Valery Novikov, former goalkeeper of CSKA Moscow and the USSR national team, talked about the referee’s decisions in the match played with Zenit in the 7th round of the Russian Premier League (RPL). He commented on socialbites.ca especially after the head referee Pavel Kukuyan did not give a penalty decision against the blue-white-blues at the end of the match.
“Let others evaluate what the judges do. I think he had such motivation: a fighting match and one team performed well, the other did not want to spoil the endgame – this is purely my opinion, ”says Novikov.
In the 93rd minute, Zenit defender Strahinja Eraković hit the ball of CSKA player Milan Gaich in his own penalty area, after which Gaich went to the grass. When Kukuyan did not react to this episode, a quarrel broke out between the players. The referee barely separated the opponents and showed the army team Willian Roche, Anton Zabolotny and Victor Mendez as well as Zenit players Nuraly Alip, Douglas dos Santos and Claudinho a yellow card.
The match between CSKA and Zenit ended with a score of 1-1. While the red-dark blue striker Anton Zabolotny opened the score in the 4th minute, the blue-white-dark blue team returned with two minutes before the end of the regular time. After this match, Muscovites collected 11 points and took the seventh place in the RPL ranking, while Zenit took the second place with 14 points.
Formerly Novikov named Zenit is hugely frustrating for CSKA.