Trophy hope: the main intrigues of the week in the Russian Cup

Russian football has finally returned after a long winter hibernation. The matches of the 19th round took place in the RPL, now it's time for the Russian Cup, where it gets more interesting with each round. In the first match of the tournament after the restart, Zenit beat Baltika thanks to Alexander Sobolev's goal and reached the quarterfinals of the Path of the Regions (where Sergei Semak's team will play the winner of the Rostov—Dynamo Makhachkala pair).

Read more about what else to expect in the Russian Cup this week in the Izvestia article.

The path of the RPL. 1/2 finals. The first matches

CSKA Moscow — Krasnodar (March 4, 20:45 Moscow time)

The first top poster of the week in the Russian Cup. This time, Krasnodar did not repeat the mistakes of last season, when it took third place in the group with CSKA, Akhmat and Paris NN, and got into the bottom bracket, where it was eliminated by the same Grozny team in the second round of the 1/4 finals.

Now Murad Musayev's wards have the right to make mistakes. Although it is quite possible to do without it. Krasnodar will have two matches with CSKA to solve the intermediate task.

However, the Army team is historically a cup team. In recent history, CSKA has reached the finals of the competition more often than anyone (13 times) and has won the trophy more often than anyone (9 times). According to this indicator, the red and blue are on a par with Lokomotiv, which has reached the finals of the Russian Cup 10 times.

In this sense, CSKA has a slight psychological advantage. Unless, of course, Fabio Celestini's team has lost this "cup spirit".

Dynamo Makhachkala barely passed through the quarterfinals of the RPL CSKA. In the first match, Dynamo sensationally won on their own field — 1-0, and in the second leg, a penalty shootout (5:4) decided everything in favor of the Army team — the main time of the game ended with a score of 2:1 in favor of CSKA.

Krasnodar passed its opponent through the 1/4 finals without any problems. Orenburg got beaten by the Bulls twice — first 1:3 at home, then 0:4 away.

On paper, Krasnodar seems to be the favorite to face CSKA. However, the Southerners have a more important task for the season — to defend the championship title in the RPL. They may have to sacrifice the top bracket of the Russian Cup and drop to the bottom. Maybe it will be even easier for them to reach the finals there.

CSKA will be extremely motivated. And also the first match at home, where you can create a good foundation for the second leg. It will be difficult for the army to compete for the RPL championship with Krasnodar and Zenit, but once again take their favorite Cup of Russia — why not? Combined with the final place in the top 4 of the RPL, this can be called a good result.

Dynamo — Spartak (March 5, 20:45 Moscow time)

A classic proven over the years in a new version. In recent years, Dynamo and Spartak have grown fond of meeting each other in the Russian Cup. The annual tradition has not been interrupted since 2021. Since then, eight cup matches have taken place between the blue-white and red-white. Next Thursday will be the ninth. And then the tenth.

For the sake of a face-to-face meeting in the semifinals of the top bracket, both Dynamo and Spartak passed the top opponents. The blue and white team stopped Zenit thanks to a sensational 3-1 victory at Gazprom Arena — the 1-0 return in Moscow was not enough for Sergey Semak's team to go further.

Spartak sent down Lokomotiv, scoring two victories over them — 3:1 at Lukoil Arena and 3:2 at Russian Railways Arena.

There will definitely be a cut in these matches. Both teams are not in the best position in the RPL: Spartak is sixth and Dynamo is eighth. So the Russian Cup is potentially the only chance to save the season from failure. In addition, the coaches themselves will have a special motivation — both Juan Carcedo and Roland Gusev, as novice coaches (Gusev is a novice in the role of head coach), probably want to increase their credibility on the part of the management. And it will be possible to do this in case of winning the cup.

Both the first and the second leg will certainly keep us in suspense until the last. There is no clear favorite in this confrontation. All the more interesting.

The path of the regions. 1/4 finals. The second stage

Krylia Sovetov — Orenburg (March 4, 18:30 Moscow time)

In Samara, teams that are much more important to solve problems in the RPL than to fight for the Russian Cup will meet each other.

Krylia initially flew into the bottom bracket after finishing third in the group stage. At the first stage of the 1/4 finals, the Volga team barely passed KAMAZ — 1:1 in regular time and 4:2 following a penalty shootout. Orenburg managed to become the first in its group after Zenit, but in the quarterfinals of the RPL Tournament it was destroyed by Krasnodar with a total score of 1:7 following a two-match standoff.

Frankly, both Krylia and Orenburg have very little chance of winning this tournament. Meanwhile, in the championship, both teams are in the zone of transitional matches for the right to remain in the elite. And there are still risks of falling below, into the direct departure zone.

So, to some extent, it will even be easier for the loser in this pair to live. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, why is the Russian Cup not a place for sensationalism? Remember the same Baltika of the 2023/24 season, which reached the Superfinal with Zenit.

But this is a rare case. In actual reality, it seems that the winner in the Krylia Sovetov—Orenburg confrontation will continue to hold out for a maximum of one or two rounds, if they are lucky with the draw at the first stage of the semifinals. Of course, the home field factor may be in the hands of the Samaritans, but according to the game, Orenburg seems to be a slight favorite in the ratio of 60 to 40 in its favor.

Rostov — Dynamo Makhachkala (March 4, 18:30 Moscow time)

Both teams are already very familiar with each other from this season. Not only for the match in the RPL, where everything ended in a 1-1 draw, but also for two matches in the group stage of the RPL, where Makhachkala residents twice celebrated success — 3:1 away and 4:2 in a penalty shootout at home after 1:1 in regular time.

Then the teams went their separate ways. But as it turned out, not for long. Dynamo went further up the top grid and almost passed CSKA — everything was decided by a series of 11-meter shots in the return leg. At home, the Makhachkala team sensationally won 1-0.

At Rostov, everything was prosaic. The third place in the group and getting to Nizhnekamsk Neftekhimik from the First League. Rostov coped with him without any problems — 3:1.

Rostov and Dynamo have almost the same fate as Krylia Sovetov and Orenburg. All of them need to protect themselves from transitional matches following the results of the championship. But let's not forget that Rostov is a finalist in last year's cup draw. And he got to the Superfinal just on the bottom grid: first he took off from Zenit in the semifinals of the RPL Path, and then knocked out first Lokomotiv and then Spartak in the Path of the regions. In the decisive match against CSKA, everything was decided by a penalty shootout. Not in favor of the yellow-blue ones.

Surely Rostov wants to get as close as possible to repeating last year's achievement. And it seems that they have every chance of doing so. At least, starting this way with a victory over Dynamo Makhachkala.

Arsenal vs Lokomotiv (March 5, 18:30 Moscow time)

Arsenal Tula is the only remaining representative of the First League in the Russian Cup. Dmitry Gunko's team is currently ranked 10th in the "Best League in the World", and this does not inspire optimism about their fate at the cup tournament. Although at the first stage of the 1/4 finals, Arsenal sensationally passed the representative of the RPL, Rubin Kazan. Even if it's based on the results of a penalty shootout.

But still, Lokomotiv is the obvious favorite of the confrontation, having already passed serious tests in the Russian Cup with matches against CSKA, Baltika, Akron and Spartak in the 1/4 finals of the top bracket. The "railwaymen" did not manage to stay there, but there is still a second chance to fix everything.

Mikhail Galaktionov's team is still competing for two trophies at the end of the season, and it makes sense to compete on two fronts. It would be obviously not serious to fly away from Arsenal. And then — according to the situation.