Roberto Fernandez / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Alexander Wilf
The Paraguayan deprived the Moscow team of a certain victory. Bring back Balbuena!
Dynamo approached the match with PARI NN in the status of a clear favorite. The long-awaited victory over Spartak in the last round was supposed to charge the team for at least a week ahead, and it’s not without reason that Muscovites did not suffer a single defeat in the first six matches. Nizhny Novgorod, on the contrary, at the start of the season looked sluggish and indistinct, showing one of the worst results in the RPL in terms of defensive play.
Game of the 7th round in Nizhny Novgorod at first developed in full accordance with expectations. Dynamo immediately took the initiative and opened the scoring already in the 17th minute: Daniil Fomin converted his second penalty kick of the season. And already in the middle of the half, the 25-year-old player made a decisive tackle in the opponent’s half of the field, after which the Muscovites carried out a second scoring attack. The ball went to Vyacheslav Grulev, who cut out the perfect pass to Konstantin Tyukavin – 2:0.
Dynamo went into the break with a comfortable advantage, while Nizhny’s players were close to despair. The game of the Volzhans did not stick in any way, and it seemed that even replacements would not be able to radically change it. Fortunately, the defender of Muscovites Roberto Fernandez helped turn the tide of the match to the home team.
The Paraguayan defender, who replaced his compatriot Fabian Balbuena in Dynamo this summer, showed himself well in the first matches for the new club. In the game against Wings of the Soviets, the legionnaire even scored the winning goal for the team, which still remains the only one on Fernandez’s account. Roberto also looked great in the match with Spartak, when he helped the Blue and White hold back the onslaught of their worst enemies.
However, in the match with PARI NN, the Paraguayan played the role of an unequivocal anti-hero. It was Fernandez who “brought” the first goal to his team, earning a completely optional penalty for the opponent. During the execution of a corner, the football player knocked down an opponent in his penalty area, to which the referee immediately reacted. The player did not even argue, and VAR was not needed either: the violation was obvious. Nizhny took advantage of his chance – retook one ball.
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Having received a yellow card for the first foul, the Latin American did not stop there. The excited legionnaire continued to act extremely aggressively in defense – and after 7 minutes he made another mistake, which became fatal for the team. This time, Fernandez played in the rudest way against Milson, blocking him. Roberto stopped the Angolan striker by hitting him in the chest with his shoulder.
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Arguing in this case was also useless: the player seemed to deliberately go to the red card. The arbitrator granted the Paraguayan’s desire and removed the violator.
Fernandez left Dynamo in the minority in a worse situation. After the first goal, Pari caught the courage, and after the removal of Roberto, he completely believed in himself, starting a real assault on the Moscow gates. Soon the metropolitan team missed the second and in general miraculously took away one point from Novgorod. The home team carried out several sharp attacks and had a good chance to score from a set piece: only the crossbar saved the guests from the third goal – 2:2.
