October 30, 2021
The final weekend of the Kazakhstan Premier League saw two sides still
in contention to win the title. Tobol went into their last match with a two
point lead over FC Astana knowing that a win would give them their second
title, having previously won the league in 2010, whilst a draw would also be
enough unless second placed Astana won their match at home to Turan by 6 goals
or more.
Tobol are named are the river that flows through the city of Kostanay,
which is located close to the border with Russia, and has a population of just
over 200,000.
Tobol have had an outstanding season in the league, going into today’s
match with a 17-7-1 record, with the sole defeat being a 1-2 reverse at lowly
Kaspyi Aktau early in the season, and they were unbeaten in 18 matches since. Matches
with nearest rivals Astana and Kairat Almaty were all drawn.
Tobol had a remarkable come-back victory over Hadjuk Split in the Europa
Conference, winning 4-1 at home after a 0-2 loss in Croatia, although Slovak
side Zilina were too strong in the next round.
The Tobal squad contains some names familiar to fans in the UK. Serbian
forward Zoran Tosic was at Manchester United as a youngster before moving on to
FC Koln and CSKA Moscow and earning 76 caps for his country. However, Tosic was
not named in Tobol’s match-day squad.
Gambian midfielder Toni Silva started his career at Liverpool with loan
spells at Northampton, Barnsley and Dagenham before moving on to CSKA Sofia. Uzbek striker Igor Sergeev will be familiar to
readers of these diaries after being part of Pakhtakor Tashkent’s 2020
championship winning squad, and has scored 3 times in 6 games since joining
Tobol after a spell at fellow Kazakh side Aktobe.
Just about all of the Kazakh players in their squad have appeared for
the national team at some point in their careers, with Samat Zharynderov,
Askhat Tagybergen and Sergei Malyi being selected in the most recent squad. 40
year old keeper Aleksandr Mokin ( 22 caps ) was ever-present so far this season.
FK Akzhayik, from the city of Uralsk, were featured in
these diaries in May when they inflicted a surprise 1-0 defeat on champions
Kairat Almaty.
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2021/05/fk-akzhayik-1-0-kairat-almaty-att-0.html
That victory elevated them to third in the table, but
since then their erratic form has seen them fall to 7th place in the
table going into today’s game. After a win-lose pattern at the start of the
season, they have now drawn 5 of their last 8 matches, with no wins.
Their squad had also seen some changes, with Belarus
wing-back Pavel Nazerenko, who scored the only goal against Kairat, moving on to
Shakhtar Karagandy, and Russian forward Marat Burayev having moved back to Slutsk.
In their place Mozambique forward Reginaldo has been signed from North
Macedonian signed FK Shkupi and forward Luka Imnadze was signed from Azeri side
FK Sabail. Neither though were to come off the bench today.
Although Onefootball.com had recently announced that matches from the
Kazakhstan Premier League were going to be shown live on their website, this was
the one match from the final round of fixtures that was not shown. Similarly, this
game was also the only one not live streamed by Bet365.com. Instead, the only
way to watch the game was via the Kazakhstan Premier League website ( www.pflk.kz ). Unfortunately, this stream only
began three minutes after the match had started, and the picture frequently froze,
so at times it wasn’t easy to follow ! The temperature was forecast to be 5
degrees at kick-off, which was 16.00 local time.
Tobal dominated the first half, and had 64% of the possession. Akzhayik
were forced to defend in depth and only had the occasional counter attack.
However, the first piece of goal-mouth activity had to wait until the 22nd
minute, when Jovancic’s near post header from a corner produced a fine save from
keeper Litovchenko.
Tobol took the lead four minutes later. The impressive Tagybergen sent a
swerving shot from around 25 yards which Litovchenko could only parry back to
the middle of the penalty area. Sergeev reacted the quickest to put the rebound
past the Akzhayik keeper. Full-back Omarov was booked for his protests to the
officials, presumably claiming Sergeev was offside, but the TV replay showed he
was played onside by Saponov.
Tobol pushed for a second goal, and Jovancic was again denied by Litovchenko,
this time with a one-handed punch to tip a long range effort over the bar, and
from the subsequent corner, Litovchenko again excelled to dive and push
Marochkin’s downward header up and onto the bar.
With Astana winning their match 1-0 at half-time, Tobol might have
regretted not being able to convert their pressure into more goals but they
were able to extend their lead in the 59th minute. Firstly, Kairov
played in Manzorro to run on goal, but there was an early flag from the
linesman and although the French winger ran on to put the ball into the net, it
was disallowed. As the incident was replayed, which wasn’t conclusive one way
or the other, Tobol scored ! Only after the event were we able to see Tagybergen’s
20+ yard shot which went through the Litovchenko and into the net.
The game was effectively finished as a contest, although Jovancic shot
narrowly over, and then the Serb mis-kicked in front of goal after a cross from
the right wing.
Akhaychik’s one response was a 30 yard effort three minutes from time
that was comfortably saved. Tobol wound down the clock, and with the title confirmed
with the final whistle, the players eagerly celebrated amongst themselves, and
then in front of the their supporters who had made the 1,240 kilometre journey
from Kostanay to Uralsk !
In the end Astana’s match ended in a 1-1 draw, so Tobol’s winning margin
in the league was 4 points.
FK Akzhayik :
Litovchenko – Sapanov, Baronovsky, Omarov – Chichikov ( Antipov ),
Abdrakhmanov, Gaschenkov, Shustikov, Tapalov ( Prindeta ) – Kozlov, Kovtalyuk
FC Tobol Kostanay : – Mokin – Marochkin,
Amanovich, Malyi – Kairov, Jovancic, Tagybergen ( Zhumashev ), Zharynbetov –
Brigido ( Silva ), Sergeev ( Lobzhanidze ), Manzorro ( Nurgaliyev )
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