13th Tour: "Rubin" Crushed in Tomsk

2006-07-31 14:50 © EuroFootball.com

On Sunday, five matches of the 13th round of the Russian Premier League were played. In a dramatic match against "Saturn," "Lokomotiv" barely managed to snatch a draw, "Rubin" suffered a crushing defeat against "Tom," the outsider "Shinnik" forced to surrender to "Moscow" on the road, after a victory against "Luch-Energia," "Krylja Sovetov" returned to the leaders' ranks, while the match between "Dynamo" and "Zenit" ended in a draw.

The first meeting took place in the distant Tomsk, where the local "Tom" met Kazan's "Rubin." At the beginning of the match, the initiative was taken by the hosts, but they failed to create any dangerous opportunities, and as the half progressed, the game moved to the center of the field. The dull first half ended without any goals.

Just at the beginning of the second half, the hosts scored a goal. The guests failed to recover after the first "blow" when Aleksandr Kulchiy scored, and in the second one, they were sent off by the hosts' forward Pavel Pogrebniak. Seven minutes later, the same P. Pogrebniak scored the third goal for the team, and it was already clear who would be the winner of this match. With the help of substitutions, "Rubin" tried to change something, but a "hat-trick" by P. Pogrebniak sealed the victory for "Tom" with his fourth goal. The result was 4-0 in favor of "Tom."

In Ramenskoye, "Saturn" met Moscow's "Lokomotiv." "Saturn" immediately began to attack and had a chance to score in the second minute of the match, but the goalkeeper saved the visiting team.

After a while, a "Lokomotiv" player got used to the game and started attacking, but they couldn't finish their attacks. It seemed like a goal would be scored in the hosts' goal soon, but it turned out differently. After a penalty shot by Aleksei Yaromenko from the left side, "Saturn" forward Fredy Bareiro scored with a head.

Meanwhile, "Saturn" continued to have a tough time, and in the last minute, after a ricochet, goalkeeper Aleksey Igonin accidentally sent the ball into his own goal. The hosts had a chance to snatch the victory in the last moment of the match, but luck was on the side of the guests, and the goal frame saved them. The match ended with a 1-1 draw, and the teams shared a point.

In Moscow, the local "Dynamo" met St. Petersburg's "Zenit." As expected, Lithuania's national team goalkeeper Ž. Karčemarskas made an appearance in the starting lineup for "Dynamo," while R. Poškus played for "Zenit," who, according to the Russian media, counts his last days at the club.

This match was watched by the Russian national team coach Guus Hiddink, so the teams started the match actively because the candidates for the Russian national team were trying to show what they were capable of. The first goal was scored by the "Zenit" players when their attacking leader Aleksandr Kerzhakov scored. After a while, "Dynamo" scored an equalizing goal, but the referee disallowed it.

In the second half, "Dynamo" finally equalized the score with a goal from Portuguese forward Derlei, but after eleven minutes, the guests organized a counter-attack, and Aleksandr Gorshkov scored the second goal. After this goal, the hosts pressed the visitors, but the defenders blocked the attacks or the goalkeeper played excellently. In the 78th minute, after a penalty shot towards the "Zenit" goal, another "Dynamo" Portuguese player, Cicero, managed to score a goal and allowed the hosts to try and snatch the victory, but the match still ended with a 2-2 draw.

In the last Sunday match, Samara's "Krylja Sovetov" met Vladivostok's "Luch-Energia." There were rumors that these were fixed matches in favor of Samara's club. The start showed that it wasn't true, as "Luch-Energia" player Maksim Astafyev scored the first goal. However, in the second half, within a five-minute interval, the hosts scored two goals after shots from Marco Topich and Andriy Gusin, resulting in a "strange" victory of 2-1.

On Monday, the last match of the round will take place in Rostov, where the local "Rostov" will face the league leader Nalchik's "Spartak".

Statistics of the 13th round: