Dynamo crushes the Football Academy and reaches the 1/4 Winline Russian Cup

In the previous match - a home game with Zenit St. Petersburg - Dynamo Moscow closed the first round of the Super League. Since the beginning of their performances in the elite division of Russian women's football, the blue and white have not been able to beat the St. Petersburg club, and they have not managed to do so now. How to score against a team from the banks of the Neva. Dynamo lost again to Zenit and extended its unsuccessful streak in games with the St. Petersburg team - now it is 4 defeats in a row, and the goal difference is 0-12.

However, the completed first round of the Super League can definitely be considered an asset for the Dynamo team. Based on the results of 12 rounds, in which the blue and white won 8 victories, drew once and lost 3 matches, scored 18 and conceded 9 goals, Dynamo with 25 points was in 4th place in the standings with good chances to compete for 3 -th place.

There is no need to talk about anything more yet: if the gap from Lokomotiv is only one point, then the teams occupying the first two places have a good lead: the same Zenit, which beat Dynamo in the last round, is ahead of White -blues are already at 7 points, and CSKA are at 9. Summing up the results of the first half of the season, head coach of the blue and whites Sergei Lavrentyev outlined what the team should improve in the second round, where the fate of the main awards of the season will be decided:

— First of all, in aggression. We were not as aggressive as we would have liked, this was especially evident in matches with the leaders. In addition, you need to add offensive power and defensive reliability.

Well, the team’s development vector for the coming months has been outlined. The team had a two-week break ahead between rounds of the championship, but before that our team had to start in the second tournament of the season - the Winline Russian Cup.

If last season the blue and whites, as debutants, began the fight for the trophy from the 1/16 finals, then this season, as teams from the top half of the Super League table at the end of the 2023 season, they entered the game from the 1/8 stage. It is interesting that last year it was at this stage of the dynamo that the performances in the national cup ended, losing to the future winners of the trophy ZhFK CSKA.

Now, of course, the situation was completely different than a year ago. The Muscovites went to the match in Tambov as undisputed favorites. Firstly, as a Super League team against a team playing in the First League, albeit the current champion of this tournament. Secondly, according to interesting statistics: since 2014, the “Football Academy” has been participating in the Winline Russian Cup and for 9 (!) draws in a row it has completed its performances in it precisely at the 1/8 final stage.

As they say, traditions cannot be broken. That’s why the blue and white immediately got down to business on the artificial field of the football arena in Tambov, where the “Football Academy” hosts its rivals.

However, we had to wait almost a quarter of an hour for the first goal of the blue and whites. Only in the 13th minute did Elena Shesterneva score her first goal of the game. It should be noted that the Dynamo coaching staff did not radically rotate the squad for the cup match with the First League team and released almost all the players from the main squad. The changes affected only a few positions: for example, Arina Taranchenko took the place in goal, Kamilla Abashilova took the right-back position, and the distinguished Shesterneva played at the forefront in the attack. Diana Ponomareva, Maria Digurova and Kaylan Williams remained in reserve, respectively.

The changes are logical and, I must say, did not greatly affect the game. By the end of half an hour the blue and white were winning – 3:0. Kristina Komissarova and Shesterneva scored a double. The exploits of the striker, who played center forward in Tambov, did not end there.

Having gone into the break with a solid advantage both in the game and in the score, the Dynamo team entered the second half without any relaxation. On the contrary, it seemed that the attitude of the coaches in the locker room was to increase the pressure on the goal of the Tambov team even more and not stop there. Let's give the Dynamo players their due: they carried out the coaching instructions perfectly. Less than 10 minutes after the resumption of play, the restless Shesterneva scored a hat-trick - with a gorgeous long-range shot under the crossbar! And on the 60th, Lamunat Mustafayeva, who came on as a substitute during the break, also brought the score to 5:0 with a cool strike. By the way, this is the midfielder’s first goal for the main team after joining the club in the winter.

It seemed that the intense program of the match in Tambov was exhausted. But it turned out that neither the Tambov football players nor the Muscovites said the last word. The ending of the game in the arena turned out to be really hot.

In the 84th minute, Natalya Simakina, the playing coach of the Academy and a real legend of Tambov women's football, broke the score. Well, in stoppage time, the final score was set by Kaylan Williams, who finally broke her goalless streak.

It was a fun game in Tambov, in which we saw Shesterneva’s hat-trick and Mustafaeva’s first goal for the team; Komissarova and Williams scored important goals for themselves. Well, the most important thing is that “Dynamo” started in the Winline Russian Cup with a bang and advanced to the next round, where the capital’s “Lokomotiv” is already waiting for the blue and white in the 1/4 finals.

For complete information about the starting lineups and events of the meeting, see the match center.