Nizhny Novgorod took all three points from Torpedo Moscow in the first division on Saturday, winning 2:1 in front of a restless home crowd. The visitors had already been leading the table before kick-off and this result extended their unbeaten run to eight games. Torpedo, sitting fifth, will now have to look at how they respond after losing ground at home. To be fair, the match was never in doubt once the penalty came.
Grulev opened the scoring in the fourteenth minute, finishing a move that caught the defence asleep. Torpedo equalised a few minutes later through Kashtanov, and for a while it looked like they had found their rhythm. Then Grulev stepped up for the penalty in the fifty-second minute and sent the visitors back in front. By then the hosts were chasing the game rather than shaping it.
The substitutions told the story of a side running out of legs. Torpedo brought on Yushin, Berkovskiy, Sarveli and Sokolov in search of something, while Nizhny Novgorod introduced Gudkov and Roganovic to steady things. It worked on both counts, if unevenly. The away end never stopped, which is to say they kept believing until the whistle.
Statistically the match was predictable: Torpedo held 58 per cent possession but only managed four shots on target compared to the visitors' three. Nine corners against four suggests the hosts threw everything at it without finding the right channels. We had given Nizhny Novgorod to win before the game, and that confidence was rewarded. The shots off target were level at five each, but the chances were never equal.
The result moves Nizhny Novgorod further clear at the top of the table, now on 28 points from eleven games. Torpedo remain on 19 points after ten matches, three defeats already sitting heavy. They will have to decide whether to change shape or just work harder, because the gap is opening.