Friendly sign: how clubs are preparing for the start of the new RPL season

The summer of 2025 for Russian clubs is marked by preparations for the new season. RPL teams actively hold friendly matches, test new schemes, give game practice to young football players and test themselves against strong opponents. We tell you about the main results of the last friendly matches and about the upcoming matches.

Enrique's goals

Zenit St. Petersburg started preparing for the season with a convincing 3-0 victory over Serbia's Crvena Zvezda in Sochi. Brazil's Luis Enrique scored two goals (40th and 74th minutes), while Argentina's Luciano Gondu scored another (63rd minute). Zenit managed to achieve a crushing result, despite playing in the minority: in the 67th minute, team captain Douglas Santos fouled in front of the penalty area and received a direct red card.

"I am very pleased with this start to the season," Luis Enrique told Izvestia. — I scored two goals and I'm happy that I helped the team win. But we continue to work, we still have something to strive for. We are going to prepare well for the season, let it be a season of victories and many achievements. What are my personal goals? Oh, I want to score 10-15 goals. And give 10 assists. That's my goal!

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This was Zenit's sixth meeting with the Belgrade club in the last three years. The blue-white-blues have two more control games ahead: on July 3 with Dynamo from Makhachkala and on July 9 with Swiss Sion, for which Anton Miranchuk plays. According to SE, Zenit does not consider him a priority candidate, but given the recent news that the midfielder is ready to consider offers from top RPL clubs, this match may be a reason to pay attention to Miranchuk for other teams from Russia.

The victories of Spartak and Lokomotiv

Spartak Moscow played a friendly match on June 29, in which they beat Torpedo (3:1) at the Tarasovka base. Roman Zobnin (from the penalty spot), Marquinhos and Ezequiel Barco scored goals, while Irakli Manelov scored for Avtozavod.

On July 6, the Red and White will play their second friendly match in preparation for the new RPL season. The meeting with Samara Wings of the Soviets will be held at the Lukoil Arena.

Lokomotiv has already managed to win two victories at the summer training camp in Bakovka. The first game took place on June 25 with Arsenal from Dzerzhinsk and ended with a victory for Lokomotiv with a score of 3:1. Vladislav Sarveli scored a double in the first half, and then Nikita Saltykov scored another goal.

The second friendly match of Mikhail Galaktionov's team took place on June 29, the opponent was Arsenal Tula. In a stubborn struggle, the railwaymen gained the upper hand (3:2). Maxim Nenakhov and Alexey Batrakov scored goals in the first half, and Alexander Silyanov scored the decisive goal in the last minutes.

Matches with media teams and the Fraternal Cup

As part of the Media x Pro Cup tournament, CSKA defeated Amkal 4-0. Kellven, Artyom Shumansky and Tamerlan Musaev scored (double). Dynamo beat 2Drops heavily in their match (3:0). The goalscorers were Ivan Lepsky, Daniil Lesovoy and Yaroslav Gladyshev.

Now both Moscow clubs are preparing for the Fraternal Cup, where they will play against two teams from Belgrade — Partizan and OFK.

The matches of the first round of Dynamo – OFK and CSKA – Partizan will be held on June 30 and July 1, both meetings will begin at 19:00 Moscow time. The second round is scheduled for July 4 and 5: Dynamo will host Partizan, and CSKA will play OFC.

Fight and mayhem

One of the most high-profile pre-season matches took place between Krasnodar and Dynamo Makhachkala. The meeting was held at the stadium of FC Krasnodar Academy and was held in an unusual format: three halves with a total duration of 120 minutes (45, 45, 30). Krasnodar's newcomers took part in the game, including central defenders Zhubal and Vitaly Stezhko, winger Gustavo Santos, as well as goalkeeper Alexander Koryakin.

But the main event was a mass brawl at the end of the first half, as a result of which five players were removed: Joao Batchi and Kevin Lenini received red cards from Krasnodar, Hamid Agalarov, Valentin Paltingov and Mutalip Alibekov left the field. All the deleted players were replaced.

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The match ended with a score of 4:1 in favor of the Bulls, the goalscorers were Alexander Chernikov (own goal), Danila Kozlov, Eldar Huseynov, Kazbek Mukailov and Dmitry Kuchugura.

Who are the other teams playing against

Rostov, in addition to the meeting with Krasnodar scheduled for July 5, will hold friendly matches with Dynamo from Makhachkala (July 8) and Fakel (July 12).

Rubin Kazan focused on sparring with the FNL teams: the match with KAMAZ ended in a 1-1 draw, and Yenisei will be the second opponent of Rashid Rakhimov's team (July 3).

Akron's players will face three test matches against Spartak Kostroma (June 30), Arsenal Tula (July 7) and SKA Khabarovsk (July 11).

The preparatory program of Krylia Sovetov, in addition to the last match with Sokol Saratov (0:1), includes meetings with KAMAZ (July 1), Spartak (July 6) and Akhmat — the latter, by the way, holds training camps in Novogorsk, where on July 8 he will play with Dynamo Moscow.