FC Ufa – FC Krasnodar – 1:1 (0:0)
Goals: Fomin, 49 (Igboun, 1:0), Mamayev, 51 (Sigurðsson, 1:1).
FC Ufa: Narubin, Safronidi, Katsalapov, Nikitin (Semakin, 35), Paurević, Sukhov, Zaseyev (Frimpong, 45+2), Fomin, Stotskiy (Galiullin, 77), Igboun, Pourié.
FC Krasnodar: Sinitsyn, Petrov, Granqvist, Sigurðsson, Kaleshin (Jędrzejczyk, 41), Strandberg, Kaboré, Ahmedov (Wánderson, 59), Mamayev, Bystrov (Gazinskiy, 78), Smolov.
Yellow cards: Frimpong, 72 (unsporting behaviour), Fomin, 81 (attack breakdown), Safronidi, 90+4 (unsporting behaviour) – Granqvist, 57 (foul play), Jędrzejczyk, 87 (foul play).
Red cards: Frimpong, 84 (2nd yellow card, foul play).
Referees: Vilkov (Nizhny Novgorod), Sukhoverov (Воронеж), Shiryaev (Stavropol).
4 October. Ufa. Neftyanik Stadium. Cloudy. 7 degrees. 5 000 spectators.
Only two days and 16 and a half hours had passed since the full-time of the UEFA Europa League home match of FC Krasnodar vs. Gabala FK, and now the black-greens had to start a new one. The players led by Oleg Kononov made a distant trip to the capital of Bashkiria taking to the artificial turf of the local Neftyanik Stadium for the Russian Football Championship clash against FC Ufa.
An abrupt double transition, from summer in Krasnodar to autumn in Ufa and from a natural pitch to the artificial one, was not easy for the Bulls. Even though the visitors took a firm hold of the territory from the very kick-off, the first shot on goal of the match belonged to the Ufa team when Stotskiy made Sinitsyn enter the game seriously.
The home team entrenched themselves in front of their goal from the very beginning of the match, so the Krasnodar players found it hard to break through their most saturated defense. Still, from time to time some sharp moment did occur next to the Narubin’s domain. On the 17th minute Mamayev tested his luck with a shot from 20 meters sending the ball over the top corner of the Ufa goal. 5 minutes later a clear one-on-one situation with the keeper was organized by Ahmedov for Bystrov with a classy pass from the depth of the field, but Vladimir took a strong shot directly into Narubin from a handbreadth away. In the attack that followed the No. 18 of FC Krasnodar had another good chance to score an opener. This time Bystrov tried to throw the ball over the keeper, but the latter twigged the game of the striker and took the ball away.
As the game neared the half-time it became more equal and calmed down a bit, but both team bosses were made to carry out forced substitutions anyway. Kaleshin of FC Krasnodar left the pitch for Jędrzejczyk after sustaining an injury while the home team made two rearrangements to their lineup at once; Nikitin was changed by Semakin after he had started limping a bit, and Frimpong came in instead of seriously injured Zaseyev who had been carried off pitch on a stretcher.
The second half started with a phenomenal shot from afar by Semyon Fomin of FC Ufa; the ball followed an incredible path, as if it had been launched with a sling, going into the top corner of the away goal after bouncing from the goalpost. Nevertheless, the Krasnodar players were not cast down for too long with this event as no more than 2 minutes passed when they scored an equalizer. Pavel Mamayev took a shot on the turn; the ball rebounded from Paurević and went straight into the net with no chance for Narubin to save it.
After this exchange of goals the Ufa team partly came out of their defensive shell, so the game itself became much more open and rapid with mutual scoring chances. At the same time, having fielded fresh Wánderson and Gazinskiy by turns, FC Krasnodar kept on displaying a better ball possession than their opponents.
The home team ended this match with 10 of their players remaining on a pitch as Frimpong got a yellow card at first for the unsporting behaviour, and then he almost kicked Kabore’s head of his shoulders receiving the second yellow card that immediately turned into a red one. On the 89th minute FC Krasnodar had a super chance to snatch the victory away. Narubin coped with an aimed shot taken by Wánderson at first; Petrov was the first one for the second ball redirecting it to Gazinskiy, but Yury failed to get the ball into the net. A minute later Petrov himself attempted a shot from within the box sending the ball a bit over the target. As a result, FC Ufa managed to hold firm, so the Bulls brought only a single point from the capital of Bashkiria.