“The decision to cancel the goal was made because of the color of the shirt”: how Zenit squeezed CSKA

Zenit approached the match of the fifth round of the Russian championship, has eight points in assets and takes fourth place in the standings. CSKA was in the leading position – the guards of Vladimir Fedotov scored ten points and shared the first place with another metropolitan club Spartak. The teams were equal not only in points, but also in additional indicators, and the army team took fifth place against tenth, as they were higher in the rankings last season.

In the first half, St. Petersburg club had complete dominance – Sergei Semak’s wards had the ball and repeatedly created dangerous passages into the goal, resulting in scoring chances. Already in the 5th minute of the match, Dejan Lovren made a reduction with his head to the far post, but Malcolm did not reach out to close it. Then, the Brazilian tried to score again, but was unsuccessful and the ball flew to Igor Akinfeev. In the 25th minute, Ivan Sergeev had a chance to open the goal – he hit the goalkeeper almost from scratch, but CSKA again saved the captain.

Akinfeev as a whole became the hero of the first half – the army goalkeeper saved his team many times after the first 45 minutes, when Zenit built a strong pile on other people’s goals.

He fired a few shots, but already in the stoppage Mostovoy made a pass into the penalty area, where Malcolm had already hit the post. The goalkeeper’s emotions were impressive, and the speech was reduced to a single thesis: “One minute left!”

For the second half, Fedotov released one of the leaders of the new season – Jorge Carrascal. The Colombian footballer missed several practice sessions due to injury and started the game on the bench, but significantly refreshed the leading army’s game in the second half. Rare counterattacks were made through him in CSKA. A slightly more active game in the attack led to the army team winning a penalty kick in the 60th minute – Rodrigao knocked Chalov in the penalty area. CSKA took the lead, but it was not possible to break immediately – a fight broke out between the players near the penalty area, Vedel and Kirill Nababkin argued about something. Pavel Kukuyan could not immediately calm down the players who received a yellow card as a result of the episode.

This pause did not affect Chalov in any way. The striker confidently turned it into an 11-yard shot and evened the score in the match.

In the next minutes, the game as a whole developed according to the halftime scenario: Zenit held the ball and put pressure, CSKA countered and escaped with rare counterattacks. One of them led to a very controversial episode: Carrascal received a pass while on the move, dived into the box and hit it, hitting Mikhail Kerzhakov directly, his replacement Nikita Ermakov playing finishing, but the ball still came from him. flew into the castle. But the goal was cancelled, Kukuyan saw offside and the judges at VAR upheld their decision after watching the episode for a long time, but immediately understanding the offside difference from the referees was problematic.

However, Zenit was replaced by the player in the 85th minute. Taking the field ten minutes ago, Mantouan went from flank to centre, played a wall and hit a shot from outside the penalty area – the ball flew into the goal with a rebound from the post.

Already in the downtime, CSKA could again get the penalty kick, Rodrigao again scored in the penalty area – this time Igor Diveev suffered from his actions. But the referee did not immediately award a penalty, and the referees at VAR upheld his decision after a long try – there was no 11-meter shot.

Thus, Zenit won their third win of the season with a score of 2: 1, which allowed the club to lead the Russian Championship standings with 11 points.

During the fight, St. It is worth noting that fans of the St. Petersburg club perform their annual act – they honor the memory of the Russian sailors who died in the accident on the Kursk submarine. Fans unfurled a banner depicting a submarine on the podium. It has been 22 years since the accident on 12 August, in which 118 crew members died.

Former football player and coach of Moscow “Spartak” Valery Gladilin commented on the result of the match, noting that “Zenith” is stronger than his opponent in the game, but CSKA has every chance to draw.

“In the first half, Zenit played stronger, CSKA just defended. And the St. Petersburg club could have scored more – at least they scored at the end of the match, but there was still a three-goal chance that could be converted. The first half was for Zenit, but CSKA could not stand it.

Looks like they finally threw the ball [Малком отличился на 45+2 минуте. – «Газета.Ru»]It calmed them down a bit. And CSKA came together and continued to play. The team is functionally well prepared and played with discipline.

Zenit recovered a bit in the second half of the second half and the army team got a chance, equalized and then the game was balanced and controversial. “Zenith” has lost its advantage, its confidence. There were changes and CSKA could have drawn as well.

But the balls were magnificent goals, the skills of the Brazilian footballers were affected. Akinfeev has helped many times,” said Gladilin.

Referring to the referees in the match, the red-white veteran emphasized that the goal that was canceled due to offside was very controversial.

“I don’t know, there were some very controversial moments here. It has been looked at many times, but it is very difficult. I personally can’t say yet. CSKA scored a great goal, it might be “out of play” somewhere, but I couldn’t even watch it happen – there’s half a body somewhere… It’s a very, very difficult moment, you have to figure it out here. There is VAR, but we need to work with it more precisely because that is a moot point. CSKA could have won,” he said.

Former referee Sergei Khusainov criticized the canceled goal section and stated that such goals should be counted and explained why Kukuyan and VAR referees decided to cancel the goal.

“I can’t even call it controversial. I think it was just a game episode. The goal should have counted. The decision was made because of the color of the jersey, not according to the rules of football. Such events should be evaluated in favor of attack. Why do people come to football matches? Correctly! To watch how goals are scored and not cancelled, ”Khusainov told Sport-Express.