The encounter of the RPL 22th round that was held at VTB Arena ended in a 1:1 draw.
After a blowout win in Tula Sandro Schwarz made three changes into the starting line-up. Konstantin Tyukavin replaced Fedor Smolov who fell ill in the week. Diego Laxalt and Vyacheslav Grulev were anchored to the left wing. The Uruguayan wingback came as a starter for the first time having recovered from injury. Dynamo loanee Nikolay Komlichenko appeared as a centre-forward at Rostov.
Both sides practice the same tactical scheme and basic principles of play. That's why Dynamo and Rostov put high pressure on each other from the very beginning. In this aspect the White-Blues succeeded more.
The first chance came to Daniil Fomin who capitalised on Sergey Parshivlyuk's deflected cross but missed the target. The talented youngster Konstantin Tyukavin was extremely active. Firstly, the centre-forward ran one-on-one with the Rostov goalkeeper and was stopped by returning Maksim Osipenko. Then Kostya was knocked down inside the penalty box contacting Komlichenko's foot from a set-piece. The referee went to the VAR screen for consultations and didn't change his first decision — no penalty!
The Rostov side earned the unique chance by the half-time whistle when Dmitry Poloz crossed to the far post to Viktor Melyokhin. The young centre-back won the position but shot over the crossbar.
On the 59th minute, the visitors took the lead when Dmitry Poloz opened the score. In one of rare chances Silyanov made a killer pass to Rostov top scorer. Poloz ran on a rendezvous with Dynamo goalkeeper who tried to cut the distance and netted his tenth goal this season.
After several substitutions the home side improved their play. Arsen Zakharyan showed a masterclass outfooting two opponents at once. But Pesyakov saved his team. Schwarz went to the limit by fielding two forwards instead of defensive players. This trick turned out to be successful.
Grulev earned a vital penalty and Fedor Smolov converted it confidently scoring his fourth goal in five appearances after the return to Dynamo.
Dynamo stay second on 43 points. In the next round, our team will play at Krasnodar on April 3.