Despite the league’s top goal-scorer, Artem Dzyuba, starting for Rostov on Monday night, the visitors were rocked by Lokomotiv, 5-0, in the final match of Week 6. Equadorean striker Felip Caicedo gave the Railwaymen a 1-0 lead just before the break, heading home an incisive goal-line cross from Mbark Boussoufa. When Kamil Agalarov saw red in the 52th for a last-chance foul on Maicon in the box and Loko midfielder Alexander Samedov doubled the lead from the spot, Rostov’s night was over.
The pre-match gossip centered around whether the 25-year-old Dzyuba, sitting on seven goals in five matches, would be able to play. Though he admitted after the match he’s a bit banged up, Dzyuba took the field from the start. Unfortunately for coach Miodrag Bozovic, the men lined up behind Dzyuba struggled throughout the first half to get the ball to their striker.
Dmitri Kalachev, playing on the right wing, was the most active for Rostov on offense. None of his crosses, however, connected with Dzyuba or midfielder Kaku Kanga, who lurked at the edge of the box, looking for the right pass to spring free.
“The final pass wasn’t there. Dzyuba wasn’t give a chance…”, Bozhovic said following the match.
Dzyuba’s height and strength, often a major advantage against smaller teams, was largely negated by Lokomotiv center backs, Jan Durica and Vedran Corluka. Bozhovic told reporters the team planned to play more on the ground for that very reason, but tonight, neither option was working.
Rostov’s best moment of the half, and the match as a whole, came in the 31st minute. Midfielder Jano Ananidze, invisible most of the night, slotted a crisp ball from the left wing to Kalachev. Given space just in front of the box, Kalachev’s low, driving shot went a bit left of the goal.
At the other end, Lokomotiv midfielder Alexander got a chance in the 23rd. After sending a corner in the over, he got a chance at redemption when Maicon lofted the ball back from the left wing. Catching the cross in full stride, Samedov’s blast made Xulu duck in self-defense, but sailed up away and right from Rostov keeper Stipe Pletikosa’s goal.
Rostov didn’t allow Loko to run wild, with Agalarov and Lolo physical on the wings and Caicedo largely neutralized, but in the 39th the Ecuadorean got his first chance. On another well-placed ball from Maicon, Caicedo headed a foot left of the goal.
Five minutes later, the deserved goal came, as he made good in remarkably similar circumstances, this time on an assist from Boussoufa.
Despite giving up the initiative and a goal in the final 15 minutes of the 1st half, Rostov had every chance to get back in the game. But it wasn’t to be. Agalarov’s early red card and subsequent penalty doubled the deficit and practically erased Rostov’s hopes for a return.
“The moment was up to the ref’s judgment,” Agalarov would later say about the ejection.
In the 57th, Maicon tapped in an excellent cross from Denisov on the left wing to make it 3-0.
Two minutes later, Igor Lolo picked up a second yellow for his tackle on Maicon. The Ivorian defender was sent off, but not before getting in a heated argument with Caicedo. The players were eventually separated and from that point on Loko had its way with the nine-man visitors.
Vitaliy Denisov made it a trio of assists, linking up with Dmitri Tarasov in the 62nd and Roman Pavlyuchenko in the 83rd, to complete Lokomotiv’s 5-0 win.
With the loss, Rostov drop to 3rd in the table, passed up by Lokomotiv on goal differential – both clubs just one point off first-place CSKA. After returning tonight to Rostov, the club travels back to Moscow next weekend, this time to face Dynamo, the other club, in addition to Lokomotiv, that has benefited most from Anzhi’s recent sell-off.
Notes: Bozhovic was critical of Lolo’s reaction to the 2nd yellow card. “He should behave himself properly. He’s an experienced player. It wasn’t sportsmanlike from Lolo.”
Bozhovic also didn’t put much stock in the blow-out loss, agreeing that it’s better to lose once 5-0, than 5 times by a score of 1-0.
Artem Dzyuba, substituted for Amir Fatullaev in the 63rd, wasn’t overly upset by the outcome of the match. Noting that the game was even in the first half, he said it’s important for the team to regroup and get ready for the next match.
Croatian defender Hrvoje Milic and Russian forward Dmitry Poloz replaced Jano Ananidze and Kaku Kanga in the 56th, while the score was still 2-0. After Lolo’s ejection and Dzyuba’s departure, Milic dropped back on defense with Poloz the only man forward for Rostov’s very rare ventures onto the Lokomotiv half.
