Saturday wrap up of Russian Premier League
By: j | March 21st, 2009After an exciting opening week of the season, Saturdays result in the Rosgosstrakh Championship of Russia did not disappoint with four exciting matches.
Certainly the surprise of the day was Spartak Moscow losing 1-0 to Kuban Krasnodar. After a strong 1-1 draw to Zenit last week, Michael Laudrup’s Spartak side were a strong favourite but came crashing down in Krasnodar. After a penalty miss twenty one minutes in the match by new-man Alex, formerly of Internacional, the home side took the lead with Dramane Traoré score just past the half hour mark. While Spartak manager Michael Laudrup tinkered with lineup, they could not break through Kuban and lost 1-0. For Kuban it was there first victory of the campaign after being demolished by Rubin Kazan last week 3-0.
Krylia Sovetov followed up last weeks 1-0 victory over Tom’ Tomsk with another one goal victory, this time over Amkar Perm. To no surprise Czech Republic veteran Jan Koller found the mark just before the hour in a well played, efficient match. While still too early as cause alarm, this is Perm’s second consecutive scoreless match and while they play a highly disciplined style, they must address this trend.
The start of Miodrag Božović era at FC Moskva continued with scoreless draw to Terek Grozny in a highly physical affair. The Citizens who lost in the final moments last week against Dinamo were not able to overcome their visitors as both sides showed solid defending. Grozny, who defeated Spartak Nalchik last week 1-0 on Cléber’s late goal, are particularly troubled early in the season with a number of injuries but once fully-fit are more than capable of being in the upper half of the table.
Finally in an exciting match Dinamo Moscow defeated Khimki 3-2. Played in a wet snowfall, Dinamo, who defeated FC Moskva on Alexander Kerzhakov late goal last week, opened the scoring with the highly promising teenager Aleksandr Kokorin finding the net twenty-one minutes in. Dinamo had troubles defending throughout the match due to the slippery conditions and six minutes later Eldar Nizamutdinov beautifully half-volleyed a cross in to bring the match even. The goal scoring spree didn’t stop as two minutes before the half hour Alexander Kerzhakov found the back of the net from the spot. However once again Dinamo was victimized by poor defending in the difficult environment, this time Leandro Fernández poorly judging a ball allowing Serbian Miodrag Jovanović to come in on ‘keeper Vladimir Gabulov and strike to the near post. Victory was in the offering for Dinamo as Dmitri Kombarov’s cross was headed in by Aleksandr Dimidko on the hour mark.
Category: Team News
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