The encounter of the Mir Russian Premier League 27th round, which was held at VTB Arena, ended in a 3:2 win for the White-Blues.
After two super-exhausting matches, Marcel Licka made a rotation in the defensive line. Igor Leshchuk received his chance at goal. Eli Dasa and Sergey Parshivlyuk appeared on the wings. This time, Nicolas Ngamaleu remained on the bench, while Daniil Fomin returned to the starting line-up.
Already in the first 10 minutes, Dynamo could have scored several times. First, Konstantin Tyukavin got the ball, turned around and rolled it to Jorge Carrascal, who missed the target from 7 meters. From the corner, Roberto Fernandez hit the woodwork, and the finishing shot by Fabian Balbuena was inexplicably denied by the goalkeeper Maksim Rudakov. Finally, Tyukavin opened up for a delivery without any resistance, but shot a little higher.
In another fast attack, Bitello made an interception on his own half of the pitch and invited Carrascal to a drive. The Colombian international returned the ball to the Brazilian in a nice way, but, unfortunately, Bitello's one-touch shot went over the crossbar.
Meanwhile, the stadium was covered by a real downpour with hail, which did not prevent the White-Blues from continuing the siege of the Sochi goal. Luis Chavez aimed at the top corner from a free kick, but Rudakov jumped to a corner and neutralized the threat. The goalkeeper of the Southern side also saved his team from dangerous strikes by Fomin and Carrascal. By the end of half an hour the statistics on 10-0 shots for goal spoke for itself.
When the sun came out, there were more pauses in the game, and Sochi players began to move periodically to our half of the pitch. In the 45th minute, Aleksey Sutormin had an attempt on Leshchuk's goal from the corner of the penalty box. Fortunately, he missed the target.
Dynamo did not start the second half so brightly, but they converted their first real chance. Parshivlyuk robbed Kirill Kravtsov on the visitors' penalty line, played give-and-go with Tyukavin and rolled the ball back to him. Kostya put it into the back of the net by his heel, scoring a real masterpiece goal at the right time!
Immediately, Leshchuk entered the game seriously for the first time in the match, denying Sergio Cordova's close-range effort. The White-Blues gave up the initiative and defended confidently, not allowing the visitors anything more than undangerous long-range strikes.
The first substitutions in our team took place only in the 76th minute – Carrascal and Parshivlyuk were replaced by Ngamaleu and Dmitry Skopintsev, after which a crazy ending began. At first, Leshchuk denied a one-touch shot by Artur Yusupov, but in the 83rd minute, Aleksandar Yukic's cross still found Saul Guarirapa's head inside the penalty area, and the Venezuelan striker scored an equaliser from a few meters.
Just a couple of attacks later, Dynamo restored the lead: Fernandez made a cross into the penalty box, Ngamaleu struck with a rebound off the pitch, and Bitello drilled the ball under the crossbar.
But that wasn't all. In the last minute of regular time, Ignacio Saavedra managed an incredible long–range shot into the right top corner, and the score became equal again – 2:2. In the 5th minute of added time, our team could snatch an important victory. Dasa awarded Ngamaleu with a fine pass, the Cameroonian opened up inside the penalty box and drove the ball right into the corner!
Dynamo collected 50 points and caught up with Krasnodar and Zenit, which are leading the table. However, the St. Petersburg side still has one more match to play. In the next RPL round, the White-Blues will face Baltika Kaliningrad on Saturday, May 11.
