Dynamo lost to Rubin for the first time in Kazan

The trip to Kazan became for Dynamo, like the previous match with the Samara Wings of the Soviets, another test at the start of the season. The blue and white team arrived on the banks of the Volga River with the clear intention of interrupting a series of games without scoring goals, which by that time had already reached four meetings out of six held.

Moreover, the statistics of personal meetings were completely on the side of Muscovites: in the six previous face–to-face matches, Dynamo invariably won - both at home and away.

The Kazan club itself approached the home game in the status of the most active participant in the transfer market — in the off-season, ten new players joined the team of Evgeny Portnov at once, the most serious updates occurred in the midfield and attack lines. At the same time, despite the large-scale restructuring, Rubin was able to gain a foothold in the table above Dynamo, having four times as many goals scored and scoring on average more than a goal per game (eight in seven matches).

The viscous pressing football, which the Kazan women show, has already brought them four draws. And so far there are fewer victories than defeats – just one victory against two defeats.

So, we can say that two different philosophies converged on the Kazan lawn: the organized defense of Rubin, which this season aimed at the top 7, and the desire of Dynamo to regain its attacking power and maintain one hundred percent victory rate in the history of confrontation with the Kazan club.

Fans had the right to expect goals from both teams – in five of the six face-to-face meetings, both scored.

Our team came to the game with several notable changes in the lineup. So, Angelina Golik entered the field for the first time for the main team, Nadezhda Koltakova returned to the center of defense after being disqualified, and Maria Galai brought Dynamo football players to the field with the captain's armband.

The beginning of the meeting was left to the owners of the field. Already in the starting five minutes, Kazanki delivered two shots on target to Anastasia Ananyeva, and by the 8th minute they had already carried out four full-fledged attacks that ended with strikes. Dynamovki looked modest in the opening of the meeting, only managing to get close to the gates of Rubin a couple of times. In the 13th minute, Ksenia Alpatova checked Ananyeva's vigilance with a tight shot from the penalty area, but our goalkeeper confidently fixed the ball.

Contrary to the logic of the starting minutes, it was the blue and white who opened the account. In the 14th minute, Galai threw the ball out of the out to Anastasia Shlapakova, who took it, turned around and executed an accurate feed to the center of the penalty area. Daniela Basaeva turned out to be the quickest there, who sent the ball into the net with her head in the fight to get ahead of everyone – 1:0!

However, the missed goal did not embarrass the hostesses. Rubin continued the pressure and over the next few minutes created two one hundred percent chances, in one of which our team was saved by the crossbar. In the 23rd minute it became obvious that Dynamo needed to move the game away from their goal, but the pressure of Rubin still brought results. In the 24th minute, after a corner kick from Nuriy Ulyanin, in a fight with Anastasia Shlapakova, she equalized the score with her head – 1:1.

The Dynamo coaching staff, clearly dissatisfied with what was happening on the field, reacted with substitutions in the first half. In the 33rd minute, Milena Lyubimova took the field instead of Lamunat Mustafayeva. The game calmed down a little, but then there was a forced pause due to the injury of Tatyana Danilochkina, who needed the help of the medical staff. Soon the first yellow cards were shown – Ksenia Alpatova and Maria Galai.

And in the 43rd minute, the Dynamo coaching staff made a second substitution: Tatyana Danilochkina gave way on the field to Varvara Demidova. It seemed that the teams would go for a break with a draw, but on the second of the three added minutes, the confusion in our penalty area ended with an accurate strike by midfielder Alina Zainutdinova. Kazanki took the lead just before the break – and this was the end of the difficult first half.

During the break, Dynamo had another change: Zelka Belovan replaced Anna Chudilina in the center of defense. Dynamo needed to recoup, so at the beginning of the half the blue and white scored a series of fouls, and then created a real pile on the gates of Rubin. In the 55th minute, our team literally lacked centimeters to push the ball into the net – Kristina Komissarova missed the ball in a killer situation. In the 59th minute Basaeva struck well, but the ball hit the outside of the net.

In the 64th minute, our team created two more moments: first, Yulia Myasnikova shot inaccurately from the penalty line, and then Anastasia Shlapakova, after Angelina Golik's pass, hit the far corner, but the ball passed centimeters from the goal.

Rubin, in turn, switched to a counterattacking game, focusing on maintaining the winning score. But, despite the defensive tactics, it was the Cossacks who were closer to scoring the third goal. In the 81st minute, striker Liana Yukhaeva missed the ball, being almost alone in front of Anastasia Ananyeva. Two minutes later, Dynamo was saved by the crossbar after a long-range strike, which our goalkeeper could no longer cope with. And in the 87th minute, Victoria Dergousova, after a verified transfer, hit almost from the goalkeeper, but missed.

At the end of the meeting, Dynamo tried to use standard positions to save the game, but Rubin's defense acted calmly and reliably. The three minutes added to the main time did not change the final result – 2:1 in favor of the Kazan team.

The final whistle recorded the first-ever defeat of Dynamo from Rubin Kazan.

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