Exit to the Baltic: Spartak goes to visit the main sensation of the RPL
Just over two weeks are left for Russian football to go on a winter break. The RPL teams only need to play two matches in 2025 before going on vacation. The penultimate round of the Russian championship before the break is not full of bright posters, but several games arouse increased interest. First of all, we can single out the confrontation between the main sensation of the Kaliningrad Baltic season and the reviving Spartak Moscow.
Baltika — Spartak
Six months ago, few people would have believed that the confrontation between these two rivals would become central to the tour. But Baltika has shown unprecedented results for a team that played in the first league last season. After returning to the RPL, she immediately broke into the leading group. Over the past 16 rounds, Andrey Talalaev's team has suffered only one defeat in the championship. It happened in September following a meeting with one of the leaders of the championship, CSKA Moscow, but even then Kaliningrad almost got a draw, conceding the decisive goal only in the last minutes (0:1).
As a result, the club is in fifth place, five points behind the leading Krasnodar. And Spartak, which occupies the sixth line, is ahead by one point. It is worth noting that it was in the first round match with the red and white that Baltika seriously outlined its claims to the row at the top of the table. In the summer, in the second round, she defeated Spartak with a score of 3:0.
It was then that the big problems of Dejan Stankovic's team came to light for the first time, and it became clear that the second season under the leadership of the Serbian coach would be no less difficult than the previous one, which resulted in the club finishing fourth, although it was really fighting for gold at the beginning of the spring part of the championship.
This season, Spartak quickly found itself in the middle of the table and still cannot rise above sixth place. This is considered a total failure against the background of spending about €50 million on transfers in two seasons under Stankovic. Unsurprisingly, back in October, this led to a reshuffle in the club's leadership and the start of the search for a new head coach of the team.
Interestingly, the team's results have improved since the end of October, but against the background of Dejan's nervous breakdowns, his conflicts with referees and journalists, this did not save him from retirement, which happened in November before the pause for the national team games and at the end of the first round. At that moment, the Red and white had four wins in five championship and Cup matches, but the past experience of such successful streaks under Stankovich showed that they did not guarantee further severe downturns.
The Serb was replaced by Vadim Romanov, who had been working at his headquarters for a year and a half, and had previously led Spartak's youth team for two seasons. He started with two wins in the Moscow derbies — over CSKA (1-0) in the Russian Championship and over Lokomotiv (3:1) in the second leg of the quarterfinals of the "RPL Way" of the Russian Cup. And questions have already begun to be asked in football circles whether the current acting head coach should be retained in this position on a permanent basis. In the event of a victory over Baltika, these calls will intensify even more.
"I think Spartak is extremely motivated now after the coach change, so they will come to us very energized," Ravil Izmailov, Baltika's general director, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — The match will be very combative on both sides. But everyone in our team is determined to maximize the results in order to continue to please our fans.
Rostov — Lokomotiv
In the last round, Lokomotiv managed to achieve a draw at home with the leading Krasnodar (1-1) and is still only three points behind it. Now the railwaymen need to successfully complete the year with two southern trips to Rostov and Sochi in order to keep their chances of gold in the spring.
The first of these matches against the Don club will be held next weekend. Not so long ago, Loko had a management reshuffle — Boris Rotenberg Jr. was appointed to the post of CEO instead of Vladimir Leonchenko. The match with Krasnodar was the first after this castling.
In the middle of the week, there was also a defeat in the Moscow derby from Spartak (2:3) — it was the second leg of the quarterfinals of the "RPL Way" of the Russian Cup. As a result, the Locomotive flew to the Path of the Regions. But he took a step there under the previous leadership, losing the first meeting in early November.
Nevertheless, the new CEO immediately demonstrated his trust in head coach Mikhail Galaktionov, after losing to Spartak, announcing the conclusion of a new contract with him on improved terms until the end of 2028.
Interestingly, his colleague from Rostov, Jonathan Alba, has an agreement that, according to media reports, expires in December this year. And rumors of his departure appeared several times in connection with changes in the club's leadership — in October, Artashes Harutyunyants, who had been working in this position since May 2017, left the post of president of Rostov. He remained on the board of directors of Rostov.
At the same time, RB Sport recently announced that in the near future Harutyunyants will transfer the shares of the club to the government of the Rostov region. Previously, Harutyunyan's company owned 49% of the shares, and the rest was owned by the region. Meanwhile, Alba manages to keep the team in tenth place, although many predicted its collapse after the February departure of the previous head coach Valery Karpin and captain of Rostov Danil Glebov, as well as two other key players of recent years, defender Maxim Osipenko and striker Nikolai Komlichenko.
Talks about the upcoming leadership change, which began after the change of the governor of the Rostov region a year ago, also contributed to forecasts of Rostov's inevitable fall to the bottom of the standings, but with the Spanish specialist, the team is still confidently avoiding this.
"It will be a very difficult match for Lokomotiv, which is extremely difficult to score points against rivals like Rostov," Nikolai Naumov, former president of the Railwaymen, said in a conversation with Izvestia. — The Don team is very unyielding, plays great defense and has already taken points from several clubs from the top of the table for a reason — we can recall the home victory over CSKA (1:0), away draws with Loko (3:3) and Spartak (1:1). And Lokomotiv is good at playing with top clubs, but against opponents from the second half of the table, where it is necessary to open up massive defenses, while it often passes, losing points. If it weren't for that, the team would already be leading the championship by a very solid margin. The match with Rostov will largely show whether Galaktionov manages to overcome this problem.
Zenit — Rubin
Having failed to win the championship last season for the first time in six years, Zenit also started the current season unsuccessfully. But in the fall, he gained momentum and, even with two unexpected away misfires in the October match with Tolyatti Akron (1:1) and November with Samara Krylia Sovetov (1:1), rose to the leadership group. He is currently in third place and one point behind Krasnodar, which is in first place.
Now the blue-white-blues will have to take on the uncompromising Kazan Rubin on their field. This team has taken points from many leaders in the past seasons, including Zenit. But in the current championship, he invariably loses to all the top clubs. This does not prevent her from taking seventh place, but only due to her success in games with the average and outsiders.
Another problem for Rubin was the loss of their star striker Mirlinda Daka, who was disqualified from the match in St. Petersburg due to too many yellow cards. This will make the situation very difficult for the guests, as in many ways the individual skill of the Albanian striker has allowed them to consistently impose the fight on the favorites over the past two years.
Akhmat — Dynamo
The last two quarterfinal matches of the Russian Cup took place on Thursday. In the first stage of the "Paths of the Regions" quarterfinals, Samara Krylia Sovetov defeated KAMAZ in the first league (1:1 in regular time, 4:2 in penalty shootout) and will face Orenburg in the second stage. In the first half, Andrei Mostovoy earned a penalty and converted it himself. Zenit led 1-0, had the advantage and could score the second goal several times, turning the match into a penalty shootout. But Dynamo kept the minimum score and got to the semifinals, where they will now play two matches with Spartak in the spring. In the other semi-final match of the "RPL Path", CSKA will face Krasnodar.
Dynamo have two championship away matches left before the winter break — with Akhmat Grozny and the Moscow derby with Spartak. Gusev's team will fly to Grozny next weekend. Their opponent failed to start the championship, losing three matches in the first three rounds. But then he changed the head coach, and with the arrival of Stanislav Cherchesov, he gave out a seven-match unbeaten streak, rising to the middle of the table.
However, then the club slowed down and scored only one point in six matches. Now he has a series of four defeats in a row. Cherchesov's team scored the only point with Dynamo — in October, in the last minutes, they missed an away victory over Karpin's team at that time. The failures can be attributed to a difficult calendar, during which Akhmat, with a good game, lost away to Krasnodar (0:2), Baltika (0:2) and Rubin (0:1), as well as at home to Spartak (1:2).
But this does not negate the fact that Grozny are stuck in 12th place and are only one point away from the transition zone, so it is advisable for them to defeat Dynamo in order to protect themselves from the struggle for survival.
There will also be four more matches in the upcoming round. Akron will host Pari Nizhny Novgorod at home. CSKA will face Orenburg on their home field. Krasnodar is waiting for Krylia Sovetov to visit. And Sochi will play against Dynamo Makhachkala.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
