"Dynamo" lost to the Youth League champion

Mikhail Kobyakov’s team opened the final stage of the Youth League away against CSKA, the current champion of the tournament. The Army team confidently won their group, winning six out of six, and did not encounter any resistance at all. Dynamo, on the contrary, experienced a number of problems, mainly against Zenit, as well as CSKA, a contender for championship gold.

Playing against a favorite, and even away, would seem to be an obviously difficult story, if not for one circumstance. More recently, in April, Dynamo met with CSKA on the same field and... defeated the champion with a score of 3:0. Both the players and the coaching staff remembered this, therefore, despite the friendly nature of that match, the thorn in the hearts of the red and blue players definitely remained and they wanted to get even for that defeat.

The vicissitudes of the Youth League format and its calendar are such that CSKA and Dynamo did not meet last season; the last battles dated back to July-August 2022, when the rivals exchanged away victories. Since then, a lot of water has passed under the bridge, and the rosters have been updated by 80 percent for both of them, not to mention the coaching staffs.

By the way, about the compositions. This time, Taranchenko, Petrova and Geibieva played for the Dynamo double, accompanied by Golubeva, Volobueva, Senoyedova, Orlova, Greuli, Razvorotneva, Yakovenko and Azeeva from the first minutes.

As expected, the hosts seized the initiative from the first minutes, seized the advantage and scored in the 4th minute - after a protracted attack, Anastasia Samsonyuk was the first to finish and sent the ball into Arina Taranchenko's goal - 1:0. The goal that was scored did not knock the guests out of themselves, but, on the contrary, gave them additional motivation - the play in the center of the field improved, passes began to pass to the players of the attacking group, but it was not yet possible to gain a foothold in CSKA's half of the field. The few attempts resulted in solo passages, which the army men covered in mini-groups of two or three people.

The red-blue forwards strained the visiting defense more and more, testing Taranchenko over and over again, and Arina had to often come into play. There were some beautiful saves and some good kicking, but the overall picture remained the same and at times it became truly worrying. However, our team also had successful attacks. In the 22nd minute, Razvorotneva found a great long pass to Yakovenko, but the episode did not develop - the ball went for a corner.

CSKA's second goal came out of nowhere. In the 26th minute, Vera Eremenko received the ball in the center of the field, approached the penalty area and unexpectedly shot - the ball flew into the goal along some incomprehensible trajectory. To win back two goals is a serious task, but it is doable; there was still an hour ahead. The ball that flew into Taranchenko’s goal six minutes later seemed to finally remove the question of the winner of the match - CSKA had complete control of the initiative and was confidently moving towards its goal.

Even before the end of the first half, the Dynamo coaching staff made a substitution - Skotnikova replaced Azeeva. However, it was not possible to turn the situation around by the break - the hosts were too good and led with a score of 3:0.

Kolesnikova and Ryzhikh came out for the second half, replacing Geibieva and Golubeva. There were no noticeable changes in the game - the army team attacked, the dynamic team defended. With the appearance of the Reds on the field, the defensive game became more integral, Ulyana came to the rescue several times and helped the team prevent a sure goal. Taranchenko also saved the game, repelling the attacks of CSKA attackers.

The blue and white gradually pushed the opponent away from their goal, and by the 60th minute the game began to take place in the center of the field. Of course, the red and blue attacked more often and had more possession of the ball, but the Dynamos also played ball control, even if not everything worked out. And these efforts yielded results - in the 71st minute, Razvorotneva put up a great fight in the center of the field, made a tackle, gained space and aimed a shot from a distance right under the crossbar, leaving CSKA goalkeeper Asabina out of action - 3:1.

The goal that was scored gave our team confidence, and there were more promising attacks and goal-oriented play. The guests had another 15 minutes to rectify the situation; instead of the tired Greuli, the fresh Shilnova came out, but the blue and white army was not allowed anywhere else near their penalty area.

Let's summarize. Dynamo, which had few chances, won the second half, CSKA, which pressed the whole game, won the match. Even though the blue and white started the final stage of the Youth League with a defeat, the meeting with the champion gave a lot of information for thought.

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