It's time for autumn: what awaits us in the first September RPL tour

The Russian Football Championship among the RPL teams resumes its draw after a two-week pause for the national team games. In the upcoming eighth round, which will be the first of the autumn, the main confrontations will be the Dynamo–Spartak Moscow derby and the visit of Zenit St. Petersburg to the main sensation of the summer, the Kaliningrad Baltic.

Dynamo (Moscow) – Spartak

This derby has long been considered one of the most important in our football. And Saturday's meeting of these teams is especially important due to their poor tournament position caused by a disastrous start. However, Spartak scored seven out of nine points in the last three August rounds, drawing Zenit at home (2:2), beating the strong Rubin Kazan (2:0) and defeating Sochi (2:1). Although the last game did not give any reason to talk about the final exit of the red and white from the crisis. They beat the last-placed southern club with great difficulty, scoring the winning goal from the penalty spot only in the last minutes of the match. Nevertheless, Dejan Stankovic's team rose to sixth place. The gap from the leading Krasnodar is five points.

Dynamo Moscow, which is in ninth place, is eight points behind the first place. So far, things are not going well for Valery Karpin's wards. They have scored only two victories in seven rounds — at home over Rostov (1-0) and Pari Nizhny Novgorod (3-0), which are located at the bottom of the table. And so far there are no ways out of the situation.

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In the summer, the club strengthened the squad well for its new head coach, but before the break for the national team games, the blue and white lost away to Dynamo Makhachkala (0:1), one of the lowest-budget clubs in the Russian Premier League. Perhaps the situation was improved during the two-week break for the national team matches. The problem is that Valery Karpin, who also works as the head coach of the Russian national team, was absent from the club during this period.

"Both teams significantly updated their squads in the summer and for the first time had the opportunity to practice calmly for a couple of weeks, to make connections, and it is unclear in what form they will come out for the next match, so the result is unpredictable," Andrey Chervichenko, the former owner of Spartak, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — Dynamo has two problems — wild nefart in front in attack and Nicolas Marichal in back in defense. Nevertheless, Dynamo has a good chance of winning. Few players left for the national teams, and the absence of a head coach may even be a plus — the same Karpin will reboot, somewhere at a distance he will comprehend some moments that hindered the summer. Spartak, on the other hand, plays in waves — sometimes it gives out a great game, then it fails. Again, I recently bought new players who are unclear when they will adapt to the team. In any case, the team is very dependent on Stankovich's emotional swings, which harms it. I don't think anything will improve here, so I don't believe in her prospects with this coach.

Baltika – Zenit

The Kaliningrad club only returned to the RPL from the first league this spring after a one-year break. And immediately brought a stir in the summer part of the season. Andrey Talalaev's team has never lost in seven rounds. And they are in fourth place, one point behind the first. Zenit is only three points behind Baltika.

Sergei Semak's team failed at the start of the championship, but after two victories at the end of the summer they climbed to fifth place and almost caught up with the group of leaders. Now they will face a tough test in the form of one of the most difficult outings this season for any of the teams. But Baltika will also be tested against one of the toughest rivals, who has won six of the last seven championships.

"This is one of the main psychological tests for the St. Petersburg club to be able to compete for gold," Anatoly Byshovets, former Zenit head coach, told Izvestia. — The team looked very academic in the summer, playing on the inertia of past successes, which had already ruined it in the last championship, when it lost the first place to Krasnodar. Nevertheless, even the current squad has potential. Alexander Sobolev and Maxim Glushenkov have gained good form, and Andrey Mostovoy is showing himself well. Russian players are trying to take the lead in an environment where Brazilians of the level of Wendell, Jedson and Luis Enrique are not playing to the limit of their abilities. And they will be opposed by the very organized and militant Baltika, which knows how to make the most of any moment.

Akhmat – Lokomotiv

The Grozny club also made a bad start to the championship, losing in the first three matches. After that, head coach Alexander Storozhuk was replaced by Stanislav Cherchesov. The former coach of the Russian national team returned to the Chechen team 12 years after his departure from it. Then, having failed at Spartak, he restarted his career, and Terek (at that time it was called Akhmat) took the eighth place — the club's best result in the RPL at that time.

Cherchesov started successfully in Grozny again last summer. Akhmat played four matches under his leadership, achieving two wins and two draws. It is especially worth highlighting the home victory over Zenit (1-0) and the away draw with Orenburg (2-2), when Egash Kasintura was removed from Grozny at the beginning of the game, and the opponent led 2-0. Having one more player, Akhmat was able to even the score, and more than Half an hour before the end of the match, Lechi Sadulaev was also removed. But the five of them managed to keep the score tied.

Lokomotiv, on the other hand, started with four wins, but then there were three draws in a row. And if the salvation from defeat away from Baltika (1:1) can be attributed to your asset, then the missed home victories over Rostov (3:3) and Samara Wings of the Soviets (2:2) were a disaster. In both cases, Loko led by two goals, but allowed the opponents to recoup. Moreover, they compared the score in the last seconds of the meetings.

The Railwaymen continue to lead the group, one point behind Krasnodar. But the latest misfires leave them no choice but to play for victory with Akhmat, who managed to climb into the top ten under Cherchesov.

"In a short time, Cherchesov was able to convey to Akhmat the characteristic character of his teams," Nikolai Naumov, former president of Lokomotiv, told Izvestia. — Due to this, they get points in every match, even if the game is not in their favor, as it was in Orenburg. And this creates big problems for Lokomotiv, which has an insufficient margin of safety and character. In this regard, there may be the same problems as in the away match against Baltika. I think a draw will already be a success for Loko, given its condition at the end of the summer.

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There will be five more matches in the upcoming round. Rubin Kazan will host Dynamo Makhachkala. Pari Nizhny Novgorod will face Orenburg. Krasnodar is waiting for Tolyatti Akron in its native walls. Rostov will have a home game with CSKA Moscow. And Samara's Krylia Sovetov will face off at home against Sochi, which recently appointed former Samara coach Igor Osinkin as head coach.