Defending champions, Kristall, started their title retaining campaign with win against City
It was business as usual for the Russian heavyweights, as Kristall, Spartak Moscow, Delta and Lokomotiv Moscow kicked off their cup crusades with comfortable wins.
This is the 11th edition of the FONBET Russian Cup and a total of 16 teams, from ten different district of Russia, are competing. The sides are competing in the initial phase in four groups of four.
Originally scheduled to take part the 17th – 23rd September, the FONBET Russian Cup got underway on Tuesday 18th after being delayed by a day due to adverse weather conditions.
The competition will now run from the 18th until the 24th of September, in the Krasnodar district of Sochi.
This is a quick overview of how the first day panned out…
KRISTALL 7-4 CITY
Even with the services of recent EBSL winner, Dario Ramacciotti, City couldn’t resist the might of the defending champions, Kristall. Arthur Paporotnyi scored a hat-trick to wrap up the three points for the league champions.
ROSICH 15-3 ADLER
Rosich skipper, Mikhail Melikov, scored five goals as his side put 15 past local team Adler, who will play Delta on day two to try and pick up some points on home sand.
LUKOIL 10-4 STARS OF DYNAMO
After taking a 6-1 lead in the first period, Lukoil saw their first game out to seal three early points. Nazarov took a hat-trick and there were braces for Antonov and and captain Kryshtafovich.
SPARTAK 11-1 METTRANSTORG
Hat-tricks from SuperFinal top scorer, Belarussian Ihor Bryshtel (the only non-Russian on the pitch), as well as the Russian National Team star, Zemskov, saw Spartak cruise to an easy victory on day one.
ATAMAN 4-3 LEX
In one of the opening day’s tighter fixtures, Lex let an early two-goal lead slip to miss out to an extra time, as a winner from Morozov snatched three points from the St. Petersburg side.
DELTA 8-3 ARGO
After falling behind by four early goals, the Saratov-based side, Argo, struggled to get back into the game. A final period brace from Andrey Pankratov put the game to bed and sealed the win for Delta.
GRINTIM 1-2 ELMONT
The game remained goalless until the final period where Grintim finally took the lead. However, Konstantinov equalised and then the ELMONT captain, Borisov, grabbed a late winner before the final whistle to nick all three points.
LOKOMOTIV 7-4 KRYLIA SOVETOV
Last year’s finalists, Krylia Sovetov, took an early lead against the Moscow titans. But a Nuritdin Mamadiyev hat-trick proved too much for the team from Samara, and the railwaymen claim their first points in the cup.
For full details of the FONBET Cup, including results, fixtures, standings and live streams of the games, please visit http://bsrussia.com/
