Sunday, April 27, 2014

Rostov 1-1 Anzhi: Two very different halves lead to fair draw

Rostov were the better side in the first half, while Anzhi took advantage of Alexandru Gatcan's dismissal to overrun the hosts in the second half, leading to a fair 1-1 draw.

football formationsRostov had to contend with Timofey Kalachev and Guelor Kanga Kaku's suspensions, and thus started Georgi Gabulov in Kaku's place behind Artem Dzyuba. To fill Kalachev's spot, Zhano Ananidze was shifted to the right, Hrvoje Milic was pushed up to the left wing and Timofey Margasov filled in at left back. Anzhi also had missing players, with Oleksandr Aliev and Karlen Mkrtchyan both injured, so Makhach Gadzhiev and Ilya Maksimov started for the visitors.

Neither side started particularly well, but Rostov were arguably the better side in the early minutes as Ananidze dictated play, and it was only the profligacy of Artem Dzyuba that prevented them from going up after just five minutes. Azim Fatullaev fired one wide from outside of the box about ten minutes later, but ultimately the next major chance was the one that gave Rostov the lead. Gabulov went down easily under pressure from Gadzhiev in the box and a penalty was awarded to the hosts. It was a soft call, and Dzyuba's resulting effort was similarly weak but enough to get the job done. Rostov then continued to have the better of the chances, but didn't really come close for the remainder of the half. Anzhi similarly had a few chances, but failed to threaten heavily and, as a result, Rostov went into the break ahead.

Anzhi came out after the interval with all guns blazing and dominated the first ten minutes of the second half. Rostov looked to get back into the game after that time, but all of the wind was taken out of their sails when Alexandru Gatcan was shown a second yellow and sent off. Anzhi almost capitalised on their man advantage just four minutes later, but had a goal disallowed in comical fashion. Vladimir Bystrov had a deflected shot dribbling across the line, but the offside Fyodor Smolov tapped it in from point blank range, leading to the goal being unnecessarily disallowed. The visitors had to wait another quarter of an hour for their actual equaliser, when a scramble in the Rostov box allowed substitute Diniyar Bilyaletdinov to fire home. Anzhi kept pressing, but Rostov were all over every attacking effort the visitors could launch and ultimately managed to hold on for a point at home.

Man of the Match: Arseni Logashov
Logashov bombed down Rostov's right flank to account for Ananidze's drifting inside, and was incredibly effective at controlling that side of the pitch for the first half. When required to defend after Gatcan's dismissal, he protected Rostov's goal as well as could possibly be expected.

Honourable Mentions:
Diniyar Bilyaletdinov - Came off the bench and scored the equaliser, but was otherwise largely invisible.
Zhano Ananidze - Drifted inside off the right flank constantly and dictated all of Rostov's play in the first half, but didn't really have any impact defending in the second.

Notes:
- Ananidze and Logashov was a great pairing down Rostov's right side, as Ananidze drifted in and pulled markers inside to give Logashov more room for his huge runs.
- Both of Gatcan's yellows were completely fair and Rostov's fans can have no complaints about the dismissal.
- The disallowed Anzhi goal was absolutely hilarious. Bystrov was furious in the aftermath, and justifiably so. There was no need for Smolov to even go near it.

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