They are in charge of the Cup: six teams will continue to fight for the trophy

There were no sensations in the Russian Football Cup matches that took place in the middle of the week. In the semifinals of the RPL Path, Zenit St. Petersburg won the return match against Rostov with a score of 2:0 (the first was won with a score of 1:0) and advanced to the final of this bracket, where they will meet with CSKA Moscow, who won the capital derby against Dynamo (0:0 in the return match and 2:1 in the first one).

However, the teams that lost both confrontations continue to fight for the trophy. Now they are moving into the second stage of the "Path of the Regions". Moscow's Lokomotiv and Spartak also went there from the first stage, beating Akhmat Grozny (2:1) and Ural Yekaterinburg (3:0) at home, respectively.

"The RPL Way"

Dynamo — CSKA

Dynamo is not very successful in the spring, constantly missing the chance to compete for championship medals. CSKA won five consecutive matches in the RPL and came close to Spartak, which closes the top three, equaling it in points and losing to it only in a personal meeting.

But both Moscow clubs clearly attach great importance to the Cup, judging by the way they rotate the squad at previous championship matches in order to rest some of the basics before the RPL Path semi-finals. This was the case before the first match in March, which CSKA won on its own field with a score of 2:1. And it happened again before the return game, which was already hosted by Dynamo.

The first half ended in a goalless draw. After the break, Dynamo had a serious playing advantage and were closer to a goal that would have taken them further. But CSKA managed to keep the necessary zeros on the scoreboard and passed on.

Zenit — Rostov

The St. Petersburg club is actively fighting for its seventh consecutive victory in the Russian championship. After Sunday's 4-1 home defeat of the leading Krasnodar, Zenit strengthened its position in the championship race, reducing the gap from first place to two points. But the fight for the RPL gold is still very intense, so the head coach of the blue-white-blues, Sergey Semak, prefers not to fully field the main squad for the Cup.

In March, this did not prevent us from snatching a victory in the end in a difficult away first match with Rostov (1-0). And significantly simplify your solution to the task of reaching the final of the "RPL Path". Zenit also had players in the starting line-up for the home second leg, starting most of the championship matches on the bench.

With six rounds to go, Rostov almost secured itself from relegation to the first league, but it also practically lost its chances of winning medals. It is not surprising that the head coach of the Donskoy club, Jonathan Alba, throws his main forces at the Cup. And he released the main cast in St. Petersburg.

The second front: the main intrigues of the Russian Cup semifinals

Zenit and CSKA are one step away from reaching the finals of the Russian Cup RPL, Rostov and Dynamo still have a chance to fix everything.

However, this did not help the residents of Rostov much. In the first half, they managed to impose a decent fight on Zenit. And in one of the episodes, we had a killer scoring moment when Nikolai Komlichenko could shoot Denis Adamov in the goalkeeper's box, but the goalkeeper of St. Petersburg saved his team. And in the middle of the second half, the hosts scored twice. Alexander Sobolev and Matteo Casierra scored from Pedro's passes.

— It was initially clear that the away goal at the end of the first match gives Zenit a very significant advantage, — said Sergey Balakhnin, former Rostov head coach, in a conversation with Izvestia. — And it was extremely difficult for Rostov residents to recoup this gap in St. Petersburg. Even taking into account the fact that Zenit did not field the main squad, its reserve is quite worthy of fighting on equal terms with a strong RPL middleweight. In the end, it turned out that it was an equal game most of the time. The course of the confrontation could have been different if Komlichenko had realized his moment, but he failed to do so, and Sobolev and Casierra used their opportunities. As a result, the class of Zenit players affected, which deservedly went further.

"The Path of the Regions"

Lokomotiv — Akhmat

Lokomotiv won only one championship victory after the winter break and has already significantly lagged behind the top five. Therefore, the Russian Cup is the only opportunity for the Railwaymen to successfully complete the season. It is not surprising that the head coach of the red-greens, Mikhail Galaktionov, has almost completely released the main squad.

His colleague from Akhmat, Sergey Tashuev, on the contrary, decided to save almost the entire base before the planned weekend trip to Krasnodar in the championship, in which the Grozny club has not yet got out of the zone of transitional matches and is still far from avoiding relegation from the RPL. Although the unbeaten streak of eight matches in the championship gives Akhmat serious reasons to soon resolve the issue of maintaining a residence permit in the elite.

Bulls' rebound: Zenit has reduced the gap from Krasnodar in the RPL

The leaders' match escalated the race for gold, Spartak unexpectedly lost to Dynamo Makhachkala and allowed CSKA to catch up.

Strangely enough, Akhmat's reserve quickly took the lead — Rodrigo Luis Diaz scored in the 8th minute. The guests controlled the game quite well, but closer to the break, the Loko class took its toll. First, after a goal from Ilya Samoshnikov, Dmitry Vorobyov equalized the score, and soon Egor Pogostnov put the hosts ahead. In the second half, the teams went without goals, and Lokomotiv passed on. In the next stage, he will face Rostov at home.

—The Railwaymen have shown that they can win when they play to the limit of their abilities, with maximum dedication," Nikolai Naumov, former president of Lokomotiv, told Izvestia. — At the same time, there were big problems with Akhmat and its non-main squad, but Loko showed character, fought back and won, showing cup character. Now he needs to focus on this particular tournament, because everything has already been lost in the championship, and winning the Cup can immediately rehabilitate all the failures of the spring.

Spartak — Ural

The Yekaterinburg club remained the last representative of the lower leagues in the current Russian Cup. Six rounds before the finish, Ural is in third place in the transition zone of the first league and is two points behind the second-placed Torpedo Moscow, which will play away in the next round.

It is the first and second places that give the right to direct entry into the RPL, without transitional games. It is not surprising that Ural did not enter the cup match with Spartak with the most basic team. While the red-whites, after an unexpected home defeat in the championship from Dynamo Makhachkala (1:2), preferred to release almost all the strongest.

It quickly brought results. Already in the first half, the hosts led 3-0. Christopher Martins and Marquinhos scored from the game, and Ezequiel Barco converted a penalty. There were no goals after the break. Spartak will play Dynamo Moscow in the next round.

"We could have clung to this match and won it — there are always chances, but because of our mistakes Spartak quickly made a comfortable score,— Ural striker Evgeny Markov told Izvestia. — We really wanted to win and go further in the Russian Cup, but the opponent's class affected us. At the same time, we took the tournament seriously, we were not going to put it on the back burner compared to the first league of the championship — when you play at a stadium like Spartak, with 25 thousand spectators, with an atmosphere like in the Champions League, you always want to show your best side. It's just that we made mistakes this time, and Spartak took advantage of them.

The final of the "RPL Path" will be held in two matches. All rounds of the Path of the Regions playoffs are played in one game. The winners of the second stage of the semi—final will play each other in the final of the "Path of the Regions", and its winner will compete for the trophy in the decisive match against the winner of the final of the "Path of the RPL" - this will be the superfinal of the Cup of Russia, which will be held in early June in Moscow at the Luzhniki Stadium. The first match of the final of the "RPL Paths" and the matches of the second stage of the semi—final of the "Paths of the Regions" will be held on April 29 - May 1. The second leg of the final of the "RPL Paths" and the final of the "Paths of the Regions" will be held in mid-May.