Mikhail Kobyakov: “We could have brought the match to victory”

— Spartak started the match very actively, started pressing us high. And we didn’t really understand the defensive actions on the left flank, which led to a critical moment already in the first minute. But then we pushed the game back and created a couple of dangerous moments ourselves, which, in my opinion, should have ended in goals.

Unfortunately, somewhere we lacked physical fitness. We started to sag in some positions. And the first half then went with varying success. Unforced errors in possession of the ball in the defensive line led to some tense situations near our goal.

During the break, we reacted, released our young defender Diana Faskhutdinova, which is quite serious for her - to play a half against Spartak for the youth team. But we trusted her, in principle, she played well.

But in the first minutes we earned a not entirely logical foul, which led to a penalty near our goal. We conceded from this penalty, lost the fight in our goal area.

We then tried to attack, but mainly through the central zone, there were some approaches, but not very sharp. After the removal of the Spartak player, we were able to take control of the ball and created several good moments, one of which ended in a goal. Unfortunately, we did not bring it to victory. But I think that in the last ten minutes we could have done it.

For full details on the starting lineups and events of the match, see the match centre.