Fauzia Najjemba was one of the best in the first round match against Zenit, but she was unable to score
On Sunday, August 11, 2024, the match of the 16th round of the Women's Super League between Dynamo and Zenit will take place on field №1 of the Smena stadium in St. Petersburg.
When does it start and where to watch
You can follow the main events of the match in the match center on our website, where a text broadcast of the match will be conducted, as well as in the club's social networks VKontakte and Telegram. The meeting will start at 16:30 Moscow time.
You can watch the live video broadcast of the game for free on the Match TV channel, on the matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru websites in the Broadcasts section, as well as in the official Super League community on VKontakte. The broadcast will start at 16:25 Moscow time.
As always, our girls are waiting for the support of their favorite fans at the stadium! The address of the Smena stadium, where the meeting with Spartak will take place: St. Petersburg, Akademicheskaya metro station, Vernosti st., 21.
Dynamo fans have been allocated seats in sector D (entrance through Gate 2). To enter the stands, you must purchase a ticket. This can be done at the guest box office before the match.
The ticket price is 100 rubles.
There will be a storage room for items prohibited from being brought into the stands near the entrance to the guest sector.
Fan ID is not required to enter the stadium!
For those planning to support our favorite team at the stadium in St. Petersburg, we have collected all the necessary and relevant information in one place - here.
You can always view the full schedule of home and away matches of the main Dynamo team in the 2024 season at this link.
Team Status
Sergey Lavrentyev's team played their previous match in the quarter-finals of the Winline Russian Cup - and it was a derby with Moscow's Lokomotiv. The white-blues had already beaten them this season - in March in one of the first rounds of the Super League.
Now, at stake was a place in the semi-finals, which, firstly, Dynamo had never reached before, and secondly, another capital team, Chertanovo, was already waiting for its opponent there. On the eve of the match in Novogorsk between Dynamo and Lokomotiv, Chertanovo sensationally knocked one of the season's favorites, St. Petersburg's Zenit, out of the tournament in a penalty shootout. So the motivation and mood of both teams were off the charts.
As expected, the two-time trophy winners won the match. This was largely influenced by significant changes in the main Dynamo lineup: Ekaterina Sergeeva and Galina Geybieva, who do not often appear in the starting lineup, entered the field from the first minutes, as well as Kristina Komissarova, who has hardly played in recent matches due to health problems. But Kaylan Williams, who is practically irreplaceable in the Dynamo attack, started the match on the bench this time. In addition to all the problems with the starting lineup, the main central defender was forced to be replaced during the match - already in the 15th minute, Helena Bozic was replaced by Jose-Diana Pamen Tchato. It is not surprising that Lokomotiv, playing in an optimal lineup, looked more interesting and dangerous.
However, up to a certain point, Lokomotiv did not have any obvious scoring chances. Each time, the red-greens themselves were either inaccurate in their shots or passes, or the Dynamo defenders acted flawlessly. But it was clear that this could not continue for long.
Luck turned away from the Dynamo footballers in the 32nd minute. Lokomotiv newcomer Serbian Elena Chubrilo picked up the ball far from the Dynamo penalty area, moved forward a little and shot so that the ball even after a ricochet from one of the Dynamo players hit the goal. Diana Ponomareva tried to save the goal and transfer the ball to the corner, but it only hit the crossbar and went over the line - 0:1.
The second half of the match, in which Dynamo had to save itself at all costs, the white-blues began with a double substitution: instead of Geybieva and Sergeeva, whom the railway workers practically did not allow to do anything in the first half, Kaylan Williams and Taisiya Razvorotneva came out, for whom this was the debut for the main team of the white-blues.
Interestingly, almost immediately after the game resumed, Dynamo could have equalized: Tijana Matic had a good chance, but the Dynamo Serbian, unlike the Serbian from Lokomotiv, was unable to beat Angelina Gayer, who was defending the Railwaywomen's goal in this match. The Railwaywomen, as in the first half, continued to have the ball and put pressure on Ponomareva's goal, but they did not do it with such pressure. However, as in the first half, the main player in our team was still Diana Ponomareva - the Dynamo goalkeeper saved her goal from a second goal time after time.
But in the 73rd minute, she was unable to save either. And again, Elena Chubrilo brought success to Lokomotiv - this time the Serbian shot on the fly almost from the penalty line, but even Ponomareva was powerless at this moment. 0:2 with 15 minutes left looked like a death sentence...
Kylan Williams gave Dynamo fans a small hope of salvation. The American, who had not scored for a long time, accepted a pass from Elena Shesterneva and dealt with Gayer one-on-one, reducing the score to a minimum 10 minutes before the end of the match. Then the white-blues received the right to a dangerous free kick near and right in the center of Lokomotiv's goal. Three players could have taken it, but Elina Samoilova had the last word. But the white-blues' midfielder sent the ball too high.
Unfortunately, the railwaywomen did not waver in the remaining time and defended their winning score. Well, the white-blues are leaving the Winline Russian Cup at the quarter-final stage (last season they reached the 1/8) and can now focus on the fight for medals in the Super League. By the way, the opponent in this fight is the same as in this match – the capital’s Lokomotiv.
For 20-year-old Taisiya Razvorotneva, the match against Lokomotiv was her debut for the main Dynamo team
The photo gallery of the derby with the WFC Lokomotiv as part of the 1/4 Winline Russian Cup can be viewed here.
About the opponent
The next opponent of the white-blues is the Women's Football Club Zenit, the current two-time champion of the Super League (2022, 2023) and the finalist of the last three (!) Russian Cup draws (2021, 2022, 2023), as well as the winner of the Russian Super Cup (2023).
The club from St. Petersburg was created in January 2020 and immediately became a member of the Super League. In the first season, the blue-white-blues took only 5th place and reached the quarterfinals of the Russian Cup, but then they did not remain without medals.
In the 2021 season, Zenit won its first, bronze, medals of the Russian championship and reached the final of the Cup, where it lost to Moscow Lokomotiv with a minimal score (0:1).
The following season, the St. Petersburg team became the champion of the Super League and again reached the final of the Russian Cup. True, they lost it again – this time to CSKA (1:2), and the final match was essentially a home match for Zenit, as it took place at Gazprom Arena.
The 2023 season was even more successful for the blue-white-blues: despite losing the Russian Cup final for the third time in a row (again to CSKA – 1:4), the team from St. Petersburg, led by head coach Olga Poryadina, added two more trophies to their collection – first the Russian Super Cup (CSKA was beaten 5:4 on penalties), and then the gold medals of the Super League. By the way, the St. Petersburg team took the championship for the second year in a row in a tough fight with the capital's CSKA.
The fight between the two top clubs for titles continues this season. We can say that we have already seen the first round of this confrontation: on June 8, CSKA defeated Zenit in the Russian Super Cup match (1:0), and did so at the Gazprom Arena, home to the St. Petersburg club.
Both clubs also declared their ambitions in the Super League from the very start: CSKA and Zenit are the only teams that have not suffered a single defeat in the championship. The teams could have deprived each other of this last zero in the previous round in a face-to-face meeting - but the match at the army's VEB Arena ended in a goalless draw. So both teams continued their unbeaten streaks.
But another tournament - the Winline Russian Cup - has not been conquered by St. Petersburg Zenit. This season, the St. Petersburg footballers will definitely not be able to win this trophy. All because they sensationally lost on penalties to Moscow's Chertanovo in the 1/4 finals. This is only the second defeat of Zenit this season (after the Russian Super Cup final against CSKA).
The Moscow Dynamo team also left this tournament, so our team can only focus on playing in the championship this season. As we remember, in the spring the white-blues were finally able to break their losing streak in games with top-3 clubs – in March they crushed Moscow Lokomotiv at home (3:0). But if the losing streak with the railway team was ended with such a beautiful and confident victory, then it will probably be much more difficult to break the same unpleasant history of matches with the club from St. Petersburg.
The fact is that the white-blues have not only not been able to beat the team from the banks of the Neva, but even score against them – in 4 Super League matches played, 0 goals against Zenit.
Achievements of the WFC Zenit: gold (2022, 2023) and bronze (2021) medals of the Super League, Russian Super Cup (2023), Russian Cup final (2021, 2022, 2023), Russian Super Cup final (2024).
Intersections
– Maria Digurova: Zenit, 2020-2021 (16 matches, 1 assist)
– Elena Shesterneva: Zenit, 2020-2022 (41 matches, 20 goals, 3 assists), author of Zenit's first goal in the Russian championships (01.08.2020 CSKA - Zenit 2:1).
Dynamo goalkeeper Arina Taranchenko and the white-blues' forward Taisiya Razvorotneva were born in Saint Petersburg.
History of meetings
21.04.2023 6th round of the preliminary stage of the Super League
Zenit - Dynamo - 2:0 (Grzywinska, 58; Lazareva, 90)
20.08.2023 17th round of the preliminary stage of the Super League
Dynamo - Zenit - 0:5 (Yakubova - 9, 67; Dias - 21, 52; Lazareva, 78)
18.11.2023 4th round of the final stage 1-6 of the Super League
Zenit - Dynamo - 3:0 (Dias, 6; Yakubova, 44; Kuropatkina, 73)
29.06.2024 3rd round of the Super League
Dynamo - Zenit - 0:2 (Grzywinska, 49; Chinchilla Chinchilla, 67)
Total: 0+ / 0= / 4-, goal difference 0-12.
Elena Shesterneva will try to upset her former teammates again
The panel of judges
The match will be officiated by a team of referees headed by Alexandra Ponomareva from Moscow, who will be assisted by assistant referees Anastasia Toporova (Omsk) and Anastasia Matveeva (Tambov).
Nailya Khasanova from Nizhny Novgorod has been appointed reserve referee, and Sergey Panteleev (Tula) will be the match inspector.
Dynamo's record with Ponomareva as referee: 10 matches - 8 wins, 2 losses, goal difference 24-10.