Getting through to the Bulls: will Zenit be able to close the gap from Krasnodar

Eight rounds before the end of the Russian Football Championship, several teams are competing for gold at once. The closest to him is the leading Krasnodar, which will host Tolyatti Akron next weekend. But the central matches will be held with the participation of his pursuers: Zenit St. Petersburg will visit Moscow's Lokomotiv, Spartak Moscow is expecting a trip to Rostov, and the tour will end with the Moscow derby of CSKA and Dynamo. We also expect bright confrontations between the teams from the bottom of the standings.

Lokomotiv – Zenit

In the last round, Lokomotiv was defeated away by Samara Wings of the Soviets. 1:5 from the Volga region is one of the most shameful pages in the history of the "railwaymen". However, Mikhail Galaktionov's team has a lot of problems besides that. Loko as a whole is failing the second round — in the last seven rounds it has won only one championship victory. Thus, the club, which had seriously claimed the first place in mid-November, fell to the sixth line. And he is already nine points behind the leading Krasnodar.

It is still unclear whether he will be able to resist Zenit, which has also not played its best in recent months. And it started, just like at Lokomotiv, before the winter break. The St. Petersburg club has won only twice in the last six rounds of the championship and suffered three defeats. Because of this, he loses three points to Krasnodar. But the home crushing victory over Rubin Kazan (4-0) in the last round gives reason to believe that the reigning champion is coming out of the crisis. The match against Loko should show how good he really is now.

"I didn't expect such a failure from Lokomotiv as it is now, but the fact is that the team is having an ugly spring," Nikolai Naumov, former president of the railroad workers, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — And it's not just the defeat in Samara — there are also draws with Dynamo Makhachkala (1:1) and Akhmat (1:1), and the victory over Dynamo Moscow (2:1) was not easy, it was not without luck for Loko. And a major defeat by Krylia is just the apogee of the crisis. But a wounded animal is doubly dangerous, so I assume that there will be an equal match with Zenit. Lokomotiv really needs to rehabilitate itself in front of the fans. And I'm sure the players will be highly motivated by the coaching staff and the club's management. Nevertheless, I'm still inclined to believe that Zenit will win by one goal. His class is higher. And now he will give his best in the match so as not to let Krasnodar go too far.

Rostov – Spartak

Back in March, it seemed that Spartak was the favorite in the championship race. He gained a lot of momentum before the winter break, and after it he scored, among other things, a bright victory over Zenit (2:1). But away defeats from Rubin (1:2) and a draw with Akhmat Grozny (0:0) dropped the red-whites to third place with a five-point gap from Krasnodar.

To keep their chances of winning gold, Dejan Stankovic's team must win a very difficult trip to Rostov, which, even after the February departure of head coach Valery Karpin and captain Danil Glebov, is a serious force. After the winter break, the Donskoy club lost only one match out of four. And he confidently holds on to seventh place. He already managed to knock Spartak out of the "RPL Path" of the Russian Cup in November. And he will try to repeat his success in the championship.

"I think Spartak will do its best to put pressure on Rostov," Andrei Chervichenko, the former owner of the red and white team, said in a conversation with Izvestia. — After all, this match is a rubicon for the red and white. If they win, they will remain in the championship race. If not, then you can forget about the gold, since it is unlikely that Krasnodar will not win against Akron, and Zenit will most likely beat Lokomotiv. The current Spartak under Stankovich is quite capable of showing aggressive football, being charged to fight to get the most out of this game, but he is often let down by the realization of moments, as it was in the match against Akhmat, and playing defense, as it was in the match against Rubin. And Rostov is at least as good at organizing the game as Rubin and better than Akhmat. He can catch Spartak on a mistake. In general, the match is very unpredictable. And a lot will depend on the work of the judges.

CSKA Moscow – Dynamo (Moscow)

Both teams are right behind the top three. Dynamo is two points behind Spartak, which closes it, while CSKA is three points behind. The upcoming derby of the army and the blue and white will determine which of them will join the fight for medals. These rivals had already played each other in March, when CSKA won 2-1 in the first match of the semi-final of the "RPL Way" of the Russian Cup. They will have a return game in mid-April. But first they have a championship meeting.

"It's a very unpredictable game in which you can't name a favorite," Sergei Silkin, former Dynamo head coach, told Izvestia. — Because this is a derby, when emotions often prevail over the game, over tactics. And the result may depend on one mistake, one precise blow and one successful power combat. If we ignore the emotional factor, then CSKA is stronger in terms of the game now. The team is more cohesive and acts more coherently. And most importantly, he doesn't allow his opponents to do much at their own gates. And Dynamo plays by itself, and gives to others. Many people think that Konstantin Tyukavin's serious injury hit the team, but in fact they are doing well with the attack without him — they score a lot, create a lot of chances. Another thing is that they allow their opponents too much at their own gates. Therefore, the current Dynamo is extremely unstable — it can either win a bright victory or lose ingloriously. That's not how medals are won. But individual matches can be taken away. Even with such strong rivals as CSKA.

Krasnodar – Akron

Krasnodar defeated Fakel Voronezh at home (5-0) in the last round and consolidated its leadership by taking advantage of Spartak's misfire in Grozny. Now another opponent is coming to visit the Bulls, from whom three points must be taken if Murad Musayev's team wants to win the championship. Tolyatti Akron started the spring confidently staying in the middle of the standings. In many ways, the team spent its debut season in the RPL so successfully due to the help of star striker Artyom Dzyuba, who joined the club in early September.

But after the winter break, she is still slowly gaining points — one win and three losses. Because of this, the gap from the transition zone is only six points. And Akron needs to start winning to avoid a nervous struggle for survival at the end of the season.

—Akron is a pretty convenient opponent for Krasnodar," former Bulls midfielder Maxim Demenko told Izvestia. — The team also tries to play bright attacking football, attack positionally, but at the same time makes mistakes in defense. In such confrontations of teams with a similar style of play, the higher class of one of the participants usually affects, so Krasnodar must win. Unless he creates problems for himself out of the blue because of his careless attitude towards his moments and mistakes at his penalty box.

"Pari Nizhny Novgorod" – "Orenburg"

Both teams changed their head coaches almost simultaneously in October. And over the past six months, it hasn't helped them much. Orenburg is led by former Spartak coach Vladimir Sliskovic, a Bosnian, who has managed to improve the team's game a little over the winter, but so far this has not led to a sharp leap from last place. His team is at the bottom, eight points away from 14th place, which gives them the right to play in transition matches.

Going to Nizhny Novgorod is one of the last chances to fight for survival. Moreover, the local "Paris NN" makes a depressing impression in the spring. When Viktor Goncharenko took over in October, there was no rapid improvement in the results. But there was hope that during the winter training camp he would provide the team with such a game and physical training that it would calmly stay in the RPL. Moreover, she went on a break outside the zone of transitional matches.

And now he's in it after three defeats in a row. In which Nizhny Novgorod residents did not even have a semblance of a high-quality game and the will to win. So far, they have a five-point head start in front of the direct relegation zone. But in their current state, they can lose it.

"We have a very important match ahead of us against Paris NN, which we must definitely win if we want to keep our chances of salvation," Orenburg midfielder Danila Khotulev emphasized in a conversation with Izvestia. — In principle, having recently won against Fakel in the last minutes (1-0), we showed that we are capable of defeating our direct competitors. And we need to do the same in the game in Nizhny Novgorod. Otherwise, what kind of escape from relegation from the RPL can we talk about? What did you gain during the winter under Slishkovich? In physical condition first of all. Our mileage data has become much better. Unfortunately, so far this has not been able to turn into a serious result in the table. I hope we'll fix this soon.

There will also be three more matches in the upcoming 23rd round. Dynamo Makhachkala will host Khimki. Fakel Voronezh will play Akhmat Grozny at home in their first match under the leadership of new head coach Igor Shalimov. The meeting will be held with empty stands, as the RFU KDC punished Voronezh residents for their fans chanting offensive chants at Zenit player Wendel in the March match of these teams. And the Samara Wings of the Soviets will meet with Rubin Kazan in their native walls.