The opening match of the 11th round of the MIR Russian Premier League between Ural and Lokomotiv added gray hair to the fans of the Moscow team. If it weren’t for the fantastic saves of Ilya Lantratov during the penalty kick, the railway workers would not have avoided a major loss.

And Lantratov was helped by frankly bad shots from 11 meters from the 18-year-old Ural football player. Who even allowed him to hit at such an important moment?

Double success

Mikhail Galaktionov’s team started the match in Yekaterinburg with a quick goal. Artyom Dzyuba already remembered in the fifth minute that he was, after all, a striker, having succeeded in finishing. This is the forward’s first goal in the RPL since the beginning of September.

The quickly gained advantage made the green-red’s chances of a fourth victory in a row quite good. But the celebration on the streets of Moscow football players did not last long. Soon the Hornets bounced back thanks to the efforts of Silvie Begic.

After the break, Lokomotiv’s position became unenviable. Ural’s long-time leader Eric Bikfalvi put the hosts ahead. The Romanian football player turned out to be the quickest on the rebound, sending the ball into the goal in touch.

The situation for the railway workers could have become critical in the 67th minute. Nair Tiknizyan brought a penalty out of the blue, playing with his hand after a corner kick. 18-year-old Ilya Ishkov approached the point, entering the field only after the break. The Ural midfielder’s shot was not the best. The ball flew slightly to the right of the goalkeeper, and Lantratov dealt with this shot rather casually. But Karasev, at the prompting of the VAR team, decided to kick the penalty kick, as the Lokomotiv players ran into the penalty area ahead of time.

Ishkov approached the point again. Ilya couldn’t think of anything better than to punch into the same place. One got the impression that the more experienced Lantratov was waiting for such a development of events. This time the goalkeeper firmly fixed the ball.

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The tragedy of a young player

Ishkov will remember this meeting for a long time. Gancharenko replaced the young footballer in his heart in the 91st minute. It’s hard to imagine what was going on in the midfielder’s soul, but he couldn’t hold back his tears on the bench. His partners encouraged the upset football player, but he could not calm down for a long time.

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In the 96th minute, Ishkov became even more worried, because his team lost the victory right before the final whistle. Timur Suleymanov saved a draw for the railway workers. The 23-year-old striker crossed to the far post. After the final whistle, Artyom Dzyuba approached Ishkov, who was sitting on the Ural bench. The experienced striker said something to his young colleague and then patted him on the head encouragingly.

We can only hope that the drama in the match with Lokomotiv will not break Ilya Ishkov. And next time the Ural players will think carefully about who should take the penalty kick at a crucial moment.

Live broadcasts of MIR RPL matches can be watched on the Match TV and MATCH PREMIER TV channels, as well as on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.