Noboa hit two of three penalties to bring Sochi back on winning ways

RPL Matchday 7
FC Sochi 4-1 FC Khimki
Friday 26 August, Fisht Central Stadium, Sochi

Goals: Sochi – Noboa (pen 15; pen 45+3), Melkadze (45+8), Sarveli (86); Khimki – Meschaninov (OG 58).
Mab of the Match: Timofey Margasov (Sochi)

Last season RPL runners-up came home getting one point of six on the road, and they did not give many chances to Khimki to escape with any point. First strike came with penalty, as Timofey Margasov suffered elbowing from Aleksandr Filin, and Christian Noboa scored again from the spot. Despite bleeding Margasov stayed on the pitch and changed his shirt twice during the first half, he could even score, but missed the empty net and hit the post. Lately he was hooked in the box again, and Noboa got the brace from another penalty, it tied him with Quincy Promes, the leader of league scorers’ race, on six goals. Sochi advantage became more impressive when Georgy Melkadze tipped the ball from Sergey Terekhov assist.

As it happened a week earlier, Sochi let the opponents to get the goal from the set piece, and again Artem Meschaninov was the latest person touched the ball, so he was written in the protocol as own goal scorer for the second straight game. Aleksandr Lomovitsky and Reziuan Mirzov entered the field only in the second half, and Lomovitsky missed great chance to get closer, as the ball went wide. Vladislav Sarveli earned third penalty for Sochi, so Noboa could earn a hat-trick, but he sent the ball to the bar. So Sarveli put the final score himself reaching the ball from Nikita Burmistrov’s assist.

Sochi tie both Spartak and CSKA on 13 points, as Moscow sides will play their fixtures lately, while Khimki stay ninth with seven points.

Next RPL fixtures: Saturday 3 September – Orenburg vs Khimki, Krasnodar vs Sochi