Golden attraction: will Krasnodar be able to take away the championship from Zenit

The denouement in the Russian Football Championship will come on Saturday, when the matches of the last round will be held. The main intrigue is whether Zenit St. Petersburg's hegemony will be interrupted. The club from the Northern Capital is bidding for the seventh gold in a row, which will be a record in the history of the national championship. However, so far the blue-white-blues are only in second place. For the championship, they not only need to beat Akhmat Grozny at home in the 30th round, but the leading Krasnodar must also lose points on their own field in the game against Dynamo Moscow, which, in turn, claims bronze medals along with CSKA and Spartak. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the table, the struggle continues to maintain registration in the RPL without transitional matches.

Krasnodar – Dynamo (Moscow)

Founded in 2008, Krasnodar has gone from the amateur division to the RPL gold in less than 20 years. He made his Premier League debut in 2011. He took the first medal at the end of the 2013/14 season. It was bronze. Later, the bulls repeated this success in 2019 and 2020. And last season they won silver. They had a steady upward movement, successful seasons in European competitions and reaching the group stage of the Champions League.

In addition, the club is famous for its academy, which has produced many stellar students. Some of them have made a name for themselves in Krasnodar itself. The only thing this organization lacks is trophies. Krasnodar was three times on the verge of success. In 2014 and 2023, he only lost the finals of the Russian Cup in a penalty shootout.

And last season he led the league for a long time. But he slowed down in the spring when he unexpectedly fired head coach Vladimir Ivich. Although Murad Musayev, who replaced him, claimed the first place in the last round. But in the end he finished second. A year ago, in the last round, 10 minutes before the end of all matches, the situation was in favor of Krasnodar — Zenit was playing a draw at home with Rostov, and he needed a victory to take the gold. As a result, the Petersburgers scored the winning goal in the end (2-1) and took the trophy for the sixth time in a row.

Last summer, Krasnodar parted ways with a number of leaders. In particular, he sold goalkeeper Matvey Safonov to the French PSG for € 20 million. But Stanislav Agkatsev, who replaced him, also confidently led the club into the lead. As a result, Musaev's team has every chance to please the owner and founder of the club, Sergei Galitsky, the main ideologist of the entire project, before the end of the tour.

"There is motivation to prevent Krasnodar, but we are thinking about our tasks"

Dynamo Moscow football player Daniil Fomin — about the match of the last round of the Russian Premier League, the fight for bronze, the resignation of his personal account and the games of the national team

To do this, it is enough for them to beat Dynamo Moscow at home. And there is a reason for this, since in the last round of the last championship these teams also played each other in Krasnodar. Back then, Dynamo were leading the RPL and were close to winning their first championship in 48 years. Moreover, a draw was enough for them to take the gold. But they lost 0:1 and suffered one of the biggest disappointments in their history.

Now the blue and white football players are not hiding that they want to arrange a similar story for Krasnodar. But they also have a purely practical motivation — they are fighting for medals themselves. To take the bronze, they need to beat the Bulls and expect that third-placed CSKA will lose at home to Pari Nizhny Novgorod.

"Just like a year ago, it's going to be a very exciting and intense match," Sergei Silkin, former Dynamo head coach, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — Then Krasnodar won with a one-goal difference. He played a little better, but at the same time Dynamo could have equalized in the end and won the gold — they hit the post twice. At that moment, psychologically, they could not cope with the pressure of the proximity of the championship. Krasnodar is now in their position. Dynamo has won all the matches after the change of head coach, it is on a good run and clearly wants to both win a medal and get even for the disappointment of the last championship. And for Krasnodar, it will be an excellent test of their willingness to take the last step towards success.

Zenit – Akhmat

In St. Petersburg, they initially placed a very big bet on the current championship. A year ago, Zenit narrowly won its sixth gold in a row and equaled Spartak Moscow in this indicator.

Zenit was clearly primed to surpass this success of its principal rival. In addition, May 25 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the club. A whole series of festive events in St. Petersburg will be dedicated to this, including a number of anniversary shows, a legends match with the participation of star football players of the past, and an SSG flotilla with current and former blue-white-blue players.

The mood of this celebration depends on the outcome of the championship race. Zenit is the clear favorite in the match against Akhmat, which had a very strong spring with a long unbeaten streak, but due to the disastrous first half of the season, it was stuck in 14th place and will definitely not avoid transitional matches with the club that finished third or fourth in the first league.

"Zenit is unlikely to misfire in the last match of the season," Dmitry Bulykin, a former striker for the Russian national team, said in a conversation with Izvestia. — Especially on the eve of the celebration in honor of its anniversary, the team will not allow itself to disappoint the St. Petersburg fans. So in the fight for gold, everything depends on the match between Krasnodar and Dynamo.

CSKA Moscow – Pari Nizhny Novgorod

The army team needs to defeat the "Pari NN" in order to win the bronze medal and complete the first of two tasks for the spring. The second one will be a victory in the Russian Cup, in which CSKA will play Rostov in the superfinal on June 1. The Red-Blues have never lost in the spring part of the championship. And Paris NN failed in the first half of spring and almost fell into the direct relegation zone. Then he was able to improve, but he is still in the transition zone.

To get out of it, Viktor Goncharenko's wards need to defeat the Army men on a visit, and also hope that Khimki will lose to Spartak, Dynamo Makhachkala will not win at home against Rostov, or Samara Krylia Sovetov will lose to the already relegated Voronezh Fakel.

Meanwhile, if CSKA misfires and does not win its last match at home, it may be pushed out of third place by Spartak in the event of a victory over Khimki. If CSKA loses, then Dynamo Moscow can beat it.

"It's easier for the referees to make a decision against Zenit than in its favor."

Andrey Arshavin, Deputy Chairman of the Board for Sports Development of the blue-White-Blues, talks about Golovin, Sobolev and the main intrigues of the RPL

There will also be two more non-tournament matches in the upcoming 30th round. Rubin Kazan will meet Orenburg at home, while Lokomotiv Moscow will visit Akron Togliatti.

Let's remind that Fakel and Orenburg have already left the RPL directly, taking the last two places — 15th and 16th, respectively. In addition, the last, 34th round in the first league will be held on Saturday. Baltika Kaliningrad has already secured the first place there, which is returning to the RPL after last year's relegation. The Moscow Torpedo can get a second direct ticket there if it does not lose at home to KAMAZ from Naberezhnye Chelny.

In case of defeat of Avtozavodtsy, they may be overtaken by Novorossiysk Chernomorets, which will also need to win at home against Sochi. However, Novorossiysk has not yet received a license to play in the RPL, so their path to the elite depends not only on the results on the football field. Chernomorets and Sochi, if they remain in the current third and fourth places, will play in transitional matches for entry into the RPL — Akhmat and another of the teams that will be determined on Saturday will become rivals. At the same time, the Yekaterinburg Ural can still move Sochi from fourth place. The transition matches will be held next week on May 28 and 31.