climbed so high not by accident.

Dzhikia is back on the bench

This season, the publication of Spartak’s starting line-up is always fraught with special intrigue. Guillermo Abascal has already accustomed himself to constant rotation, but at least this time it was minimal and did not affect defense and attack. In the center of defense, the international duo Duarte – Babich turned out to be untouched, while Dzhikia once again remained in reserve.

The only change among the field players compared to the victorious match with Dynamo concerned the midfield: this time the Spanish coach chose to use Zobnin rather than Prutsev. Maksimenko took his place in goal, replacing the injured Selikhov.

If at the beginning of the season Spartak received at least a goal in each game, then in the last three matches Abascal’s team did not concede a single goal. At the Samara arena, Spartak had to be tested by the most effective attack in the RPL at the moment. In the previous nine matches, the Wings scored 21 goals and never left the field without scoring.

It’s a shame that Spartak didn’t buy Gorshkov

In the opening, the hosts gladly gave the ball to Spartak and waited for their chance in a counterattack. The plan worked perfectly in the seventh minute. Just five passes were enough for Krylia to rush from their own penalty area to someone else’s after losing Promes, where Saltykov and Gorshkov brought the matter to a goal. Maksimenko failed to help his team out after hitting the near corner. It would be strange to blame one goalkeeper for the missed goal. The Samarans did not seem to notice the Spartak support zone during their raid.

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Spartak could have equalized the score almost immediately, but Promes’ dribbling shot from outside the penalty area hit the post. There was no systematic or coaching idea in this. In the first half, the guests had to rely only on the individual skill of their front three. The maximum that Abascal’s team could offer in the first half was long-range shots, which mostly went wide of the goal. Osinkin’s plan worked much better. It didn’t even take much possession of the ball to achieve this; anyway, “Wings” looked more concrete in the final stages.

All this was evident in the episode with the second goal. The Spartak defense watched with a kind of Buddhist calm the pass from Rakhmanovich to Gorshkov and the subsequent strike by the full-back, who scored a double in 25 minutes. It is noteworthy that last season he failed to score even once.

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Adding piquancy to Gorshkov’s double is the fact that last summer Spartak was not only interested in this player, but also approached Krylia for the purpose of a transfer. As a result, the price for the defender seemed too high to the Moscow club, and the transfer did not take place.

Sobolev will not play against CSKA

Spartak entered the second half quite late. Abascal clearly had a lot to talk about with his team. At the same time, the Spaniard did not make any changes, although his game plan clearly did not work. Against mobile defense with a low block, non-standard solutions were needed, which even Promes could not find.

As a result, the team leader Abascal was removed from the field in the 60th minute, Zobnin and Denisov left with him, and in place of this trio were Zinkovsky, Medina and Ryabchuk. It quickly became clear that these were replacements for the sake of replacements. It was not possible to discern any radical progress in Spartak’s game after that.

The guests still had the ball in the opponent’s half, but they could not create any unsolvable problems for the Samara defense. Ovsyannikov almost did not enter the hosts’ goalkeeper game, except for an episode with a pass and an insidious strike from Zinkovsky. But Maksimenko failed to save his team from the third goal a few minutes later. The “Wings” players were again faster than their opponents in scoring attack in each micro-episode, which ended with Costanza’s discount and Garre’s shot.

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The troubles for Spartak did not end there. An attacking foul resulted in a yellow card for Sobolev, which was his fourth this season. Thus, the striker will miss the upcoming derby with CSKA. His new meeting with Willian Rocha has been postponed until at least spring.

The end of Abaskal’s nightmare was brought to an end in stoppage time by former Spartak player Vladislav Shitov, who came on as a substitute. The striker took advantage of Babich’s wild mistake, which was aggravated by Maksimenko’s ill-advised exit from the goal. 0:4 – the biggest defeat in Abascal’s coaching career.

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“Spartak”, after three victories in a row, ran into an uncontested defeat in Samara. Abascal, who lost to Osinkin for the third time, faces a difficult week before the most important game with CSKA. The Spaniard may not be forgiven for another failure.