Sports weekend with Izvestia

Football

The Russian Championship. Krasnodar – Rubin, Akhmat – CSKA, Zenit - Pari Nizhny Novgorod

The fight for the RPL championship is in full swing. Four rounds before the end of the tournament, Krasnodar is closer than ever to the first national championship gold in its history. So far, he is leading by four points from Zenit St. Petersburg, which is in second place, and will significantly increase his chances of triumph if he beats Rubin Kazan next weekend. In turn, the club from the Northern Capital needs to defeat the struggling Pari Nizhny Novgorod on its own field in order to maintain its chances of a seventh consecutive championship. CSKA Moscow, which is seven points behind Krasnodar, also has a theoretical opportunity to join the fight for gold. To keep it, it is necessary to defeat the extremely unyielding Grozny Akhmat.

May 3, 19:30, Krasnodar Stadium (Krasnodar). May 4: 16:30, Akhmat Arena (Grozny); 19:30, Gazprom Arena (St. Petersburg). Live broadcasts on Match TV and Match Premier

Hockey

Gagarin Cup. The semi-finals. The third and fourth matches. Salavat Yulaev – Lokomotiv, Dynamo – Traktor

The KHL season is nearing its conclusion. The first finalist of the playoffs may be determined this week. Traktor Chelyabinsk will become one of them if they win two away matches of the series against Dynamo Moscow on Friday and Sunday. In the first two, at home, the Ural club won. And now the blue and white need to gain the upper hand in the capital at least once in order to prolong the confrontation until next week. To which the Yaroslavl "Locomotive" and Ufa "Salavat Yulaev" have already extended their series — after the first two matches at the home arena of the "railwaymen" the score is 1:1. And they will definitely have to return to Yaroslavl for the fifth match. In the meantime, the third and fourth games in Ufa are waiting for us in the first part of the May holidays.

May 1, 3, 14:00, Ufa Arena (Ufa). May 2, 4, 17:00, VTB Arena (Moscow). Live broadcasts on Match TV, KHL TV, KHL Prime and Kinopoisk

Tennis

Men. Masters Tournament in Madrid

The tennis competition in the Spanish capital will end this week. On May 1, the quarterfinal matches will be held, in one of which Russian Daniil Medvedev will perform. He will take the court against Norwegian Kasper Ruud. If he wins, our tennis player will face Argentine Francisco Serundolo or Czech Jakub Menshik in the semifinals.

May 1, quarterfinals: 14:00, Medvedev – Ruud; 16:00, Serundolo – Menshik. May 2, semifinals. May 4, 19:30, final. Caja Mahika Stadium (Madrid, Spain). Live broadcasts on the ATP websites

Hockey

"Grand Tour – 2025"

While the national hockey teams of Russia and Belarus are suspended from international competitions, they traditionally tour the regions in their cities during the May holidays, where they play each other. This spring is no exception. However, it all starts, as in previous years, with Astana, where both teams will meet each other, as well as with Kazakhstan preparing for the World Cup. After that, our team and the Belarusians will play two face-to-face matches in Tolyatti, and finish the tour in Minsk.

May 1, 15:00, Kazakhstan – Russia. May 2, 16:00, Russia – Belarus. Barys Arena (Astana, Kazakhstan). Live broadcasts on Match TV and Match Country

Athletic gymnastics

Gymnastics Premier League Super Cup - 2025

After our athletes were suspended from most international competitions, new tournament formats appeared within the country. Thus, the Russian Gymnastics Federation, at the suggestion of its vice-president Nikita Nagorny, the champion of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, came up with a club competition format similar to team sports. For this purpose, the Gymnastics Premier League was created, where competitions are held all year round. One of the main trophies, the Super Cup, will be played on Sunday in Moscow. The teams "Winged Leopards" from Kazan and "GK Lions" from Vladimir will compete for it.

May 4, 12:00 p.m., Dynamo Sports Academy (Moscow)

Hockey

The Stanley Cup. The first round. Fifth and sixth matches

The first participant of the second round (quarterfinals) has already been determined in the NHL playoffs. It became the Carolina Hurricanes, which is supported by Russians Dmitry Orlov, Andrey Svechnikov and Peter Kochetkov. On the night of May 1, Moscow time, following the results of the fifth matches in their series, Alexander Ovechkin's Washington Capitals can join her if they beat Ivan Demidov's Montreal Canadiens, the current Stanley Cup winner, Sergey Bobrovsky's Florida Panthers, and Dmitry Kulikov if they beat Nikita's Tampa Bay Lightning. Kucherov and Andrey Vasilevsky. Otherwise, they will need at least the sixth matches. But where exactly the series will stretch to six games is the Winnipeg Jets of Vladislav Namestnikov and the St. Louis Blues of Pavel Buchnevich and Alexei Toropchenko. So far, the score in this confrontation is 2:2. The fifth match will be held on the night of May 1, and two days later they will meet for the sixth time in this series. Meanwhile, on May 2, the Toronto Maple Leafs can secure entry to the second round if they win in the fifth match against Artyom Zubov's Ottawa Senators.

According to the results of the sixth meetings on the same day, the Vegas Golden Night of Ivan Barbashev and Pavel Dorofeev, who leads 3-2 in the confrontation with the Minnesota Wild of Kirill Kaprizov and Yakov Trenin, the Dallas Stars of Evgeny Dadonov and Ilya Lyubushkin, with a similar score of the winning Colorado, have a chance to qualify for the next stage. The Avalanche of Valery Nichushkin, as well as the Edmonton Oilers of Vasily Podkolzin, who had one victory left to knock out the Los Angeles Kings of Vladislav Gavrikov and Andrei Kuzmenko from the tournament. All series go up to four wins for one of the teams, so each of them can stretch to seven matches, which will be held at the end of the week.

May 1: 02:00, Capital One Arena (Washington, USA); 02:30, Amali Arena (Tampa, USA); 04:30, Canadian Tire Center (Winnipeg, Canada). May 2: 02:00, Canadian Tire Center (Ottawa, Canada); 02:30, Excel Energy Center (Saint Paul, USA); 04:30, Ball Arena (Denver, USA); 05:00, Roger Place (Edmonton, Canada); 23:00, Enterprise Center (St. Louis, USA).