Race of Champions: the winners of the last two years will meet in the RPL

In the upcoming ninth round of the Russian Football Championship, we are waiting for the top match between Krasnodar and Zenit, the two strongest teams of the last two draws. Among other games, it is worth highlighting the visit of the Moscow "Locomotive" to visit the Makhachkala "Dynamo" and the home match of the Moscow "Spartak" against the Samara "Wings of the Soviets".

Krasnodar – Zenit

The confrontation between these two teams has long been one of the most striking in the RPL. It gained a special character in the previous two seasons, when Krasnodar managed to challenge Zenit's hegemony in the championship. The season before last, he kept his chances for gold until the last round, but in the end it went to the St. Petersburg team for the sixth time in a row, and the bulls took silver. Following the results of the last championship in the spring of 2025, the southern club managed to win the trophy for the first time in its history, taking away the leadership from the blue-white-blues.

This season, Krasnodar is confidently leading the national championship, while Zenit is once again in crisis. He lost a lot of points in the first eight rounds and is in sixth place, six points behind the first. In order to re-engage in the fight for the championship, he needs to win in a face-to-face meeting with the bulls.

"Increased thanks to Karpin's trust"

Dynamo Moscow football player Denis Makarov — about returning to the main squad, the departure of the head coach to the national team and goals for the season

This match will be the first since 2021 in Krasnodar, where the rivals will be able to fly by plane. This week, for the first time since February 2022, the local airport was opened. Krasnodar itself played an away match of the Russian Cup with Krylia Sovetov on Wednesday (2:1). He flew to Samara and back by plane. Previously, for three and a half years, the team had to travel to away matches either directly by train, or by train to Stavropol or Mineralnye Vody, and from there by plane.

"It's going to be a bright and unpredictable match," Maxim Demenko, a former Krasnodar and Zenit midfielder, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — Our current champion looks like the favorite of the meeting. Not only because he is in the lead by a wide margin from Zenit. It's just that he has a more stable and well-directed game, besides, psychologically, after last season's triumph, Krasnodar has learned to take his own course and show character in difficult situations. The St. Petersburg club is gaining points with great difficulty, in the same last match against Baltika (0-0) it did not look its best and deservedly lost points. And he needs to rebuild very seriously in order to succeed following the results of his trip to Krasnodar.

Dynamo (Makhachkala) – Lokomotiv

Lokomotiv started the season with four wins, but then played four draws in a row. The Railwaymen are in second place, three points behind the leader. Now they have to travel to the very unyielding Makhachkala Dynamo, which last season, with the smallest budget in the RPL, managed to keep its registration in the elite without transitional matches. Now the Dagestan club is trying to do the same thing. He is in 12th place, but is only one point ahead of the transition zone and two points ahead of the direct relegation zone.

—Lokomotiv is having a hard time playing against teams that are inferior to it in class," Nikolai Naumov, former president of the Railwaymen, said in a conversation with Izvestia. — He is good at counterattacking against strong opponents like Krasnodar, which he won against at the beginning of the season (2-1). It's more difficult with the teams from the bottom of the table who play defensively. Loko has a weak positional attack, and if it scores first, then for some reason it immediately starts to press back itself and misses victories, as was the case with Rostov (3:3) and Krylia Sovetov (2:2). If he misses first, then he hardly compares the score, as with Baltika (1:1) and Akhmat (1:1), and there is no question of victory. Even winning the match against Sochi (3-0) in the first round was very difficult for Lokomotiv. And it will be just as difficult in Makhachkala, where the local Dynamo, like no other, knows how to destroy the opponent's game and defend tightly.

Time first: group winners can be determined in the Russian Cup

In the fourth round, Zenit will host Akhmat, Krasnodar will go to Samara, Spartak will play Rostov

Spartak – Krylia Sovetov

Spartak, after a failed start to the season, seemed to be gaining momentum, earning seven out of nine points in three rounds in the second half of August. But after a pause for the national team games, he misfired again, having drawn in the Moscow derby with Dynamo (2:2) in the last round. This again pushed the red-whites into the middle of the table in eighth place with a seven-point gap from the leading Krasnodar.

Above them are Krylia Sovetov, which is much inferior to Spartak in terms of budget, having scored the same number of points with Deyan Stankovich's team and ahead of it in additional indicators (the number of goals scored). The Spartak head coach himself will watch this match from the podium, as he was sent off again during the break of the game with Dynamo for insulting the referee. On Friday, the RFU KDC will review this episode and impose a sanction on Stankovich. According to the "Sport-Express", the Serbian faces four matches of disqualification.

"It's hard to predict anything for Spartak - this team can either have a great match with the favorite and win, or suddenly lose to someone from the bottom of the table," Andrei Chervichenko, the former owner of the red and white, told Izvestia. — In August, he seemed to have played two great matches in a row with Zenit (2-2) and Rubin (2-0), but then only thanks to the referees he won against Sochi in last place (2-1). And anything can happen in a match against Krylia, which is on a par with Spartak. The Samara club, in turn, started the season for health, and will most likely finish, as before, for peace — closer to the bottom of the table. But this particular match can be won.

There will also be five more matches in the upcoming round. Pari Nizhny Novgorod will host Akhmat Grozny on a neutral field in Saransk. Tolyatti Akron will play at home with Rubin Kazan. Orenburg will face Dynamo Moscow at home. Kaliningrad's Baltika will host Rostov. And Sochi will compete at home with CSKA Moscow.