The Sochi Sentinel
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Both of them Pavel Meleshin's — 9.09
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.09, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match22 Jan 2028
10 unbeaten for Sochi
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Sochi did not have in the autumn.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Mikhail Ignatov in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sochi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Sochi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Soldatenkov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match22 Jan 2028
Sochi see off Rubin
Three points for Sochi, 2‑1 the final word against Rubin in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces24 Jan 2028
The crowd has taken to Pavel Meleshin
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Sochi lose Dmitry Amosov
37 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Loan watch24 Jan 2028
Ilja Syrovatskiy wants to come home
“I did not go to Akhmat Grozny to sit and watch. I want to come back to Sochi and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 30 matches say the rest.
Squad24 Jan 2028
No hiding place for Kirill Danilin
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kirill Danilin, and the manager let it.
In brief
- Player ratings Nobody could get near Mikhail Ignatov
- Market The Alexandr Soldatenkov story refuses to die
- Market Still no signature from Vyacheslav Litvinov