A double by Bessolova brought victory to Dynamo over Chertanovo

The fall periods are always difficult for the blue and white.

Of course, all Dynamo fans remember the fall of 2022, when our team did something incredible: they won all 8 matches in September-November and won silver medals of the Youth League! And they could have won gold if our girls had been a little luckier on the finishing line of the season against Lokomotiv Moscow.

But still, it was a completely different tournament, primarily of a different level, and, of course, a completely different team, albeit under the guidance of the same coach as now — Sergei Nikolaevich Lavrentiev.

And the performance of WFC Dynamo in the next season can already be somehow compared to the current times. A year ago, the blue and whites played 9 matches in the fall period: 4 at the preliminary stage of the Super League, 5 at the final stage with the participation of teams that took places from 1st to 6th at the previous stage. And the balance of wins and losses turned out not in favor of Dynamo: 4 wins — 5 losses. By the way, at the strongest stage, Dynamo women won only one victory, but what a victory it was: they defeated Ryazan-VDV at home 7:1! The main heroines of that meeting were Elena Shesternyova and Kaylan Williams, who scored hat-tricks and doubles, respectively

After that season, Lavrentiev's players took 5th place, which was certainly an achievement for our team in their debut season at the top level. Now the situation is similar on one hand, but not quite on the other. The blue-whites are in 5th place (again!), 5 points behind Spartak and Lokomotiv, but this time the fall part of the season is being held according to a different regulation. There is no preliminary or final stage, just a smooth championship, in which Dynamo has 6 matches left to play. Among them there are only two meetings with teams higher in the standings: Spartak and CSKA.

You have to agree, it's not exactly the same as it was in the fall of 2023, when the blue-whites played twice against Lokomotiv and once against CSKA and Zenit in their last 6 games.

Will this factor help Dynamo finish the season in a higher place than last year? As always, only the next game could answer this question

A calm start to the game was a bit surprising, given the fundamental importance that meetings between Dynamo and Chertanovo always have. But it's important to understand how depleted both teams were. We know perfectly well about the problems of the blue-whites, but the scale of the Chertanovo team's problems became clear a few minutes before the starting whistle. The loss of four main players who couldn't take part in the match with Dynamo due to having too many yellow cards in the previous round is worth mentioning. Not to mention losses due to injuries.

However, our team definitely didn't have time to think about the opponents' problems, as they say, they have enough of their own. Moreover, as the further game showed, there were also losses in the blue-white squad.

As already mentioned, the first half of the game was both chaotic and somehow ragged, and the teams didn't create any special moments, leaving all the fun for the last third of the half. And the 15-minute drive was started by Dynamo captain and former Chertanovo captain Yulia Bessolova. The midfielder, literally a couple of meters from the goal, hit above the crossbar after a free kick, missing a one hundred percent scoring chance

But the Dynamo leader recovered very quickly - literally 4 minutes later. After a ricochet from Galina Geibieva, who was coming one-on-one with Chertanovo goalkeeper Violetta Isaikina, the ball ended up with the blue-and-white captain, and she sent it into an empty net. True, not without incident - the ball hit the post and rolled over the line from there. It could have been the funny moment of the tour, but it didn't happen.

But a funny moment did happen - already in stoppage time and again with the participation of a Dynamo player. Milena Nikitina after a play episode for some reason swung her leg towards Olesya Berezanskaya and a few seconds later saw a red card from Anastasia Varfolomeeva in front of her. The sending-off is not only unnecessary, but simply stupid. Fortunately, everything happened right before the break, and the Dynamo coaching staff had enough time to think about the situation and make changes to the lineup

It's logical that the second half started with substitutions for the blue-whites: instead of Tijana Matic, who also played with a warning, central defender Helena Bozic came on, having finally recovered from her injury.

It took some time for the Dynamo players to get used to the new reality: they had to play with one less player for the entire second half. But it seems like the coaching staff of the blue-whites made a very good decision in this situation: not to go into a tight defense and defend the minimal score advantage, but on the contrary — to play from a position of strength and increase it.

The bet on a quick goal after the break paid off completely: our girls endured the assault by the home team and responded with their own counterattack in time — at the 53rd minute, Yulia Bessolova scored a brace after a pass from Kristina Komissarova!

What is significant is that even after conceding the second goal, the Chertanovka players were not going to give up and looked for chances near the Dynamo goal throughout the half. They did this primarily with long-range shots. And here the actions of the Dynamo defenders, led by Bozic and Kaylan Williams, who continues to play as a central defender for the third match in a row, came to the fore. And it should be noted — she is acting more and more confidently! And, of course, we can't fail to mention the flawless and sometimes very spectacular game of Dynamo goalkeeper Arina Taranenko, who rightfully proves that she wins the competition against Diana Ponomareva for a reason. Several long-range shots by the Chertanovo players were so dangerous that without Arina's vigilance and skill, our team would definitely have had problems — and the victory wouldn't look so confident. Especially towards the final whistle, when the Chertanovo team threw in their last reserves to score at least one goal

But neither the defense nor our goalkeeper faltered in the end, allowing the team to claim its second consecutive victory in the Super League and keeping our net untouched for the second game in a row.

As they say, things are looking up — there are only five points left until third place.

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