The encounter of the Mir Russian Premier League 22nd round, which was held at VTB Arena, ended in a 4:1 win for the visitors.
Marcel Licka could finally count on the entire squad and did not give rest to the internationals who joined the team later than others: Jorge Carrascal established himself as a playmaker, while Luis Chavez came out as a defensive midfielder. On the left wing of defense the choice fell on Sergey Parshivlyuk this time.
Before the encounter, a minute of silence was held in memory of the victims of the tragedy at Crocus, and the right to kick-off was given to an eyewitness to these tragic events, commentator Viktor Gusev and schoolboy Artyom Donskov, who helped lead people out of the burning building.
The start of the game was wide-open, but the defense of both sides played accurately. Among Dynamo players, Carrascal stood out with activity. On the 11th minute, the Colombian international organized a promising attack and made a pass to Konstantin Tyukavin, who redirected the ball to Chavez in his turn. The Mexican struck from outside the penalty box – Sergey Pesyakov was on the spot.
In the middle of the half, Rostov took the lead unexpectedly. Fabian Balbuena interplayed with Igor Leshchuk who made an unsuccessful pass to Eli Dasa. From behind him Kirill Shchetinin jumped out, intercepted the ball and sent it into the net. Dynamo goalkeeper corrected himself ten minutes later, denying the attempt of Rostov newcomer Ronaldo.
Leshchuk was close to saving the team in the next episode, when Danil Glebov struck in one touch after Mohammad Mohebi's throw, but the ball still flew into the far corner – 0:2. Immediately the score could become bigger: Yegor Golenkov fired from an acute angle, and the ball ricocheted off Roberto Fernandez' leg hitting the post.
By the end of the first half, the third goal has been scored by the visitors. Golenkov won the aerial duel and dropped the ball to Mohebi, who executed a one-on-one run. The White-Blues could have won back one goal before the break, but Carrascal hit the wall from a promising free kick.
During the break, Licka made a double substitution: instead of Parshivlyuk and Denis Makarov, Dmitry Skopintsev and Nicolas Ngamaleu came to the pitch. Dynamo pushed the visitors to their penalty box and began to create chance by chance at the opponent's goal. Pesyakov saved his team twice after strikes by Tyukavin and Ngamaleu, and when Chavez still scored, but the referee flagged for an offside.
Rostov scored the fourth goal, when the teams returned to the pitch – Mohebi passed through several defenders on the penalty line and shot straight into the corner. The Muscovites continued to press, but the ball did not go into the visitors' net. Ngamaleu shot at the goalkeeper when running one-on-one, then Pesyakov reacted to the ball launched by Skopintsev and ricocheted on its way. Finally, Bitello's header from a few meters turned out to be extremely weak.
Then time for the second double change came and Fedor Smolov as well as Daniil Fomin appeared on the pitch. They got immediately into the thick of actions. At first, Fomin got the ball in close proximity to the goal, but could not hit the near corner. Smolov then saw Dasa's run, Eli rolled the ball along the goal, and Bitello finished in the fall – 1:4.
Grulev was close to score another goal. Bitello sent Vyacheslav one-on-one with Pesyakov, he shot accurately into the far corner, but the referee canceled the goal once again due to an offside. Rostov responded with a powerful strike from Shchetinin to the crossbar.
Dynamo remained third in the table on 38 points. In the next match, the White-Blues will face SKA-Khabarovsk in St. Petersburg on April 2 in the Regions' Path quarterfinal of the Fonbet Russian Cup.
