The encounter of the Mir Russian Premier League 14th round that was held at Sochi, ended in a 3:3 draw.
Marcel Licka had to experiment on the defensive line again. Nicholas Marichal was injured in the Cup fixture, while Fabian Balbuena flew home to be at the birth of his two daughters. Due to the deficit of defenders, Roberto Fernandez and Sergey Parshivlyuk, who came out with the captain's armband, formed a centre-back tandem. Yaroslav Gladyshev got his chance in the starting line-up. His late goal against Pari NN helped the White-Blues to advance to the Russian Cup RPL Path playoffs.
The teams started the game at a high pace. Bitello got a long pass from Igor Leshchuk, beat the defender and Nikolay Zabolotny, who went far out of the goal, but failed to make an accurate assist to an empty net. After the flank attack of the hosts, Leshchuk took the ball confidently when Martin Kramaric shot with one touch.
Dynamo players were very active on the opposite half of the pitch and intercepted balls regularly even in the final third. By tradition, the White-Blues did not hesitate to fire from distance. However, the strikes of Diego Laxalt and Bitello didn't become a serious pain in the neck for Zabolotny. In one of the next attacks, Bitello sent the ball to the far post after a great cross by Fedor Smolov. Unfortunately, Konstantin Tyukavin missed his opportunity.
The hosts created dangerous chances after the set-pieces: Luka Djordjevic was close to open the score two times, but the ball went wide. In the 24th minute, the Sochi team took the lead. Kramaric received the ball inside the penalty area and made an assist to Djordjevic, whose curling shot was palmed away by Leshchuk. However, Nikita Burmistrov was the first on rebound.
It took our team only one minute to come from behind. Bitello started a combination with a through-ball to Dmitry Skopintsev who rolled it into the penalty box. Smolov missed it wittily and Luis Chavez beat the goalkeeper, scoring his debut goal in Russia.
After the exchange of goals, both sides continued to play attacking football, in which Vladislav Bezborodov decided to intervene. In the 36th minute, the referee awarded Sochi with a penalty, seeing a foul of Eli Dasa on Djordjevic. The fouled player went to execute an eleven-meter shot himself and Leshchuk restored justice denying this effort in the jump.
Igor's save inspired Dynamo and by the end of the half the Muscovites scored twice. First, Fernandes assisted on Tyukavin with a long ball, Kostya handled the ball with the first touch, and with the second he hit the target irresistibly. Two minutes later, Laxalt saw Gladyshev penetrating into the penalty area. The young winger performed as a top professional and curled the ball nicely into the far corner.
The second half began with two saves by Zabolotny after two dangerous strikes by Tyukavin and Smolov. In his turn, Leshchuk won a duel with Djordjevic. Such an intense game brought success to the hosts: Kramaric struck low from the penalty line, Dynamo keeper made another save and Djordjevic sent the ball into the back of the net.
Licka replaced Gladyshev and Smolov for Nicolas Ngamaleu and Daniil Fomin. Soon Bitello missed the target with the header, but Sochi players executed their corner better – Vanya Drkusic converted a cross into a goal from a meter and scored an equaliser. Immediately Dynamo could have restored the lead: Ngamaleu broke into the penalty area and rolled the ball to Fomin, whose shot was blocked by Vyacheslav Litvinov.
The ending of the match turned out to be fiery. Laxalt earned a dangerous free kick in the 88th minute 16 meters from the goal, but Fomin's shot hit the player lying behind the wall. Then Kramaric could have brought victory to the Southerners: first, Leshchuk denied his effort from close range, and a little later the Slovenian hit the post with a free kick. The last five minutes contained the dismissal of Sochi coach Aleksandr Tochilin and sending-off of the centre-back Marcelo Alves.
As a result, Dynamo collected their seventh draw in the season, earned 22 points and stayed fifth in the table. In the next RPL match that will be held on November 12, our team will face Orenburg at VTB Arena.