Sports weekend with Izvestia

Football

The Russian Championship. Krasnodar — Dynamo (Makhachkala), Zenit — Akhmat

The RPL leaders of the national championship Krasnodar and Zenit continue to fight for gold. As part of the upcoming 27th round, they will face difficult home matches against unyielding teams from the North Caucasus. Krasnodar will host Dynamo Makhachkala, which is fighting for survival. And one of the strongest teams of this spring, Akhmat Grozny, will come to St. Petersburg to visit Zenit.

April 26: 17:00, Ozon Arena Stadium (Krasnodar); 19:30, Gazprom Arena Stadium (Saint Petersburg).

Live broadcasts on Match TV and Match Premier.

Drowned in the Baltic Sea: Krasnodar lost the leadership in the RPL

In other games, Zenit put the squeeze on Makhachkala, Spartak dealt with Akhmat, and the matches on the banks of the Volga ended with the same score.

Hockey

Gagarin Cup. The semi-finals. The first and second matches. Lokomotiv — Avangard, Metallurg - Ak Bars

The KHL is approaching its crucial stage. The semifinal series matches will start at the end of this week. On April 24 and 26, the current Gagarin Cup winner, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, will host one of the favorites of this season, Avangard Omsk, on its ice. On April 25, Magnitogorsk will host the second semi-final, in which Metallurg, the winner of the regular season, will play Ak Bars Kazan at home. The series will continue next week and will last up to four wins.

April 24, 19:00, Arena 2000 (Yaroslavl).
April 25, 14:00, Metallurg Arena (Magnitogorsk).
April 26, 17:00, Arena 2000 (Yaroslavl).

Live broadcasts on Match TV, KHL TV and KHL Prime.

Vagaries of fate: which of the Russians will be lucky in the NHL playoffs

In the fight for the Stanley Cup, Malkin plays against Michkov, Panarin will fight Nichushkin, and Lyubushkin will face the diaspora from Minnesota

Water polo

Women. The World Cup. The second division. Semi-finals and finals

Recently, Russian athletes in water sports were fully allowed to participate in international competitions under their own flag and anthem. This also affected water polo, the first game sport since 2022, where absolutely all restrictions have been lifted from ours. Among women, the first significant competition involving the national team is the World Cup in the second division, which is taking place this week in Malta. Russia finished first in the group stage and is now preparing for the semi-finals. If successful, she will qualify for the World Cup finals, which will be held in Sydney in July.

April 25, 17:00 — 19:00, semifinals.
April 26, 19:00, final.

Aquatics Stadium (Valletta, Malta).

Beautiful polo: the Russian women's national team will play at the World Cup with a flag and anthem

Our water polo players will start in the second division with matches against Argentina, Germany and South Africa.

Weightlifting

European Championship

The European Weightlifting Championship, the first in a long time in which Russians compete in all weight categories, albeit in a neutral status, will end in Batumi next weekend. Our team has already won several medals, including two gold medals for Gevorg Serobyan in the 79 kg category. Five more sets of awards will be awarded on the last three days of the week.

April 24: 15:00, up to 94 kg, men; 18:00, up to 86 kg, women.
April 25, 18:00, up to 110 kg, men.
April 26: 12:00, over 86 kg, women; 15:00, over 110 kg, men.

Batumi Sports Palace (Batumi, Georgia).

Live broadcasts on Match TV and Match Arena.

Fighting

European Championship

The European Wrestling Championship is also taking place this week. All our best athletes gathered in Tirana, including two-time Olympic champion Abdulrashid Sadulaev. He hasn't been at the Euro since 2020. In the future, our star wrestler did not go to the 2021 World Cup himself, in the next two years he was suspended along with the entire national team, and in 2024-2025 he was refused entry to the territories of the EU countries where the competitions were held. At the end of this week, he will compete in the up to 97 kg category. In addition, medals will be awarded in nine more weight categories in freestyle wrestling and five in women's wrestling. Earlier, the Greco-Roman wrestling competitions ended, where the Russians, competing in a neutral status, won two gold medals.

April 24th:
11:30 — 15:00, freestyle wrestling, qualification, up to 57 kg, 65 kg, 70 kg, 79 kg, 97 kg;
17:45 — 18:45, freestyle wrestling, semifinals, up to 57 kg, 65 kg, 70 kg, 79 kg, 97 kg;
19:00 — 21:30, women's wrestling, finals, up to 53 kg, 57 kg, 62 kg, 65 kg, 72 kg.

April 25, freestyle wrestling:
11:30 — 15:00, qualification, up to 61 kg, 74 kg, 86 kg, 92 kg, 125 kg;
17:45 — 18:45, semifinals, up to 61 kg, 74 kg, 86 kg, 92 kg, 125 kg;
19:00 — 21:30, finals up to 57 kg, 65 kg, 70 kg, 79 kg, 97 kg.

April 26, 18:00 — 20:30, freestyle wrestling, finals, up to 61 kg, 74 kg, 86 kg, 92 kg, 125 kg.

Tirana Olympic Park (Tirana, Albania).

Live broadcasts on "Match Fighter".

Free fishing: how Russian wrestlers performed at the World Cup in Zagreb

The success of Uguev and the most insulting defeat of Gadzhimagomedov

Basketball

VTB United League. The quarterfinals. The first matches. UNICS — IBA-MAI, Zenit — Uralmash

In the Russian basketball season, it's time for the most interesting part of it — the playoffs. The first matches in the two quarterfinal series will be played at the end of this week. Kazan UNICS will face Moscow's IBA-MAI, and St. Petersburg's Zenit will face Yekaterinburg's Uralmash. Two other series will start next week — CSKA Moscow against Yenisei Krasnoyarsk and Krasnodar Lokomotiv-Kuban against Parma Perm. All confrontations will go up to three wins.

April 26: 13:00, KRK Arena (St. Petersburg); 18:00, Basket Hall (Kazan).

Live broadcasts on Match TV and Match Fighter.