The situation before the match anticipated an interesting game - the teams’ position in the league table, the historical spirit of rivalry. Because of the problems with yellow and red cards, the key figures of both teams - Vazha Tarkhnishvili and Oleg Andronik missed the match. For the purpose of watching players, the match was visited by experts from Germany, Serbia, Denmark, Sweden and Russia. "Sheriff" stars Serghei Dadu and Serghei Pascenco who nowadays perform for "Alania" Vladikavkaz visited the match as well. But football is unpredictable and defies logical consideration. According to the last games we got used that "Sheriff" was getting ready for a long while. It really fitted the Sunday duel, but the team didn't manage "to go quickly" as the proverb says.

The game began with the solemn moment - Constantin Arbanas was marked by his hundredth match played for "Sheriff".  But the sixth minute brought bad news – Erhan roughly played in sliding tackle against Balima and was shown the yellow card, but for "yellow-black" that episode finished with the appreciable loss in the person of the dark-skinned forward of Burkina Faso National team. The injury… And Sergey Alekseev who just recovered after the fracture of his rib took the field. Only by the end of the 15th minute of the match "Sheriff" took the initiative but it wasn't clear for what. "Sheriff" kept the ball under its control but only by the 29th minute managed to create the first goal-scoring opportunity. Picusciac shot in the diagonal from the penalty area line towards the far corner of the goal. Radu jumped out in front of the goalkeeper but missed the ball. Calancea was not ready for such development of events, and, apparently, Pikusciac's shot did not intend to cross the goal line either. Just the corner kick. But the spectators on the Main arena of FC "Sheriff" saw the first goal at the end of the first half, unfortunately, into the home team's goal. Antoniuc turned Da Costa in the penalty area and made the pass to Catan who was in a proud loneliness on the far post. It wasn’t difficult to score into the open goal from the distance of a metre (the first photo). There was such a "gift" to Stanislav Namasco on the eve of his 22-nd birthday. Judging from the last matches, "Sheriff" was naturally going to that quite expected unexpectedness.                                            

In the second half, "Sheriff" was shaking up the opposing defense, keeping the ball under its control, but without a result, indeed. The attacking line didn't cope with its duties. On the 62-nd minute, not fully recovered yet, Alexeev left the field and Erokhin took the position of the central forward. Leonid Kuchuk's successful course, and, already in several minutes Picusciac made the pass to Erokhin who scored into the near corner of the goal of "Zimbru". Calancea was out of job. On the 67th minute the pair Picusciac - Erokhin displayed themselves once again. Erokhin dangerously headed the ball but above the cross-bar. Radu was missing the absolute possibility to save this match and beat "Zimbru". At the very end of the match, Erokhin made the pass from depth to the Romanian forward who came 1 on 1 with the goalkeeper but, letting the ball go too far, lost the moment. Erokhin was first on scoring and shooting on the run but wide. As a result, there was 1:1 on the scoreboard. "Zimbru" was satisfied by the result but "Sheriff" wasn't. 

Igor Picusciac:

                         

 - The first half was without any moments, we conceded the goal. In the second half we played better, had several goal-scoring opportunities and scored the goal. The bad realization of the moments prevented us from winning the match. There is such opinion - if a forward didn't score a goal he played badly. I assisted to Erokhin, then made several cross passes, we could score. I assisted more in this game.

                           

Ionut Radu:

                          

- The first half we played badly, in the second half we came to our senses and played absolutely other football. If we had had a little more luck we would have won. It's difficult for me to answer the question concerning my playing. I played neither good, nor bad. Basically, nothing prevented us from playing well. If I had just scored at that moment during the last minutes of the match when I came 1 on 1, everything would have been different.

                          

Serghei Alekseev:

                              

- In the first half there was an impression that there was no team on the field. The long absence of the playing practice prevented me to play well. The match showed that I was not ready to play in 100%. I had the desire to show my worth but was out of form yet. The consequences of the injury affected on that.

                     

 Evgheni Gorodetchy:

                              

- The game was hard for "Sheriff". It wasn't the best match, but we had the worse ones. I played badly because I didn't carry out the task set by the head coach - to play more aggressively in the attacking line. What prevented me from playing well?! Forwards don't play themselves, plays the whole team. There were moments when the defender didn't make the pass in time, or midfielder, or the forward opened incorrectly. Common actions of the whole team didn't allow us to show a good play and win.

                                       

FC "Sheriff" press-service