Highlights of Matchday 25: Miranchuk's best run, historic end to southern derby

We’ve picked out the best from RPL matchday 25, held on 30 June and 1 July.

FC Tambov midfielder Valeriu Ciuperca took the first penalty of his professional career against Zenit. With his side 1-0 down, he slotted past Andrey Lunev in the 88th minute, only for FC Tambov to eventually lose 2-1. Sergey Pervushin’s team have finished all three matches with this scoreline since the season’s restart.

For the second time Andrey Talalaev started work at an RPL club with a draw; he has never won his debut match. In June 2011, he was saved from defeat in Tomsk with FC Rostov - his team equalised when down to 10 men - and in March 2014, he made his debut at Volga Nizhny Novgorod with 3-0 defeat against CSKA Moscow. With Krylia Sovetov Samara Talalaev was close to winning, but conceded against Lokomotiv Moscow in the fifth added minute.

Nikola Vlasic has scored three goals against Spartak during his career with CSKA. In every derby where the Croat has provided a direct goal contribution, the Armymen have not lost to the Red-Whites: a goal in September 2018 led to a 1-1 draw, an assist in April 2019 and his double on the last matchday led to 2-0 victories. Earlier this season, the Red-Blues lost to Spartak on the first matchday, and in the Russian Cup - in these games, Vlasic did not score.

All four Lokomotiv goals after the restart have been scored by Aleksey Miranchuk. This is his best scoring streak in the RPL; previously the midfielder had never scored on three matchdays in a row. The 24-year-old has had his most productive league season - with nine goals scored, he is the Railwaymen's top scorer along with Grzegorz Krychowiak.

FC Ufa and Rubin Kazan now have five draws in a row, four of them ending 0-0, including on the latest matchday. In the clash between the capitals of Bashkortostan and Tatarstan, there has not been a winner since October 2017, when Ufa won 2-1 at home. The last goals in their meetings were scored in April 2019 by Egor Sorokin, who already plays at Krasnodar, and Danil Krugovoy, who is with FC Ufa on loan from Zenit.

Sochi forward Aleksandr Kokorin took the sixth penalty of his career against Dynamo Moscow, and this was the second time in the RPL when his added-time spot kick earned his team a draw. The first occurred when he played for Dynamo themselves in October 2015, when the striker equalised in the last minutes of the game against Amkar to make it 1-1. FC Sochi extended their unbeaten streak to six matches, and Kokorin became the outright top scorer for the southerners with seven goals.

Akhmat winger Odise Roshi has now scored seven RPL goals after his double against Arsenal. His previous season record in his club career was five goals in the Albanian League in 2010/11. The Albanian has scored almost half of his goals for Akhmat (three) from the penalty spot, although before this season, he had only taken a penalty in a friendly game for a U-21 national team in 2009.

Artem Dzyuba has made 10 assists this season. After his accurate pass to Sardar Azmoun against FC Tambov, the Zenit player went top of the list of RPL assist-makers. Last season, the forward led the way in the league with 11 assists. On top of this, Dzyuba is also leading the top-scorer race, with 15 goals to his name.

For almost 14 months, Emiliano Rigoni did not score in RPL matches, until he notched the winning goal against FC Tambov. The Argentine scored his previous RPL goal on 12 May 2019 against Igor Akinfeev, immediately after coming on as a substitute, as Zenit beat CSKA 3-1 at home. In both cases, Rigoni was assisted by Artem Dzyuba. During his RPL career, the Argentine has scored four times, and after coming off the bench he has scored three times.

For the sixth FC Rostov vs FC Krasnodar match in a row, a goal was scored after the 80th minute. On the first matchday of this season, FC Krasnodar escaped a 2-0 defeat with two goals in added time, and twice scored in the last 10 minutes against FC Rostov last campaign. In the two-legged quarter-final of the 2018/19 Russian Cup, Aleksandr Gatcan's goal in the 89th minute brought Rostov a draw in the first game (2-2), and in the second meeting, the decisive goal was scored by Ivelin Popov in the 87th minute to make it 1-0. In March 2018, current FC Rostov midfielder Pavel Mamaev sealed a 3-1 win for FC Krasnodar in the last minute.

111 minutes and 15 seconds were spent on the field across both halves by FC Rostov and FC Krasnodar players as the game dragged on at the end of the second half. Referee Vitaly Meshkov stopped the match in the third minute of added time due to a suspected handball by Krasnodar defender Kaio, while three minutes later he awarded a penalty with the help of VAR. When Ivelin Popov converted it, another minute was added. There was another pause later on, when FC Rostov forward Aleksandr Dolgov clashed with FC Krasnodar goalkeeper Matvey Safonov. Now this is the longest match in the history of the RPL.

Photo: Artem Gusev/Rostov, Denis Tyrin/CSKA, Sergey Kulakov/Sochi, Anna Meyer/Zenit