Krasnodar suffered a 1-2 defeat to Dynamo Moscow with one round left in the championship, allowing Zenit to leapfrog them into first place. They essentially handed the keys to the trophy over to Sergei Semak.
How did Krasnodar fail to score and snatch a win? They had so many chances!
Throughout the closing stages with the score level, it seemed Krasnodar were on the verge of scoring. Just a little more pressure, and they would break through. But time slipped away, and the result they desperately needed never came.
In the 80th minute, Kevin Lenini fired from about eight meters out, only to hit Andrey Lunev. In the 85th minute, Juan Boselli broke free on a one-on-one with Lunev from his own half—but the goalkeeper made a save, later admitting he was partly lucky to deflect it with his leg.
Dynamo appeared to have little at stake in this match, yet the same Lunev, while clearing the ball from his goal, gestured for his teammates to push higher and shouted, “Attack! Attack!” In stoppage time, they capitalized on Krasnodar’s desperate need for a win, and Ivan Sergeyev scored on his second attempt.
Right after that, Nikita Krivtsov collapsed face-first onto the turf, while John Cordoba, who had been arguing with officials throughout the second half, walked over to the assistant referee and shook his hand—a clear dig at the earlier incident where the referee missed a handball by Maxim Osipenko in Dynamo’s box, then awarded a goal kick instead of even a corner, as the forward had pleaded.
After conceding, Krasnodar tried to mount a comeback, but they had no energy left. Another long ball vanished into Dynamo’s defense. At the final whistle, Krasnodar’s players didn’t erupt in frustration. Perhaps some wanted to, but they had no strength left.
Many collapsed onto the pitch. Valentin Paltsev spread his arms as if asking himself, “How?!”
Krasnodar were certainly closer to victory, yet ended up with nothing.
“Unacceptable to play like that.” Why Krasnodar lost: Musayev’s perspective.
This match could cost the team the title, but head coach Murad Musayev remained composed in the press conference.
“It’s hard to speak after a game like that. We had a decent first half, scored a goal. Then a mistake in midfield. First we lost the player who made the cross, then we lost the marker in the box. We had plenty of possession and created chances—we just couldn’t finish. In the end, we took more risks and conceded a quick counterattack. I have no complaints about any of my players. Thanks to our fans, we could hear them well. Unfortunately, this is the result.”
“Many Krasnodar players were unhappy with the refereeing. What do you say about the officials’ performance?”
“I think we didn’t lose because of the refereeing.”
“Compare last year’s Krasnodar with this year’s—where is the current team stronger or weaker?”
“It’s hard to draw those parallels. I think this Krasnodar is slightly stronger. In some aspects of the game, the team hasn’t changed much. We’ve collected a lot of points both last year and this year. Every team has its own characteristics. But overall, it’s more or less the same.”
“Given how the match went, would you call this the most unfair result of your career?”
“It’s hard to talk about unfairness. First, we need to analyze the goals we conceded. It’s unacceptable to play like that. We shouldn’t let it come to moments like this, essentially a championship-deciding match. We could blame bad luck, but we’re used to looking for reasons within ourselves. Now we need to cool down a bit and review the game. There are two matches left: we still have a small chance for the title, and of course, the Cup final.”
“Was Eduard Spertsyan’s substitution because he couldn’t continue? Or did you deliberately bring on Juba to salvage the game?”
“Edik has back problems. He’s shown great character by playing through it. In the end, we wanted to apply pressure and leave physically stronger players on. We had a choice to take off Nikita [Krivtsov] or Kevin Lenini. We kept the ones who fight well, hoping to deliver the ball into the box more often.”
“Don’t you regret starting Vitor Tormena in central defense?”