Russian Cup Final
Spartak Moscow 2-1 Dynamo Moscow
Sunday 29 May, Luzhniki Stadium

Goals: Spartak - Sobolev (10), Promes (72); Dynamo - Zakharyan (55).

Old Moscow Derby came to Luzhniki to decide the Russian Cup winner. That was the first Spartak final since 2006, meanwhile Dynamo reached this stage for the first time since 2012. Both coaches chose Aleksandr Maksimenko and Igor Leshchuk as the goaltenders, they played the semi-finals earlier. Paolo Vanoli also used Aleksandr Sobolev as the only striker in the starting 11, while Sandro Schwarz selected both Fedor Smolov and Konstantin Tyukavin.

Spartak’s move gave result in the first minutes, Mikhail Ignatov led rushing Sobolev to the open space in the box, and Aleksandr put the ball under Leshchuk hand. While Spartak was celebrating, the assistant referee raised the flag calling offside, but VAR changed the decision to a goal, as Dynamo defender was closer to the net. The striker proved his hot form getting seven goals in last eight RPL/Cup matches.

Nominal hosts reached the half-time with five attempts against only one from Dynamo. But the White-Blues succeeded after the break, when Arsen Zakharyan’s shot from the distance ricocheted from Samuel Gigot and passed Maksimenko. Vanoli reacted replacing Igantov with Shamar Nicholson to have two strikers, but another substitution was forced to make, as Georgy Dzhikiya suffered an injury, and Maximiliano Caufriez entered the field. Soon Spartak stopped Dynamo attack in the box and run into the counter-attack, Sobolev provided the ball to Quincy Promes, who beat Leshchuk and brought the lead back.

Daniil Lesovoy, Vyacheslav Grulev, Denis Makarov and Nikola Moro joined the game to escape the defeat in the final minutes. In the added time Roman Evgenyev supported the attack, and he suffered elbowing from Ruslan Litvinov, couple minutes later VAR started the check, and following the video review Kirill Levnikov awarded Dynamo with penalty. Surely, Daniil Fomin took the shot again, as he never missed any in the RPL. But this time he sent the ball higher the bar, so Spartak started crazy celebrations as the new Cup holders.

Spartak won the trophy fourth time in Russian history, Dynamo lost four of five Russian Cup finals.