The blue and white team earned the most important three points and caught up with Lokomotiv Moscow in the table.
The match of the 17th round of Dynamo against Zenit St. Petersburg became the key for our team. In case of failure, the blue and white team remained lagging behind the capital's Lokomotiv before the face-to-face meeting a week later.
The game really turned out to be difficult. The guests from St. Petersburg looked even better than the Dynamo team in the first half of the meeting. At least the moments they created were really dangerous and could have brought Zenit forward, if not for the magnificent and sometimes incredible saves of Arina Taranchenko. More than once, the Dynamo goalkeeper saved her team from imminent goals.
And if both teams failed to do this in the first half, then in the second the fans and spectators fully enjoyed football in Novogorsk. Less than ten minutes after the resumption of the game, the goals fell one after another.
As if continuing what was started in the first half, the Zenit youth team entered the Dynamo gate and began to actively fire at them. One of the moments became fatal for the blue and white - the ball, after a cross from the right flank, found the head of the ex–Dynamo player Anastasia Gnennaya, who accurately sent it to the near corner and opened the account.
We must pay tribute to Oleg Gusev's team – the girls did not give up and immediately equalized the score. Anastasia Kovaleva dribbled through half of the Zenit defense and in the end also punched goalkeeper Victoria Ivanova -Merciless – 1:1!
The most important ball inspired the blue and white and they finally seized the initiative, forcing the guests from the banks of the Neva to give up the ball and move to their half of the field. This tactic made itself felt very quickly. In the 63rd minute, after the hustle and bustle and a series of ricochets in the penalty area of Zenit, the ball very successfully bounced to Ekaterina Sergeeva, who without thinking twice sent it into the opponents' goal – 2:1!
The remaining half hour was spent in the struggle and periodic counterattacks of one and the other team. There was even a third goal of Dynamo – but the capture of the blue-white-blue gates performed by the debutante of the Dynamo youth team Milena Lyubimova was canceled due to the position outside the game.
At the very end, already in the added time, Arina Taranchenko made another rescue, which saved the goal from the goal and brought Dynamo such a difficult and important victory over Zenit.
In a week we will have a super battle at Sapsan Arena – the two leaders of the Youth League standings will meet in a face-to-face duel to identify the sole leader, and possibly the future champion!
For full information about the starting lineups and the events of the meeting, see the match center.
The next match of Dynamo U-21 will be played on September 21 in Moscow – against the youth team of FC Lokomotiv at Sapsan Arena. The meeting starts at 12:00 Moscow time.
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