Nevsky stress: Spartak and Zenit approach the match under pressure from critics

The last third of the Russian Football Championship will begin in the RPL this week. So far, the intrigue in the fight for gold is running high. In this regard, the three top matches scheduled for the upcoming 21st round will be especially important. Zenit St. Petersburg will host Spartak Moscow, Lokomotiv will play away against Rubin Kazan, and CSKA Moscow will visit Baltika Kaliningrad.

Zenit – Spartak

Although Spartak won the first two matches of the spring part of the championship, it is too early to judge the team's readiness to compete for medals. Both victories were not achieved without difficulty. First, away in a match with the outsider of the Sochi League (3:2). Then the red and white ruffled the nerves of the fans in the match with Tolyatti Akron — the Muscovites were the first to miss, then they lost the advantage 3:1 and only in the end they put the squeeze on the opponent (4:3).

And the debut of the new head coach Juan Carcedo in the Cup ended with a 2-5 defeat by Dynamo in the first match of the RPL Path semi-final. In total, Spartak players conceded 10 goals in three March matches.

But things are not much better for Zenit either. St. Petersburg barely beat Kaliningrad "Baltika" twice with a score of 1:0 — first at home in the championship, then away in the Russian Cup. Then there was a sensational away defeat against Orenburg (1:2).

The blue-white-blues are second in the table, one point behind the leading Krasnodar. And Spartak, which is in sixth place, is seven points ahead of Spartak, which needs to win in the Northern Capital on March 14 in order to join the medal race.

— The match will be extremely unpredictable in terms of results, and not because of the high quality of the game of both teams, but because of their approximately similar disassembly, - Andrey Chervichenko, the former owner of Spartak, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — They have a lot of game problems, and success in a face-to-face match will be achieved by the one who makes fewer mistakes and sets up a little better. Zenit was very disappointed in the match against Orenburg, and they didn't play their best against Baltika either. It can be seen that most players find it difficult to find motivation, and even star newcomers have become infected with this virus of indifference. And Spartak seems to be running briskly, the whole team is trying to act at the limit of their abilities, but the court style of play itself, without any clear structure and organization, especially in defense, leads to the fact that even with Sochi and Akron, victories are won on snot. And what happens when meeting with a more or less equal opponent, we saw on the example of the cup match with Dynamo.

Rubin – Lokomotiv

In the last round, after defeating competitors, Loko could have matched the leading Krasnodar in points, but he almost lost at home to Akhmat Grozny. Losing 0:2, the third-placed railwaymen reduced the meeting to a draw (2:2) and reduced the gap from the competition for the championship by only one point. Now they are losing two points to Krasnodar and one to Zenit. Lokomotiv increased its advantage to five points over its competitor in the CSKA medal game.

It is not yet clear how ready the red-greens are for the race for gold. In the spring, it was not without difficulty that they won two minimal victories 2:1 — at home over the penultimate in the RPL, Pari Nizhny Novgorod in the championship and away over the average of the first league Tula Arsenal in the Cup. A trip to Kazan will clarify a lot, where the local Rubin also looks very contradictory after the winter break.

Under the leadership of new head coach Frank Artiga, the club from the capital of Tatarstan lost away to Dynamo Makhachkala (1:2) and beat the leader and reigning champion Krasnodar (2:1) at home. In the table, Rubin is stuck in the middle — eighth place and the lack of both chances to compete for medals and the risk of relegation.

"This will be one of the decisive games for Lokomotiv, which will partially answer the question of whether the team is ready to compete for medals," Nikolai Naumov, former president of the railroad workers, told Izvestia. — In the past and current seasons, whenever she was close to first place, there were misfires or even long slumps, as in the last championship, because of which the chances of the championship were immediately lost. This happened in the match against Akhmat, when there was an opportunity to catch up with Krasnodar. At the same time, the team showed character by winning back from 0:2. This should help them in the match against the unyielding Rubin. But only over a distance of four or five meetings will it be clear what Loko is capable of. Now it is clear that he can finish in the top three, but there are questions about the fight for gold.

Five - minus: how did the clubs from the top 5 of the RPL stumble?

Krasnodar, Zenit, Lokomotiv, CSKA and Baltika remained without victories in the championship.

Baltika – CSKA

For the winter break, both teams went near the top three. It was a great success for Baltika, as they only returned from the First League in the summer. In winter, the Kaliningrad club retained almost the entire main squad, limiting itself to the sale of Vladislav Saus to Spartak. Nevertheless, the spring part of the season did not start very well for Andrey Talalaev's wards.

They lost away to Zenit at the end of the championship game, conceding the decisive goal in the last minutes. In terms of the quality of football, Baltika was not inferior to its richer rival. And she was largely prevented by the controversial decision of the referees not to score a goal against the hosts with the score 0-0 15 minutes before the end of the meeting.

Then there was a good game against Zenit at home in the Path of the Regions of the Russian Cup. But it also ended in defeat and relegation from the tournament. And in the last round, the Kaliningrad team missed a victory over Rostov in the last seconds.

After a strong winter transfer campaign, CSKA seemed to be the favorite in the fight for gold. But he lost the first two spring matches. And not only in terms of the score, but also in terms of the quality of the game. In the guest meeting with Akhmat, the final score was 0:1, but only thanks to several saves by goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev, the Army team's defeat was not greater.

Then they rehabilitated themselves in the Russian Cup, winning a strong-willed victory at home over Krasnodar (3:1) in the first game of the RPL Path semi-final. But then there was another setback in the championship — a crushing defeat in the Moscow derby by Dynamo (1-4).

Now CSKA is flying to visit the unyielding Baltic. Both teams are seven points behind the first place and five points behind the third. In addition, Spartak has already caught up with them from behind, lagging only one point behind.

On March 13, the 21st round will open in Makhachkala, where the local Dynamo will host Orenburg. In addition, we are waiting for the Krasnodar Territory derby between the leader and the outsider of the current championship — Sochi will play Krasnodar at home. Dynamo Moscow will visit Rostov. Akron will face Akhmat on its home field, and Pari Nizhny Novgorod will face Krylia Sovetov.