Dynamo lost the victory in the derby against CSKA

The wonderful series of Dynamo, which began in mid-September in Samara, was interrupted by an insulting defeat in Perm a week ago.

Here they are the vicissitudes of football fate: two wins and a draw, as well as the failures of competitors, it seems that Dynamo returned to the fight for third place and the first medals at the highest level. However, as soon as the blue and white stumbled once, the gap from the Moscow Lokomotiv immediately increased by 8 points. Well, after the confident victory of the railwaymen over Zvezda-2005, a few hours before the derby of CSKA and Dynamo in Luzhniki, our team did not even have theoretical chances for the first ever Super League awards.…

However, even without this super goal, the blue and white had their own local task: to be in the standings above Spartak Moscow, which broke into the Super League in its debut season and still claims the bronze of the championship. To bypass the red-whites and climb a line higher than last year – what is not motivation for Sergey Lavrentiev's team?

And then there's the meeting with CSKA – so far the most inconvenient opponent for our team. The history of the confrontation with the army club is almost philosophical: 5 defeats in 5 official matches and one zero draw in a friendly game. It makes no sense to be sad from these figures, as they say, to accept and let go.

The sixth official match this time is the most important for both teams. Dynamo's claims to the first-ever Super League medals have already been mentioned, CSKA's claims to the championship were known even before the start of the season. But right now the army club is in a position where any loss of points can finally destroy the dream of gold. Zenit's three–point gap is too serious an advantage that needs to be eliminated by any means.

In this case – only a victory over the nearest rival.

The calm start of the meeting surprised me a little – matches of this level in the Super League usually begin to please with scoring chances from the first minutes. Here, the teams seemed to have learned in advance that all the most interesting things would happen in the second half and therefore did not particularly force things and rush headlong.

If we talk about the owners of the field in Luzhniki (the game was held in the "Sports Town"), then they looked more active. At least, they appeared at other people's gates much more often than Dynamo football players did. It took the blue and white a little less than 15 minutes to get close to the army penalty area and the goal for the first time. But even then – they limited themselves to a long-range strike, which posed no danger to CSKA goalkeeper Anastasia Ananyeva.

It has already happened that in both men's and women's football, the meetings of Dynamo and CSKA have been called a friendly derby in recent years. But even against this background, both teams had a friendly start to the meeting.

By the middle of the half, the game had changed a little. To the fact that the creative game did not stick with both teams, there was also a lot of struggle. Due to the fact that the army women suppressed all the initiatives of the blue and white with pressure, they had to rely only on long-range throws in the direction of Elena Shesterneva, who was playing alone this Sunday evening at the forefront of the Dynamo attack.

As often happens in such matches, the entertainment came when it was no longer expected. At first, Maria Galai could have upset the armees if she had reached the pass from Elina Samoilova from deep in the penalty area. And a little later, the hosts scored at all, or rather, pushed the ball into Diana Ponomareva's goal, but the goal was not counted due to offside. Yes, it was already much more interesting, but it still looked stingy against the background of pre-match expectations.

At the same time, the feeling did not leave that it was worth adding a little to the army team, and the moments at the Dynamo gate would fall one after another. This premonition was reinforced by rare, but rather sharp actions of the benches near the Dynamo penalty area. Whatever one may say, but they still played enough for a goal in the first half. The only thing that prevented him from scoring was the excessive fuss with which CSKA acted in their final actions.

But Dynamo was still counting on counterattacks. And for good reason!  One of them at the very end of the half could have ended in success for the blue and white and a mini-disaster for CSKA. After playing on the interception, Kaylan Williams and three more dynamos ran away to the CSKA goal, the American gave an excellent pass to Kristina Komissarova, and she struck – unfortunately, both past Ananyeva and past her goal. By the way, Dynamo girls shocked their rivals more than once this season just before the break, but now it didn't work out.

The first half ended with a small brawl and a yellow card of the Gear. It turned out such a small teaser of the second half.

Since the second half turned out to be really fiery and in the spirit of a very unfriendly derby.

CSKA started it with a double substitution, which said a lot about the mood in the coaching staff of the army team, but Dynamo ... with a goal! It would be surprising if the blue and white scored their own goal from the game, there was little to contribute to this. That's why we bet on standard positions – and she played!

In the 52nd minute, Dynamo got the right to a not-so-dangerous penalty. But this did not become a problem for the ubiquitous Gear: the striker hung so smartly from the left flank that the tall Helena Bojic sent the ball with her head right into the corner of the CSKA goal!

Often in such situations and in such matches, the question slips through my mind: is it too early to score? Unfortunately, the subsequent course of the match confirmed this unpleasant omen.

CSKA, the only real rival of Zenit in the fight for the championship, was not satisfied with this situation in any way, and therefore the most correct reaction could be only one thing – to get angry and throw all your strength to recoup and then snatch victory. Fortunately, there was more than enough time for both.

The army rushed to the attack, and it became not just hot at the gates of Dynamo, but red-hot! The segment from the 52nd to the 75th minute was filled with so many moments of varying degrees of danger that the question did not give rest: why did CSKA not play like that from the very beginning? If the army team had made at least half of such efforts, everything could have ended for Dynamo in the first half.

But, apparently, that's what championship teams are for, that they can turn the course of an unsuccessful match for themselves in just a few minutes. The current version of CSKA did it in 10 minutes: on the 75th, Daria Yakovleva, who came on as a substitute, executed a smart shot in the ninth, and on the 85th Franziska Ordega avoided the offside trap of the Dynamo defense and brought her team forward. CSKA could have scored the third on the course, but Dynamo was saved by the crossbar again.

The final whistle of Alina Vakhrusheva recorded several facts at once: CSKA continues the championship race with Zenit, Dynamo said goodbye not only to dreams of bronze medals, but also chances to bypass Spartak. For the remaining two rounds, it is impossible to win back 8 points of the gap even hypothetically.

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