Borisko on the kingdom: the new goalkeeper helped CSKA win the derby against Spartak

The main derby of the 12th round of the Russian Premier League ended with the victory of the army team over Spartak (2:0). One of the heroes of the meeting was Maxim Borisko, who made his first appearance for CSKA in the Russian championship and kept the goal intact thanks to several spectacular saves. The success allowed the red and blue team to return to the top three. Zenit took the first place, which, thanks to two penalties, beat Dynamo Makhachkala (2:0) and took advantage of the misfire of Dagestan's Moscow teammates in the match with Akron.

CSKA Moscow — Spartak

It was a rare case in recent years when both teams approached a face-to-face meeting, simultaneously being at the top of the table and near the first place. Therefore, the most fundamental opposition of the RPL also gained a tournament meaning. CSKA took a radical step and replaced the goalkeeper in the starting lineup.

Thus, Maxim Borisko played for the Army team for the first time in the championship. Previously, he played for the red and blue in the Russian Cup, having fully played all the past four matches of the group stage of the "RPL Paths".

In the championship, the 26-year-old goalkeeper last played in July in the first round, back for Baltika Kaliningrad. Moreover, he played away against CSKA. Then the Army team won 2-1, but it was thanks to Borisko's rescues that the Kaliningraders avoided a major defeat. However, the red and blue showed interest in the goalkeeper before that.

As a result, shortly after that match, Maxim moved to a new club, where long-time captain Igor Akinfeev was out for a long time due to injury. His young reserve Vladislav Torop has been confirming his promising status for more than one season and played a significant role in CSKA's victory in the Russian Cup the season before last.

But in Akinfeev's absence, the club decided to play it safe and hire another goalkeeper. This did not prevent Torop from playing in the first 11 rounds of the championship. But his mistake in the last derby with Dynamo (1:3) led to Borisko being put up against Spartak.

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However, at first it seemed that CSKA's success in the derby did not depend on the goalkeeper's personality. They took the lead in the first minute thanks to Kirill Glebov. And in the 24th minute, Tamerlan Musaev, who had not scored for a long time, doubled the advantage of the army. Otherwise, Dmitry Igdisamov's team had an overwhelming advantage in the first half. They did not slow down after the break, but towards the end of the meeting they began to sag.

And after the 70th minute, Spartak began to crush the opponent. Borisko had to step in here. Several of his crazy saves prevented the red-Whites from even regaining the intrigue in the match, narrowing the gap in the score, and CSKA from avoiding the hassle in the last minutes.

As a result, the Army team is third and only two points behind the first place. Spartak is already in fourth place and four points behind the leader, which so far looks like a failure for a club that has conducted one of the most expensive transfer campaigns in the RPL in recent years.

Zenit — Dynamo (Makhachkala)

The Dagestani club has not won since the beginning of September and scored only one point in the championship in the last five rounds. Dynamo is still keeping the groundwork that it earned as a result of a successful summer start. But it's already running out, and the Makhachkala team is gradually sinking closer to the transition zone.

The trip to St. Petersburg also did not turn out to be anything good for Vadim Evseev's wards. Zenit, after the misfires of its competitors, was ready to regain its leadership. The blue-white-blues have not been on the first line in the current championship yet — the last time they took it was at the end of the 30th round of the last draw, when they took gold.

At first, Sergei Semak's team might have had problems when they received a penalty in their own goal in the 16th minute. But Miro missed the goal. This will largely determine the outcome of the meeting, since in general the whole match was marked by who is better at taking the penalty.

There were only four of them — one in favor of Makhachkala, and Zenit scored three times. However, until the middle of the second half, the guests avoided mistakes in their penalty area and kept the zeros on the scoreboard. But then, twice in 15 minutes, the referee ordered 11-meter shots at Nikita Karabashev's goal.

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Felipe Augusto and Maxim Glushenkov scored them, which brought Zenit victory. In the last seconds of the match, he once again got the right to a penalty, but Karabashev deflected both a shot from Kevin Andrade's point and a finishing shot from Daniil Kondakov.

Zenit is now in the lead, two points ahead of Dynamo Moscow and CSKA. Makhachkala residents have already dropped to 10th place and are only two points ahead of the transition zone. Dynamo Moscow, which had come out on top a round earlier, quickly lost its positions, losing 1-3 to Tolyatti Akron in the last round, which managed to get out of the transition zone.

Moscow's Lokomotiv remained in it, losing to Rostov (0:2), and Akhmat Grozny, who lost at home to Orenburg (0:1). There was a scandal in the confrontation between the Voronezh Fakel and the Moscow Rodina, who were in last place in the relegation zone: the capital club won an away victory thanks to a controversial penalty kick against the Voronezh team and broke away from them by three points. Fakel is now five points behind the transition zone.

Krasnodar and Baltika's winless streak has grown to six matches. It also lasted in the face-to-face match between these teams, where Krasnodar, who had recently been leading in the RPL, allowed Kaliningrad to equalize in the last minutes and, following a 1-1 draw, was four points behind the leading Zenit.

In another match of the last round, Rubin Kazan lost at home to Krylia Sovetov Samara (0:2) and fired their head coach, Spaniard Franck Artiga.