Our team with a minimum score lost to Volgar in the first round of MELBET First League.

The season premiere in Astrakhan carried many confrontations and subtexts. Vitaly Panov, who worked for Volgar for about nine years and brought him to the World’s Best League, together with his assistants Yuri Yukhnevich and Dmitry Klimov, first came out against the former team. Artyom Delkin, Akron’s top scorer in matches at the professional level, barraged at the edge as part of the opponent.

The match was in the evening, but the almost forty-degree heat that had settled in the region even forced the organizers to measure the temperature near the central circle. The rivals did not present any big surprises in the starting lineup. The only thing that everyone immediately noticed was the absence not only in the squad, but also in the application of the best FNL goalkeeper of the last season for perfect rescues, Sergei Volkov, who did not go to Astrakhan for medical reasons. Alil Magomedov made his debut at the gate.

In the first half, the hosts outplayed Akron on scoring chances and were able to score an early goal. Ilya Stefanovich closed the serve from a free kick in the 12th minute. In one episode, the barbell rescued the guests. In general, our team played more as the first number, tried to break into Volgar’s defensive redoubts, but the Red-Blacks rarely got close to the final phase. After a break and a number of substitutions, Akron showed total dominance in segments, but we did not manage to bring the approaches to the Smirnov gate to their logical conclusion.

MATCH PROTOCOL: Volgar (Astrakhan) – Akron (Togliatti) 1:0 (1:0)

Goal: 1:0 Stefanovic (12)

Volgar (Astrakhan): Smirnov, Loktionov, Vedernikov, Kozlov, Gavrilovich (Pechyonkin, 77), Pavlishin, Talalay, Stefanovich (Lesnikov, 64), Butenko (Nosov, 64), Ageev (Bragin, 77), Delkin (Tsarukyan) , 72)

Akron (Tolyatti): Magomedov, Zuev, Rogach, Chudin (Bazelyuk, 72), Kilin (Shakuro, 61), Savichev, Makarov (Azarov, 61), Pesegov (Poluboyarinov, 46), Palienko (Sagutkin, 85), Marukhin, Giraev

Yellow cards: Poluboyarinov (90, foul play), Smirnov (90, unsportsmanlike conduct), Lesnikov (90, unsportsmanlike conduct)

Referee: Shafeev (Volgograd)

July 17th. Astrakhan. Stadium “Central”. 1079 fans.