Meeting with an ex: Daler Kuzyaev will play against the club of his champion past

The upcoming fifth round of the "RPL Paths" group stage of the Russian Football Cup will be the penultimate one at this stage. It is rich in top-level confrontations: Zenit St. Petersburg will visit Rubin Kazan, Krasnodar will host Dynamo Moscow, and the main event will be the Moscow derby between Lokomotiv and CSKA. According to the results of this round, the majority of the participants in the playoffs can be determined.

Group A

Last week, Rubin signed a contract with midfielder Daler Kuzyaev, a long-time Russian national football team player who reached the quarterfinals of the 2018 World Cup with her. In the last two years, the 32-year-old midfielder has played in the French championship with Le Havre. Before that, he spent eight years at Zenit, with whom he won the Russian championship five times.

Last weekend, Kuzyaev made his debut for Rubin in an away league match against Lokomotiv (0:1), and on Tuesday, as part of the Cup, he can take the field for the first time against his former club, where he spent the best years of his career. Zenit is confidently leading its group, having won four out of four matches and secured entry into the RPL Path playoffs from the first place.

In turn, the battle for second place is in full swing. Rubin is currently third, one point behind Orenburg and the same amount ahead of Akhmat Grozny. For Kazan, a lot depends on the upcoming meeting with Zenit, which is likely to release a reserve squad, as it did in previous cup matches.

Akhmat will face Orenburg on its home field. The Grozny club failed to start the season, losing three league matches and the first Cup game at home against Zenit (1:2). After that, there was a change of head coach — Stanislav Cherchesov was appointed instead of Alexander Storozhuk. Under him, the Grozny team has never lost in the championship — the unbeaten streak has already numbered seven meetings. The transformation in the Cup is not so dramatic, but one victory in three matches allows Akhmat to expect to exit from second place in the RPL's Path playoffs.

— In Russian Cup matches, especially in the group stage, everything depends on which teams will play, — Anatoly Byshovets, former Zenit head coach, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — We can see how wide a rotation almost all clubs carry out in this tournament, allowing the nearest reserve to prove themselves. Obviously, Zenit, which has already secured the first place in the quartet, will do so. But St. Petersburg also has high-level performers in reserve, so it won't be easy for Rubin, and most likely, to win, they need to produce a base, as well as Kuzyaev, who is probably extremely motivated to prove himself against his former team. In any case, Kazan needs to win if it wants to go further, especially considering that it has to play at home with Akhmat gaining momentum in the last round.

Group B

The confrontation between Krasnodar and Dynamo Moscow has acquired a special fundamental character in recent years, due to the fact that in the previous two championships they met in the last rounds, when the fate of the gold medals was being decided. This season, the teams have already played against each other twice, and both times the southern club confidently won.

At first, in the national championship, the Bulls overwhelmingly put the squeeze on Dynamo at the end of the match (1-0). And then their second team defeated the blue and white away in the Russian Cup (4:0). If Krasnodar wins the home Cup match against Dynamo, it will secure the first place in the group. In this case, Dynamo will be on the verge of relegation from the "RPL Path", as they are only one point ahead of the third-placed Samara Krylia Sovetov, who will face a home match with the almost hopeless outsider of the cup group and the Sochi championship.

—Krasnodar looks like the favorite in the match — even with a non—core squad, they show a well-choreographed game and high class in cup matches," said Sergei Silkin, former Dynamo head coach, in a conversation with Izvestia. — Our current champion only stumbled at the start of the tournament in the home game with Krylia (1:2), but otherwise he confidently takes his course and, in theory, should win the next meeting. Yes, Dynamo has been looking good lately, they won two away victories in the championship, but there were also a lot of fluctuations in the game — with Orenburg (3:1) the opponent's mistake helped with the score 0-0, with Wings (3:2) they almost missed the advantage of 3:0. And given that the squad is likely to rotate in the Cup, the chances look slim — I repeat, Krasnodar even has a more well-played reserve and understands what the coaching staff requires of it. Therefore, most likely, everything will be decided for Dynamo in the Cup in the last round following the results of the home match with Krylia.

Group C

Spartak Moscow was considered the undisputed favorite of its group. It is all the more surprising that this week he may lose his chances for the first place, as he is four points behind Dynamo Makhachkala. A club whose total budget is roughly equal to the transfer expenses of the red-whites over the past year.

However, Deyan Stankovich's wards are almost guaranteed to reach the RPL Path playoffs. To definitely be at least second place, Spartak only needs to beat Pari Nizhny Novgorod on a visit in the next round. In turn, Dynamo Makhachkala will play at home with Rostov and, in case of victory, will secure the first place. Then the intrigue of the last round will be only the fight for the third place in the table, which allows us to continue the fight in the Cup through the "Path of the Regions".

— From the point of view of the race for the first two places in this group, everything is already clear, — Andrey Chervichenko, the former owner of Spartak, told Izvestia. — Its two leaders are head and shoulders stronger than the other teams. Makhachkala took its toll due to the organization of the game and dedication, while Spartak took its toll due to the level of the squad and the individual skill of most of the players. Of course, it's funny that with such expenses, the red and white are lower in the table of the poor Dagestan club. But there's nothing you can do about it — the management level of individual figures in the sports block has long been a laughing stock. Nevertheless, the Spartak team should have enough class to defeat Pari Nizhny Novgorod. But Makhachkala and Rostov will have a difficult match — the Donetsk team has improved a lot lately.

Group D

Moscow's Lokomotiv and CSKA predictably lead the group and have almost secured passage further. It is symbolic that these two teams now occupy the top two places in the championship, and after 10 rounds, the Army team is only one point ahead of the railway team.

The situation is reversed in the Cup, where Loko is one point ahead of CSKA. Fabio Celestini's team won in the first round of the group stage, and this is the only defeat of Lokomotiv so far this season. Acron Togliatti is three points behind the second—placed Army team, and Baltika Kaliningrad is five points behind. These teams will play in the next round in Kaliningrad.

"There will be a combat match, where, most likely, the teams will field reservists," Nikolai Naumov, former president of Lokomotiv, told Izvestia. — It is unlikely that they will waste the strength of the main players, since both clubs will have difficult Moscow derbies in the championship next weekend — CSKA against Spartak, Lokomotiv against Dynamo. Therefore, the full-time cup match will be extremely unpredictable. The winner will actually secure the first place in the group, but the loser is unlikely to miss the second place either, since Akron and Baltika do not look like teams capable of jumping over their heads in the Cup right now.

The matches of the fifth round of the group stage will be held from Tuesday to Thursday. The two group winners will advance to the RPL Paths playoffs. The third-place teams will advance to the Path of the Regions playoffs, where they will already play with clubs from the first and second leagues.