Winter session: how the last round of the RPL will be held in 2024
The upcoming 18th round of the Russian Football Championship will be the last in 2024. After it, the clubs will go on vacation and in January will begin preparations for the second part of the season, which will resume in early March. Next weekend's central match will be a confrontation between two teams from the leading group - Krasnodar will host Lokomotiv Moscow.
Also worth highlighting is Artem Dzyuba's first visit with Akron Togliatti to visit Zenit St. Petersburg, CSKA Moscow's trip to Fakel Voronezh and Spartak Moscow's home match with Pari Nizhny Novgorod.
"Krasnodar" - "Lokomotiv".
Not so long ago, Krasnodar was leading in the championship, and Lokomotiv was right behind it. But since November, the Bulls and the Railwaymen have been experiencing a serious slump. The southern club has not won for three consecutive rounds - away draws with Rubin Kazan (1:1) and Khimki (2:2) continued with a home defeat at the hands of Spartak (0:3). However, even against this backdrop, Murad Musayev's team continues to finish second, just one point behind Zenit.
Things are even worse for Loko. After a 2-5 defeat to Spartak in the derby and a 1-3 home loss to Khimki, Loko not only fell five and four points behind the two leaders, respectively, but also dropped out of the top three, giving way to Spartak, who are now ahead of the Red-Green by extra points. To keep themselves in the race for medals, Lokomotiv will want to avoid defeat in the last round before the break.
- Both teams are not in a very good condition, they clearly didn't survive this long summer and fall stretch, so they gave up in November," former Lokomotiv president Nikolai Naumov shared his opinion with Izvestia. - But Krasnodar looks the favorite in this meeting. It will play at home, in front of its own fans. Plus it has a more experienced squad. Therefore, Musayev's team will try to rehabilitate themselves for the defeat at the hands of Spartak. And Loko clearly shows that they can't withstand this race for the lead due to the youth of their team. That's why after the defeat at the hands of Spartak they panicked and have yet to find a way out of the crisis. Hence it will be difficult for him in Krasnodar. Yes, the opponents also have problems: leaders John Cordoba and Eduard Spertsyan have stopped showing their best soccer. But Lokomotiv's crisis is deeper, and it clearly needs a break to reboot, strengthen and prepare for the second part of the championship at the training camp.
"Zenit" - "Akron"
Due to the misfires of competitors, the St. Petersburg club could increase the gap in the last round, but unexpectedly lost at home to Samara "Krylia Sovetov" with a score of 2:3. This was especially surprising against the backdrop of a crisis at Volzhans due to harsh statements by their region's governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev about corruption in the referee corps and agency business, as well as rumors about head coach Igor Osinkin's desire to resign.
Zenit now awaits another home match against another team from the Samara region. "Akron" confidently holds the ninth place and has a good chance to stay in the RPL at the end of the debut season in the elite. The problem for the Togliatti team is that it has yet to prove itself in matches against top clubs, to which it loses either outright or with a minimum score and a very weak game.
One of the main intrigues of the upcoming meeting will be Artem Dzyuba's first visit to Akron. He joined the team in early September. And so far he has not been able to play a full game with his former club. In early October, the 36-year-old striker was left out of the squad for the away cup game in St. Petersburg (1:5) due to squad rotation. And two weeks later in the home game of the championship (0:5) due to injury was replaced in the ninth minute.
Interestingly, even before Dzyuba's arrival, Akron managed to give Zenit a fight in a home cup game. After a 1-1 draw in regulation time, the Togliatti won on penalties 5-4. It was a rare case when Zaur Tedeev's wards were able to resist a top club. After the 1:5 and 0:5 defeats in the other two games, they will surely try to rehabilitate themselves in the next away game.
- Zenit's defeat to Krylia was quite surprising, it made us remember last season, when all the leaders were constantly losing points when no one expected it," said former Russian national team forward Dmitry Bulykin in a conversation with Izvestia. - And now we saw the first three teams lose their matches at home. Now everyone can beat everyone in the RPL, so it's not impossible that Akron can take points away from Zenit. Especially Dzyuba will have a special mood for his former club.
"Spartak" - "Pari Nizhny Novgorod"
"Spartak" failed almost the entire first round of the championship, but from mid-October began to gain momentum. And won their last five RPL matches, which allowed them to break into the leading group. Now the Red-Whites intend to continue their winning streak. Moreover, Pari Nizhny Novgorod do not look like a team capable of stopping Dejan Stankovic's wards in their current state.
Nizhny Novgorod are in 12th place, ahead of Khimki, who are in the transition zone, only by extra points. The October change of head coach has had no effect so far: under Viktor Goncharenko, Pari NN won only one out of six league games, with two draws and three losses. The last game against Rostov away was lost with a resounding score of 0:4.
Goncharenko himself managed to get disqualified from the RFU CDC for the match against Spartak because of the conflict with the referees. Juan Boselli, one of the team's leaders, will miss the upcoming tour due to a suspension in the game with Rostov.
- "Spartak" has gained momentum and looks the favorite in the match - said "Izvestia" former midfielder of the Red-Whites Alexander Mostovoi. - You can see that the guys are on fire, fighting for each other and for the coach. Stankovic was able to properly motivate the team and properly arrange the players, showing how a great former footballer can coach if he is not hindered in his work. With Spartak playing the way they did against Lokomotiv and Krasnodar, I don't see what Pari NN can do against them, who have looked very weak all season - both under former head coach Sasha Ilic and current head coach Goncharenko.
"Fakel" - CSKA
Two months ago, hardly anyone would have questioned CSKA's status as the favorite for the match in Voronezh. Its superiority over Fakel in terms of both personnel and finances was too great. But it was a 0-0 home draw with Voronezh in October that started CSKA's crisis.
Since then, they have won only once in the last five rounds. And it was with great difficulty that they defeated the crisis-hit Krylia (2-1), scoring the winning goal in the final minutes in Samara, when the Volzhans could have scored several goals if not for the saves of Red-Blue goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev. In the rest of the games, CSKA's quality of play was also poor, but there were no results.
In addition to the home game against Fakel, Marko Nikolic's men failed in the derby with Spartak (0:2), lost at home to Rostov (1:2) and only escaped a 2:2 home loss to Rubin Kazan in the final seconds. As a result, CSKA is stuck in sixth place and is already six points behind third place. We can't even talk about the fight for gold: the gap from the first line is 11 points.
"Fakel" lost only once in the last eight rounds. Dmitry Pyatibratov's team significantly improved in October and November compared to the failed summer and early fall. The only problem is that they have only one win in the last eight rounds. And six games ended in a draw.
This helps Voronezh stay out of the departure zone with a gap of six points, but it does not allow them to escape the zone of transition matches. "Fakel" is 14th, two points behind 12th. Although the quality of play could claim more. But, for example, in the home game with Dynamo (1:1), it failed to realize many chances, and conceded almost after the first shot on its goal in the middle of the first half.
- "We believe we can win the last game before the break," Fakel midfielder Ilnur Alshin told Izvestia. - Yes, CSKA is a strong team. But in October we showed on their field that we can play on equal terms with them. And given the soccer we are showing this fall, we hope to win at home. We really want to do it to go on a good note to go on break and resume the championship in the spring from a good position.
Also in the upcoming round there will be four more matches. Dynamo Moscow will host Khimki. "Rostov" will play at home with "Krylia Sovetov". Dinamo Makhachkala will meet Rubin at home. And Grozny Akhmat will host Orenburg.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
