Translated material
The train has left
Anatoly Byshovets drops out of the race for gold
Lokomotiv has finally given up its chances of finishing in the championship in the first two lines of the standings. If Anatoly Byshovets still harbored any illusions about the prospects of his team in the fight for two places in the Champions League, then after the defeat from Rubin (0:3), the coach of the “railroad workers” must come to terms with the fact that he cannot catch up with the leaders, and focus on getting at least into the UEFA zone.By the way, there are more applicants for this zone this year than ever before. One of the “big three” “Spartak” - “Zenit” - CSKA will probably be there. Dynamo and Moscow have their sights on the very top of the standings. And the same “Rubin” still has plenty of opportunities to even be among the winners.
In any case, judging by the match with Lokomotiv, Kazan is considering a similar prospect. Berdyev's team, not at all upset by the defeat in Vienna in the final round of the Intertoto Cup from Rapid (1:3), opened the gates of the Moscow guests in the second minute. The very first corner at Pelizzoli's goal brought nothing but grief to the Italian goalkeeper: Budylin's serve did not interest the Lokomotiv defenders and only Ryazantsev responded to it - 1:0.
The missed goal did not cheer up Lokomotiv, as happened in previous matches. The Railwaymen rolled the ball rather sluggishly in the middle of the field, and in front Sychev and the newly acquired Odemwingie were vainly hoping to get at least some kind of aggravating pass. Rubin took a philosophical approach to the territorial advantage of the guests and preferred to play on the counterattack.
Perhaps Lokomotiv would be able to extract some dividends from such a sluggish game. However, the orderly course of events was disrupted by the Muscovites' central defender Rodolfo. At that moment, when the hosts threw a high and not at all dangerous “candle” towards Pelizzoli’s goal, and the Italian goalkeeper was preparing to calmly take the ball into his hands, for some reason the Brazilian defensive player deliberately crashed into Vasiliev, who was standing nearby and for the sake of order, indicating the fight. The referee without hesitation pointed to the 11-meter mark, shooting from where Budylin did not leave the Loko goalkeeper a single chance - 2:0.
The teams played out the rest of the half without much interest, but after the break Lokomotiv made an attempt to change the course of the match. But he took several corners in a row and was unable to achieve success. A little later, the referee canceled Samedov’s goal due to offside. After that, Lokomotiv completely despaired of saving the game and could have conceded more than once. But the score became big only in the last minutes, when Yarkin, who had just come on as a substitute, sent the ball into the goal with his first touch, finishing it off after Jean’s header. So Lokomotiv, having conceded all three goals after set pieces, consolidated in the middle of the standings without much prospect of moving either up or down.
Meanwhile, Moscow, meeting with Saturn, tried with all its might to get Zenit. But in the first half, one could only wonder how the “townspeople” managed to climb so high with such a game - both teams had difficulty moving around the field, practically without bothering each other with blows. Everything changed after the break. To begin with, Semak, having shot slightly but accurately, opened the scoring. “Saturn” bounced back immediately. But Cesnauskis’ goal could no longer stop Moscow, with Barrientos at the forefront of their attacks. First, the Argentine headed over Kinski's cross and put his team ahead. And then, in a counterattack, he rolled the ball to Ivanov in such a way that all he had to do was not miss. Karyaka's beautiful strike towards the end of the match did not even become a signal for Saturn to begin the assault - Moscow won 3:2, and Leonid Slutsky suddenly got a real opportunity to be in the Champions League.
Russian Championship. Match of the 16th round. "Rubin" - "Lokomotiv" - 3:0 ( Ryazantsev 2, Budylin 28 - penal, Yarkin 86 ). Match of the 11th round. "Moscow" - "Saturn" - 3:2 ( Semak 48, Barrientos 62, Ivanov 66 -- Chesnausksis 50, Karyaka 82 ).