The eighth record: how CSKA won the Russian Super Cup

CSKA beat Krasnodar in the Russian Super Cup with a minimum score. The only goal in the 48th minute after a corner was scored by the defender of the army Igor Diveev. The game was the first for the red-Blues under the leadership of the new head coach Fabio Celestini, who replaced Marko Nikolic. CSKA won the Russian Super Cup for the eighth time in its history. In terms of the number of wins, he came close to Zenit (9), which is the record holder of the tournament. Krasnodar lost in the National Super Cup for the second consecutive season.

With permutations

The first round of the Russian championship will begin on July 18, but we can already congratulate all fans of Russian football on the start of the 2025/26 season. The Super Cup is the prologue of a new story, where everything will start from scratch. Therefore, after a pause, there is a feeling that you are opening some kind of gift.

The summer passed differently for Krasnodar and CSKA. The Russian champion has retained the backbone of the team, with all the leaders in place. We parted with a large number of players, including Smolov, Kayo and Gazinsky. But there are also newcomers, primarily Brazilians Douglas Augusto, winger Gustavo Santos and central defender Jubal.

The CSKA Cup winner's transfer changes are less ambitious: so far they have signed only the technician from Sao Paulo, Mateus Alves. He, like the Krasnodar newcomers, remained on the bench (Augusto was not included in the application, as the deal was closed quite recently). But another thing is more important: the Army team has changed its head coach. And Fabio Celestini made serious adjustments to Marko Nikolic's playing style during the pre-season. Of course, this is largely due to the departure of Pyanic, Zhemaletdinov, Guarirapa and Bistrovich. They have yet to be replaced, but the outlines of the updated project are already clearly visible.

It became clear from the very first minutes that this season we would see a new CSKA — with the same 4-4-2, but without the "diamond", with Krugov as a false winger and with a pair of Kislyak Oblyaks controlling the center of the field. It is clear that this is far from the final version of the team — due to Nikolic's sudden departure, the army team was a little late in forming the squad, but there is no doubt that several more high-quality players should arrive this summer.

Krasnodar, against the background of CSKA, seems to be an already assembled team that lacks a couple of touches (for example, Gaetan Perrin, the Frenchman's transfer should be completed soon). This is largely why the Bulls had the advantage in the first half. Victor Sa was particularly intense on the left flank: he passed Gajic several times, shot dangerously once, and at another moment he sharply passed into the goalkeeper's box, where Cordoba lacked a few centimeters to open the scoring.

A powerful start

John led the team as the best player last season. In the middle of the second half, he fell out almost one-on-one with Akinfeev, but could not outplay the goalkeeper in close combat. The CSKA defenders understood the threat, so several times Willian Rocha forced Cordoba to fall to the turf in pain. However, it was difficult to call the game really rough — before the break, only Diveev got the mustard plaster.

CSKA looked dismantled for a long time and only fought back, but the end of the half remained with him. At first, Shumansky put the body well and almost missed the target after hitting it from the summer. Then Musaev outplayed Diego Costa in the air and hit his head from close range. However, it turned out to be uncensored and straight into the hands of Agkatsev. And finally, Kislyak almost opened the scoring with a shot from outside the penalty area - Krasnodar was saved by Tormen's bravely substituted head. It was interesting to watch such 0-0 games, there were plenty of moments.

The ball at the start: what to expect from the match between Krasnodar and CSKA

The Bulls will try to win the first Super Cup in their history, Celestini will beautifully open a chapter in a new club

At least the fact that both teams scored nine corners between them spoke about the large number of sharp approaches in the first half. The tenth became decisive. We praised CSKA Nikolic for his standards, and even after the departure of both the Serbian coach and Pjanic, this trump card remained. Rocha won the fight and made a discount to the goalkeeper, where Diveev beat Chernikov and opened the scoring, proving why, together with Osipenko, he is considered the main defender-scorer of the RPL.

It seemed that after this, Krasnodar would quickly regain control of the ball and increase the pressure, but this did not happen. The Bulls seemed to be running out of batteries more and more by the minute, and the discharge was clearly faster than that of CSKA. The Army team controlled the ball much more confidently, used the flanks and brought the game to dangerous areas. Schumansky looked especially bright — the young Belarusian rarely played with Nikolic, and Celestini may well become a solid mainstay. Artyom impressed several times with his technique (once he even performed "Marseille roulette") and scored several shots on goal.

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The red card

At the end of the hour, Musaev tried to influence the game with substitutions, including releasing the clockwork Gustavo Santos. He rolled the ball well to Cordoba, but John couldn't hit it properly. It worked out for Tormen after Olasa's submission, but this time Akinfeev was on the spot: a competent choice of position, his fists outstretched, and the threat was averted.

Well, the unequivocal hero with a minus sign for Krasnodar was Moses Kobnan, who entered the field. For some reason, the attacker thrust his palm into Gayich's face, provoking a conflict between Oblyakov and Olasa. Well, referee Artem Chistyakov made a tough decision after watching the replay, showing Moses a red card. There wasn't much to count on with the ten of them in the remaining five minutes. Krasnodar almost ran into the second goal (Koita let the ball go far away when going to Agkatsev), did not create anything dangerous and missed the chance to win the Super Cup. And Fabio Celestini has a great start to his career in Russia — with a trophy.

"A victory always creates positive emotions for both the coach and the managers in relation to this coach," Yuri Semin, former coach of Lokomotiv and the Russian national team, told Izvestia. — The match was equal and intense, there was a lot of technical flaw. But a victory is a victory. Igor Akinfeev has raised another Super Cup over his head, and now he holds the record in this regard.

The goalkeeper of the Army team won the Super Bowl for the eighth time and became the sole record holder of the tournament in this indicator. The 39-year-old Akinfeev beat Sergey Ignashevich and Mikhail Kerzhakov, who have seven wins each. Alexey Berezutsky, Vasily Berezutsky and Yuri Zhirkov each won the Super Bowl six times.