“Rubin” Temporarily Became Second, Daku Lost Confidence, and Rakhimov Is Dissatisfied

Irritated Daku

“Rubin” approached the match against “Rostov” with two consecutive crushing defeats. Before the game against the team from Rostov, Rashid Rakhimov's team lost to CSKA in the championship with a score of 1:5, and then suffered a defeat against “Zenit” in the Russian Cup — 0:3. And all this after a very confident start to the season, when the Kazan team won three victories and once played a draw in four matches.

Before the game against “Rostov”, Rakhimov told the press that, despite the two defeats, the problems of his team remain the same. The main one, obviously, is the lack of newcomers. The only acquisition of the year is defender Denil Maldonado, who joined in the summer. But the Honduran has not made his debut for “Rubin” for a month yet, the South American is still recovering from an ankle injury.

In the match against “Rostov”, Maldonado again remained out of the squad. At the same time, the coaching staff made only one rearrangement in the starting lineup, replacing Alexandar Jukić. Instead, Bogdan Jojić came out from the first minutes, who has slightly lost his positions gained at the end of the last season.

On the contrary, Mirлинд Daku still continues to play on the острие. News of foreign clubs' interest in him became active again last week. This time, a top club is interested in the Albanian — Italian “Fiorentina”. So far, it's all just talk, and Daku himself looked a little irritated at the start of the game against “Rostov”.

Kabotov's Goal Is the Winning One

But even such an irritated Daku is able to create danger near the opponent's goal, which the striker once again proved in the first half against “Rostov”. The Albanian beat the defender in the penalty area in the 35th minute and hit the post. This moment triggered a series of potential scoring opportunities for “Rubin”.

A couple of minutes later, Kazan served another corner, which the guests managed to handle. In the 42nd minute, Ivu got some space, but his shot was handled by goalkeeper Rustam Yatimov. Veldin Khoda could have scored right away, but the defender blocked it.

Nothing changed after the break. “Rubin” continued to press on the Rostov team's goal. The players of “Rostov” looked lost, it seemed that they had forgotten to come out for the second half. Such passive football led the guests to their first missed goal. Kazan executed a corner, after which the ball bounced to Dmitry Kabutov, who then scored past Yatimov — 1:0.

Only Ronaldo stood out among the guests. It was thanks to his efforts that the Rostov team could equalize the score. First, the Brazilian almost took advantage of Yevgeny Staver's mistake, but the Kazan goalkeeper took the ball in hand in time. Then, after Ronaldo's shot, the ball flew slightly wide of the target. And, as they say, «that's that». Rostov did not look like a team that needed to make a comeback. It was more likely that Rubin could increase the score difference than the guests could score a goal in response.

Rubin is second, for now

The minimal score should not be misleading. The Kazan team was superior to their opponent in every way. The only thing is that Rubin failed to make use of their chances. This is despite the fact that Daku had an unimpressive game. In many ways, Rostov helped by putting up another faceless performance. A couple more such matches, and the Rostov team might consider changing their coach. Jonathan Alba is not impressive yet.

Rubin, on the other hand, rose to the interim second place in the championship. The Kazan team scored ten points in the first five rounds and are second only to Lokomotiv, which has not lost in the RPL in the current season. Krasnodar and CSKA are also higher in terms of lost points, but they have a match in hand.

Rakhimov at the press conference was not in the clouds. According to the coach, the interim second place should not relax the team. The result is certainly good, but only five rounds have passed so far and it's too early to draw conclusions.

“Any winning score probably suits. We understood that it would be a tough game because “Rostov” is a fairly mobile team. We still created our chances. Unfortunately, we only converted one. The victory is based on character, it's a hard-fought one. The second place? I don't pay attention to it. It won't always be like this, we try to squeeze the maximum out of all matches. Our game is easy to read, I look at the situation realistically, the second place doesn't concern me," Rakhimov said.

“Rubin” (Kazan) — “Rostov” (Rostov-on-Don) — 1:0 (0:0, 1:0)
Goals:
1:0 — 51, Kabutov (Ivu)

Meanwhile, Rakhimov's team has forgotten how to lose at their home stadium. The unbeaten streak of the “rubies” at the “Ak Bars Arena” is already 14 games in a row. The next match “Rubin” will hold on August 23 in Kazan against “Spartak”, the beginning is at 14:00 Moscow time.