Dynamo finally scored against Zenit in Novogorsk and won a historic victory!

This summer is not so sunny and bright for Dynamo. Yes, hot, yes, suffocating, but all this with minor shades. First of all, because of the results. Starting with a cool, thoroughbred, on the skill of winning the match with Lokomotiv at the RZD Arena, then the blue and white only upset and upset themselves.

Zeros in Ryazan, departure from the Winline of the Russian Cup in Samara already in the first round of the tournament, which has not happened with the Dynamo Housing and Communal Services since the foundation of the club, finally, another, already the fourth, consecutive defeat in the derby with Spartak in the last round. And all this against the background of the scoring drought of Alexander Katasonov's team – in all these three matches, the blue and white could not hit the goal of their rivals even once. By the way, such a long series of games without scoring goals has never happened during the club's performance at the highest level either.

Here, almost immediately, a few days after the loss to Spartak, an equally sad event happened – the blue and white midfielder Elina Samoilova announced the end of her playing career. This season, the player has played 12 games for the blue and white, in which she scored three goals. The last match played by Samoilova for Dynamo was just the meeting of the 13th round of the Winline Super League against the Ryazan-VDV Housing and Communal Services (0:0). In total, the 30-year-old footballer played 38 matches for Dynamo, scored 8 goals and made 2 assists.

— My Dynamo career is coming to an end and in professional football — almost a year and a half, which gave me a lot. There was everything: victories, defeats, strong emotions, and people I will definitely remember for a long time.

This is quite a difficult decision for me, but I understand that now I need to make it. I am grateful to everyone I have worked with here. Thanks to the girls, the staff, the fans. I'm leaving with experience and with the belief that there will only be better ahead," Elina herself told about her difficult decision.

The departure of one of the team leaders happened right between two super matches: with Spartak and Zenit, with whom our team was to meet this Saturday in the same Novogorsk. Did the Dynamo football players themselves have faith that it would be better ahead?

Only the game could show this.

The beginning in the performance of both teams turned out to be unexpectedly calm and in this sense even unexpected. In all previous matches, Zenit always started aggressively and from the very first minutes tried to prove its status not just as a favorite of a single match, but as one of the leaders of the championship. This time, Olga Ordina's team did not succeed from the very debut of the meeting. Perhaps the ardor of the players was cooled by heavy rain, which began almost immediately after the starting whistle.

Anyway, the first dangerous moment in the game happened only in the 18th minute. But what a! After the hustle and bustle in the Dynamo penalty area, the ball bounced to Zenit midfielder Beatrice Gomez, who without hesitation hit the blue and white goal and hit the crossbar exactly! The ball, fortunately for Dynamo, immediately went behind the front.

And, perhaps, nothing more interesting and dangerous happened in the first half. Yes, there were still moments for the guests from the banks of the Neva, especially dangerous, probably, was the half-weight-half-stroke of Ekaterina Pantyukhina, when the ball whistled centimeters past the far post of the Dynamo goal. Dynamo football players can only be distinguished by two passes of Yulia Bessolova to the gates of Zenit, but these outings of the captain of the blue and white cannot even be called potentially scoring.

So in general, the teams did not create anything super dangerous in the first half. What, in fact, was witnessed by the whistle of the chief referee of the match, Ksenia Goryacheva, immediately after the end of the main time of the first half – the referee did not have to add a minute to the half of the match played.

The second half started traditionally for our team – with substitutions. This time, the coaching staff of the blue and white made three changes in the composition at once: Instead of Basaeva, Digurova and Sas, Kaylan Williams, Maria Galai and Helena Bojic appeared on the field. And incredibly – it almost worked already in the first seconds of the second half!

It was the American striker who got a great chance to open the account – but Zenit goalkeeper Natalya Voskobovich came to the penalty line in time and eliminated the danger that arose. But the start of the second half turned out to be promising, first of all, for our team.

Although, as before, more moments were created by guests from St. Petersburg. Here again, from the left edge, either she was hanging, or Pantyukhina was hitting – the ball, after a ricochet from Diana Ponomareva's hand, hit the inside of the far post and bounced into the hands of the Dynamo goalkeeper. Needless to say, a curious goal could have turned out, but frankly our team was lucky in this episode. Then, somehow improbably, Zenit's newcomer Nina Mateyich got through the Dynamo defensive ranks and could send the ball to any corner of the Dynamo goal, but the attacker didn't have enough strength to strike.

It seemed that a little more and Zenit, as it happened before, would achieve its goal and open an account in the game. But Anastasia Shlapakova, who had replaced her compatriot Anastasia Kovaleva three minutes earlier, did not want to agree with this. The Belarusian received a pass from Isidora Vuchkovich, sneaked into the penalty area with him, beat the defender on the way and from the corner of the goalkeeper perfectly cut the ball into the far corner past Voskobovich. An incredible goal and the same seemingly incredible scenario of the match!

But the main thing, in fact, happened next – after such a goal, our girls did not close all the locks, but only got inspired and continued to attack. It became clear that the Dynamo football players started playing, which means that you can develop success!

However, the very fact that in such a peak situation for Zenit, the dynamos took control of the course of the game and calmly defended themselves against numerous attacks by Zenit football players already testified that our girls would not remain empty-handed after this game.

Of course, in such a match and with such a score, the ending could not fail to turn out fiery. The completion of this match in Novogorsk was no exception. The blue-white-blues threw all their strength to save the game, in this case to score at least one goal. And they did it... twice! But – both goals in the last minutes were not counted by the same Goryacheva, who in both cases fixed fouls in the attack of Zenit players.

When it happened for the second time, on the 5th (!) added minute, it became clear that our girls would not give up this game! The final whistle was drowned in the jubilant shouts of the Dynamo bench and the traditional chants of the blue and white fans in the stands.

1:0 – the first victory of Dynamo over Zenit at the highest level! And a bonus – the team finally interrupted a three-match series without goals.

For full information about the starting lineups and the events of the meeting, see the match center.