Glushenkov shines in Orenburg to bring Krylia great start

RPL Matchday 1
FC Orenburg 2-4 Krylia Sovetov Samara
Saturday 16 July, Gazovik Stadium, Rostoshi, Orenburg Region

Goals: Orenburg - Tsypchenko (OG 31), Ayupov (83); Krylia Sovetov - Ezhov (49), Glushenkov (54, 72), Yakuba (84)
Man of the Match: Maksim Glushenkov (Krylia Sovetov)

RPL came back to Orenburg after two years, as Marcel Licka’s team hosted young band from Samara, who promoted to the league last year and jumped to the top eight. Orenburg kept most players, who earned a promotion through relegation play-off games against Ufa, only Ivan Basic and Stepan Oganesyan were the newcomers in the starting 11, also Dmitry Vorobyev came back from Sochi loan.

Igor Osinkin’s side lost RPL best assistant Anton Zinkovsky and team’s top scorer Vladislav Sarveli, so it opened the door to the roster for last season reserve Dmitry Tsypchenko and Sergey Pinyaev. Tsypchenko missed couple of chances in the attack, and unfortunately his touch from the corner kick led to the own goal, which gave a lead to Orenburg. When the second half started, Maksim Glushenkov’s time began. He assisted Roman Ezhov to score an equalizer, later it took him almost 20 minutes to get a brace, which included a perfect long shot into the top corner.

Both teams used more new players, and while Orenburg put Argentinian striker Bryan Mansilla, Vladimir Khubulov made his Krylia debut. The hosts cut the lead after Ivan Lomaev’s mistake and Timur Ayupov’s capitalizing the chance, but just a minute later Denis Yakuba finished his run with another goal bringing Samara a win.

Next RPL fixtures: Friday 22 July - Zenit vs Krylia Sovetov; Saturday 23 July - Orenburg vs Ural