FK Baltika Kaliningrad were dramatically pegged back at the death as FK Nizhny Novgorod snatched a 2–2 draw with a stoppage-time equaliser on RFPL matchday 24.
The visitors struck first on 8 minutes. Renaldo Cephas finished off an early move for Nizhny Novgorod, guiding his side into a 1–0 lead after being set up by Yuriy Koledin. Cephas later picked up a yellow card midway through the first half, one of two bookings for the away side before the interval, with Maksim Shnaptsev also cautioned on 37 minutes.
Baltika responded strongly after the break, helped by a flurry of half-time changes. One of those substitutes, Eldar Čivić, made an immediate impact. Just three minutes into the second half, in the 48th minute, Čivić struck to level the score at 1–1, turning the momentum in favour of the home team.
The hosts continued to push and were rewarded late on. In the 85th minute Baltika earned a penalty, and Maksim Petrov held his nerve from the spot to put them 2–1 up, seemingly steering the points toward Kaliningrad.
Nizhny Novgorod, however, refused to fold. After a series of late substitutions, the visitors found their answer in stoppage time. In the 90+1st minute, defender Sven Karič scored to make it 2–2, silencing the home crowd and securing a valuable point on the road.
Baltika’s Kevin Andrade was booked in the 90th minute in a tense finale to a match that featured numerous substitutions on both sides, including cameos for Derik Lacerda, Tenton Yenne and Yuriy Kovalev for the hosts, and Matvey Urvantsev, Juan Castillo and Vyacheslav Grulev for the visitors.
Beyond the goals, cards and substitutions provided in the match data, detailed information on lineups, possession and other statistics was not available.
More on the RFPL season and full match context can be found on the RFPL competition page and the full match centre.
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