Autumn dropout: which RPL clubs will leave the Russian Cup

In the Russian Football Cup, most of the participants in the "RPL Path" playoffs are already known, but there are still intrigues for the last sixth round of the group stage. The main one will be the confrontation between Dynamo Moscow and Krylia Sovetov Samara — the winner will finish second in his group and go on, the loser will become the third and go to the "Path of the Regions". In the remaining quarters, those who took the first and second places have already been determined. The only question is who finishes first and who finishes second. In addition, in some groups, the struggle for third place and entry into the "Path of the Regions" continues.

According to the current regulations, 16 RPL teams are divided into four groups of four participants each. The top two places advance to the RPL Paths playoffs and play against each other there. The third places go to the "Path of the Regions", where they will play with representatives of the lower leagues. And the fourth-place teams are eliminated from the Cup.

Group A

Zenit St. Petersburg solved all their problems in this group pretty quickly. At the end of the fourth round, he secured the first place. Sergei Semak's team won five matches out of five. And now they are waiting for their quarterfinal opponent, who will be the second team of Group B, that is, Dynamo Moscow or Krylia Sovetov.

Orenburg secured second place in the round before the finish and will play Krasnodar in the quarterfinals of the RPL Road. At the same time, success in the Russian Cup did not save Orenburg from changing the head coach. After the 11th round, the club dismissed Vladimir Slishkovich from this post. He was replaced by Ildar Akhmetzyanov, who established himself through his work at KAMAZ from Naberezhnye Chelny.

The 41-year-old specialist led the Tatarstan club from the second league to the first in 2021, where he confidently held the team for more than four seasons with one of the most modest budgets in the championship. Thus, Akhmetzyanov earned a reputation in football circles as a promising coach who is able to develop young people and achieve results with very limited opportunities.

His RPL debut turned into an away draw with Krylia Sovetov (1-1) in the 12th round of the championship. Orenburg is in 14th place in the transition zone in this tournament. Rubin Kazan and Akhmat Grozny are doing much better in the national championship, taking seventh and ninth places respectively.

But both teams performed poorly in the Cup, and in the last round their face-to-face match in the capital of Tatarstan will determine who will leave the tournament this season and who will try to get to the trophy through the "Path of the Regions". Last weekend, Rubin soundly lost at home in the Kaliningrad championship to Baltika (0:3), and Akhmat missed an away victory over Dynamo Moscow (2:2). Currently, Grozny is one point behind Kazan in the Cup and must win if they want to continue playing in the tournament.

"We want to perform well in all tournaments, so we will do everything to win in Kazan and continue playing in the Cup,— Akhmat goalkeeper Giorgi Shelia told Izvestia. — We have already shown in the championship that we can play on equal terms with any opponent and fight for victory in any match. Now we will try to do this in the meeting with Rubin. Moreover, we have already beaten him in the Cup.

Group B

The Krasnodar-Sochi Southern derby in the last round will be a simple formality, since the Bulls have already secured the first place in the group and can prepare for two quarterfinal matches with Orenburg, while Sochi will not rise from the last line and will soon leave the tournament.

The battle for second place between Dynamo and Krylia is central to the entire round. The teams have already played in Samara — then the meeting ended in a draw in regular time (0:0), and the penalty shootout remained for Krylia (5:4). Both teams have an equal number of points before the end of the round. Therefore, the situation is simple: the winner of the match (whether in regular time or following a penalty shootout) goes further into the "RPL Path", and the loser goes down into the "Path of the Regions".

Both teams are going through a difficult period in the championship. Samara got off to a good start in the tournament, but since mid—September they have scored only one point in four matches - only in the last round they drew with Orenburg (1-1) and broke a series of three defeats in a row.

Because of this, they dropped to 11th place and were only three points ahead of the transition zone. Dynamo is on the eighth line, 10 points behind the leader. And this is not what was expected from the team after the appointment of Valery Karpin as head coach, as well as a number of summer transfers. If Dynamo still crashes out of the "RPL Path" in the Cup, the situation for the club will be even more sad.

— Krylia has always been an uncomfortable opponent for Dynamo, and this season is no exception, — Sergey Silkin, the former head coach of the blue and white team, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — Samara has already won a penalty shootout against Karpin's team in the Cup and almost won back from 0:3 in the championship, losing only 2:3 in the end. Krylia Sovetov may well bet on the Cup and take advantage of Dynamo's problems if they relax too much and underestimate the opponent, deciding that If he hasn't been winning much lately, then he can be beaten completely. It is unlikely that the Dynamo club will be pleased with the early departure from the RPL Path. After all, they did not assemble such a team and appoint a national team coach to lead them in order to immediately follow the "Path of the Regions", depriving themselves of the right to make mistakes in this tournament. Dynamo will probably bet on the Russian Cup, as it is a good way to make the season a success, taking into account the disastrous results in the championship. But to do this, we need to be as serious as possible about the match with Krylia in order to get out of the group from second place and continue the fight in the "RPL Path".

Group C

Dynamo Makhachkala is currently fighting for survival in the Russian championship, where it is in 13th place in the transition zone, but it unexpectedly leads its group in the Cup, three points ahead of Spartak Moscow.

The issue of the group winner will be finally resolved in the last round, when Dynamo will host Spartak. To stay on top, it is enough for Khasanbi Bijiyev's wards not to lose in regular time. It is already known that these two clubs will get into the quarterfinals against CSKA and Lokomotiv. Moreover, the second-place team will most likely have to play with the Army. And it is possible that in November we will see the most popular derby in the country, between Spartak and CSKA, in the "RPL Way" playoffs.

Meanwhile, in group C, it is not completely clear who will go to the "Path of the Regions" from the third place. This will be decided based on the results of the Rostov –Pari Nizhny Novgorod match. So far, Rostov residents are one point ahead of Nizhny Novgorod residents.

"Spartak players have already stumbled against Makhachkala more than once over the past year, so I wouldn't be surprised if they don't win against them in the next match," Andrei Chervichenko, the former owner of the red and white, said in a conversation with Izvestia. — Dagestanis have a very combative team that fights from the first to the last minute. And that last season I took points away from Spartak in the championship and beat them in the Cup, and that I've already done it this season. Given the current state of Spartak, when they have obvious problems with the mood and quality of the game, Dynamo should at least not lose to them at home and keep the first place. Only a weak class of players can interfere with the Makhachkala team, especially if they are not the main squad. Here, if they make any defensive mistakes, one of the Spartak attackers can score a stray goal at the expense of an individual class and bring victory to his team.

Group D

Initially, few doubted that CSKA Moscow and Lokomotiv would take the top two places. And so it turned out. The teams scored 10 points each, and the Army team is ahead of the railwaymen only thanks to victories in personal meetings. At the end of last week, they also played against each other in the Russian championship, where they determined who would be the leader of the RPL next.

Loko won 3-0 and took away the first place from CSKA. Now he shares it with Krasnodar, ahead of him in additional indicators with equal points. The Army team is two points behind. In the CSKA Cup, in the last round of the group stage, Acron Togliatti will host, while Lokomotiv will visit Baltika Kaliningrad.

Interestingly, both Moscow teams may not be interested in winning the first place from each other in absentia, as this may mean a tough quarterfinal confrontation with Spartak. Baltika and Akron are also on par, scoring five points apiece. Kaliningraders are ahead of Tolyatti residents in personal meetings. And in the last round, it will be decided which of them will go to the "Path of the Regions", and who will focus on the championship this season.

"Most likely, all four teams in this group will play as non—core squads, as they did in the previous five rounds, and they are unlikely to change their approach now," suggested Nikolai Naumov, former president of Lokomotiv. — After a difficult face-to-face derby in the championship, the army and the railwaymen cannot waste the strength of key players on the Cup in the midst of the fight for gold in the RPL. Akron faces an uphill struggle for survival. Except that Baltika, which is in the leadership group, can still throw some of its strength into the Cup. But in general, we are highly likely to see another check of the reserves that CSKA and Lokomotiv have stronger, so they should calmly win the class and prepare for the quarterfinals.

The matches of the sixth round of the group stage will be held from Tuesday to Thursday. Let's remind that in the "RPL Paths" playoffs, each pair determines the winner based on the results of two matches - home and away. In the "Path of the Regions" in each stage, the winners are determined based on the results of one face-to-face match.