Konstantin Tyukavin and Ruslan Litvinov
The final game that was held at Luzhniki Stadium ended in a 2:1 win of Spartak Moscow.
Sandro Schwarz selected a new formation and surprised everyone by fielding three centre-backs at once. Sergey Parshivlyuk who took the captain's armband completed the defensive trio. Daniil Fomin, Sebastian Szymanski and Arsen Zakharyan appeared in the midfield, while Konstantin Tyukavin formed an attacking tandem with Fedor Smolov.
Before the match, Dynamo fans presented a great performance at the D stand dedicated to the team: Our dream – your triumph! The White-Blues started the game actively. Dmitry Skopintsev crossed to the far post where Guillermo Varela lacked some speed.
In the 10th minute, Spartak opened the score. Mikhail Ignatov led rushing Aleksandr Sobolev to the open space in the box, and the centre-forward put the ball under Igor Leshchuk's hand. Ten minutes later, the referee didn't see Victor Moses' dash to Varela's face and the hosts organized a dangerous counter-attack involving Quincy Promes in these actions. The Dutch winger tried to find Sobolev, but Roman Yevgenyev was vigilant on the goal line.
The visitors regularly built attacks through the center. Unfortunately, their runs were blocked by Spartak defenders. The brightest episode came by the end of the first half. Szymanski crossed low directly to Konstantin Tyukavin, Maksimenko broke the pass and Zakharyan couldn't succeed on rebound.
Sebastian Szymanski and Arsen Zakharyan
The second half was marked by numerous attacks of Dynamo. Finally, the hosts' pressure led to a success. Arsen Zakharyan’s shot from the distance ricocheted from Samuel Gigot and passed Maksimenko – 1:1.
Then, Tyukavin could run one-on-one after Szymanski's clever pass, but slipped up. Spartak reacted with a fast attack down the right channel – Daniil Khlusevich found Promes' head who struck accurately to Leshchuk's hands.
In the 72nd minute, Spartak stopped Dynamo attack in the box and ran into the counter-attack, Sobolev provided the ball to Quincy Promes, who beat Leshchuk and brought the lead back. Schwarz made two substitutions giving playing time to Daniil Lesovoy and Vyacheslav Grulev.
The White-Blues could escape the defeat in the final minutes, when the referee awarded the hosts with a penalty. Roman Yevgenyev suffered elbowing from Ruslan Litvinov and earned a crucial eleven-meter shot for Dynamo. Daniil Fomin took the shot again, as he never missed any in the RPL. But this time he fired over the crossbar...