On Wednesday, "Sheriff" had to make the 2-nd trip during the last 5 days to the north, at that time to Rybnitsa, on the field of local "Iskra- Stal". It would seem that there wasn't anything supernatural - the first match of the 1/4 Moldova Cup, the team of average abilities. But there was just one snag to it. A couple of weeks ago the Championship match between these teams on the field of Rybnitsa led to the sensational result - "Iskra-Stal" beat "yellow-black" for the 1-st time in their history. There appeared some thoughts about the crisis in Leonid Kuchuk's team. While Vlad Goyan was accepting celebrations, the players of "Sheriff" denied the crisis and assured the fans that it was the pure accident. Words are just words, and the time came to confirm it by actions and, undoubtedly, in this match they managed to do it. But about all this one after another.
"Sheriff" approached the match in Rybnitsa not in absolute physical fitness - the match calendar had affected on that, in particular, "yellow-black" spent much energy in the match against "Olympia" Beltsy. Obviously, it could explain the lack of goal-scoring opportunities after half an hour of the game. There was such impression as if the teams were looking narrowly at each other. "Sheriff" was keeping the game under its control but it didn't reach the final phase of attacks. Erokhin on his position of the centre forward was playing sharp. But on the 32-nd minute he was injured and Picusciac was fielded. The red-haired forward is out of luck this season. He didn't manage to score any goal during the last seven matches. Nevertheless, he parted from this so-called "record" by the 35th minute. And the goal was brewing.
Everything began with that Arbanas closely shot from 20 metres, Gaiducevici was helpless but "Iskra-Stal" defender swept the ball away from the goal line by his header. There Picusciac was on scoring. He had no choice but to net the goal. The score became 0-1 but "Iskra-Stal" didn't hurry up to win back. It seemed that Vlad Goyan's team prepared their home trump card. Later, at the post-match press-conference, "Iskra-Stal" head coach said they were going to score the goal due to the set piece and they paid for that.
The beginning of the second half time took an unexpected turn - Hausi (on the 1-st photo) was shown a red card because of the foul of the last hope against Arbanas. As Balima, the forward of "yellow-black", mentioned on the press conference after the match, after this sending away it became more difficult for the visitors to play. It was such impression that "the spark would become the fire" soon. But it was only the impression. In fact, Vlad Goyan's team didn't manage to show anything sharp. "Sheriff" continued to keep the game under its control, on the 70th minutes, at first Balima with his far shot nearly caught unawares Gaiducevici, but the ball passed in centimetres from the far post. Then Picusciac led Gorodetchi in the one-on-one situation, but the latter slowed down and came off the loser in that moment. "Iskra-Stal" decided to score the goal from the free kick that failed. But the counterattack of "Sheriff" gave the result. Picusciac moved forward on the right wing, passed the ball toward the near post to Gorodetchi who missed it and then on the far post Negrut had no choice but to score the goal (the 2-nd photo). At the post-match press conference Vlad Goyan looked disappointed. Obviously, he understood that his team wouldn't be able to score 3 goals to "Sheriff" in Tiraspol at this stage. FC "Sheriff" assistant coach Andrei Sasnitsky noticed the good scoring potential of his team before the return match. Well, we will be waiting for the final result of this duel, that finishes on the 23-rd of November in Tiraspol.
Evgheni Gorordetchi:
- Judging from the goal-scoring opportunities that we created, the game wasn't very difficult. If we had realized half of the goal-scoring opportunities, that we had, we would have deprived "Iskra-Stal" of its chances to qualify for the semifinal of Moldova Cup. So, we will prepare for the return home match in Tiraspol.
You came in the one-on-one with the keeper. Why didn't you score?
- I don't know. Everything could happen. We had the bad luck today
but would be lucky next time.
Igor Picusciac:
- We entirely kept the game under our control. There were many goal-scoring opportunities, but we scored only two goals. It's a very good result for away match. In the first half Erokhin was injured, I was fielded and managed to score the goal. I didn't score for a long time, that's why I was very glad that I managed to open the score on the scoreboard.
FC"Sheriff" press-service
