From left to right: the Trinidadian's goal brought Spartak victory in the derby

Spartak Moscow's players became the first finalists of the Path of the Regions of the Russian Cup, defeating Dynamo in the capital's derby (2:1) in the second stage of the semi-finals. Now the red-whites will compete with Moscow's Lokomotiv or Rostov, who will play each other on Wednesday evening, to reach the super finals of the tournament. On the same day, the first match of the final of the "RPL Path" will take place — Zenit St. Petersburg will host CSKA Moscow.

Spartak – Dynamo

After losing the derby to CSKA Moscow (1:2) in the Russian championship, Spartak almost lost its chance of gold and seriously reduced its chances of medals. Dynamo also has a significant gap from the top three. Therefore, for both teams, the Russian Cup is the main chance to make a successful season for themselves.

In the first half, the teams exchanged goals fairly quickly: first, Spartak's Marquinhos opened the scoring with a powerful shot from the penalty area, but six minutes later, thanks to Daniil Denisov's own goal, Dynamo equalized. Before the break, both teams tried to attack, but they no longer created clear chances to take someone else's goal.

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As a result, football itself was surpassed in brightness by a scuffle at halftime, when Spartak head coach Deyan Stankovich went to sort things out with the chief referee of the match Pavel Kukuyan. The club staff had a hard time taking him away from the referee, but the Serbian's assistant Vincenzo Sasso eventually finished the game before being removed from the bench.

And at the beginning of the second half, the red and white took the lead again - after a cross from the left flank, Levi Garcia headed the ball into the far corner of Andrei Lunev's goal. In the remaining time, Dynamo could not create almost anything in attack and were eliminated from the cup.

Zenit – CSKA

Unlike the "Path of the Regions" in the "Path of the RPL" playoffs, each round is played in two matches. The first one in the framework of the final of this bracket between Zenit and CSKA will be held in St. Petersburg. The winner of this two-legged match will play in the superfinal. The St. Petersburg club and the Army team already played against each other at the same stage a year ago. Then they drew twice — 1-1 and 0-0, and Zenit was stronger in the penalty shootout (5-4), which would eventually win the cup.

Both teams are in the top three four rounds before the end of the Russian championship. CSKA broke into it last weekend, scoring a 2-1 derby victory over Spartak in the end. He is seven points behind the leading Krasnodar and three points behind the second-placed Zenit. Last week, the St. Petersburg club lost points in an away match against Dynamo Moscow (1-1) and seriously complicated their fight for gold. In this regard, both he and CSKA have to think very seriously about the rotation of the squad so that they have enough strength for both the championship and the cup.

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Zenit, Spartak, Lokomotiv, CSKA, Dynamo and Rostov advanced to the next stage.

"We have two difficult games ahead of us,— CSKA defender Milan Gajic told Izvestia. — We need to play very carefully in defense and use our chances in attack. Zenit is a good opponent, with whom you need to play at the maximum from the first to the last minute of the match. It is very important to play the first match well in St. Petersburg in order to gain a good advantage and feel a little more relaxed in Moscow. In any case, I think that with our victory over Spartak, we showed that we are in good condition now and are ready to beat anyone.

Lokomotiv – Rostov

These teams are playing each other for the second time in five days. Last weekend, they drew 1-1 at Rostov's home field in the championship. As a result of this match, four rounds before the end, the Don club secured its place in the RPL for the next season, but also lost the chance of medals. Therefore, the yellow and blue can focus on the cup.

Lokomotiv, which is in sixth place, has also almost lost its chances of winning prizes — the gap from CSKA, which closes the top three, is already six points. Therefore, it is also important for the Railwaymen to compete for the cup, in which they will meet Rostov on their own field.

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

— I think it will be a very unpredictable equal game, — Dmitry Bulykin, a former Loko striker, told Izvestia. — The Railwaymen are good offensively, they have a young, vibrant team, but Rostov also has a small average age of players, and due to the organization of the game it is able to beat anyone. Given that the match is important for both clubs in the context of the entire season, I expect a tough fight with a lot of mistakes that will decide the outcome of the meeting.

The final of the "Paths of the Regions" will be held in mid-May. At the same time, the return match between CSKA and Zenit will take place in the final of the "RPL Path". The superfinal is scheduled for early June in Moscow at the Luzhniki Stadium, where the winner of the Russian Cup will be determined.