Zenit of Glory: Russian Championship gold returns to St. Petersburg

Zenit St. Petersburg's players have become champions of Russia. In the final round, they beat Rostov on the road and did not miss the chance to take back the RPL gold they lost a year ago. For Krasnodar, which claimed a second consecutive victory in the tournament, a misfire a week earlier in the match with Dynamo Moscow proved fatal.

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Since 2018, when Sergey Semak became Zenit's head coach, the blue-white-Blues have been Russian champions for six years in a row. Only last season, Krasnodar interrupted their hegemony. In the current draw, everything was also heading towards the triumph of the southern club.

Two rounds before the finish, the Bulls were in the lead, but an offensive misfire in the away game with Dynamo (1:2) made St. Petersburg the favorite of the championship race before the last round. It was even worse for Krasnodar that, with a tie with the blue and white, he managed to concede a goal in the last minutes and lose that match.

Thus, even Zenit's draw with Rostov did not give the bulls a chance to win gold. It was necessary to beat Orenburg at home in the last round and hope that St. Petersburg would lose on the Don.

On the day of the match, a whole troop of fans from the Northern Capital arrived in the southern city. However, the superiority of the local fans was still felt in the stands, who shouted over the St. Petersburg fans.

One married couple also came to the match with a Krasnodar scarf from a long-time Champions League match against Porto. It turned out that these were residents of Rostov-on-Don, rooting for both the local club and representatives of the neighboring region. They really hoped that Rostov would help Krasnodar take the championship away from Zenit.

But pretty quickly, Sergei Semak's wards began to destroy such illusions. In the 9th minute, Alexander Sobolev scored well from a sharp angle, but the home goalkeeper, Rustam Yatimov, saved his team. At the same time, Alexei Mironov hit Pedro in the face near the opposite side of the goal. After watching the video replay, referee Sergey Karasev awarded a penalty kick, realized by Sobolev.

After that, Rostov started up and tried to attack more in the next 20 minutes. He managed to take a territorial advantage and hit Denis Adamov's goal a couple of times dangerously, but to no avail. At that time, Krasnodar scored a goal against Orenburg and went on a break, leading 1-0.

At the beginning of the second half, the Bulls doubled their advantage, and in the end, Spertsyan even brought things to a rout (3:0), but it didn't help, as Zenit calmly maintained a comfortable score in the match against Rostov, which also remained in the minority in the 73rd minute after being eliminated. Dmitry Chistyakov.

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The rest of the intrigues

In the last round, the question of who will take the bronze medals was also decided. They were played in absentia by Moscow's Lokomotiv and Spartak. Loko was two points ahead of its competitor. To stay above him, it was enough for the "railwaymen" not to lose the capital derby against CSKA.

However, in the 35th minute, the match did not go according to the Loko scenario. Danila Kozlov opened the scoring, and the Army team led by 1:0. With this result, the teams went on a break. But Spartak also finished the first half with a score of 0:0 in an away match with Dynamo Makhachkala, which did not suit him at all.

The Dagestani club also had the motivation to fight the red-whites, as there was still a chance to fall into the direct relegation zone to the First League. However, for this, it was not enough for Vadim Evseev's wards to lose to Spartak — their competitor, Pari Nizhny Novgorod, had to win away from Rubin Kazan. And after the first half, he lost in the capital of Tatarstan with a minimum score, but immediately after the break he also missed and, in fact, condemned himself to a direct flight after the last Sochi. But soon Nizhny Novgorod scored twice, equalized the score and forced Makhachkala to fight to the end for points in the match with Spartak.

At that time, Lokomotiv began to lose to CSKA 0:2, but quickly regained one goal, but at the end of the meeting he conceded again (1:3). But the Railwaymen still retained third place in the table, as Spartak and Dynamo failed to score goals (0-0). The red and white were left without medals, and Makhachkala went to the joints, where they will play with the Volgograd Rotor.

Another significant confrontation in the tournament plan took place in Samara between the local Wings of the Soviets and Tolyatti Akron. In this regional derby, it was decided which of the teams would keep their registration in the RPL, and who would fight in the play-off matches. Krylia quickly killed the intrigue in this confrontation, even before the break, bringing the score to a rout — 4:0. Tolyatti managed to win back only one goal. As a result, thanks to this victory, the Samaritans finished in 11th place and avoided the transition matches. And Akron, from the 13th line, got into the joints with Ural Yekaterinburg, which took third place in the First League.

Also, in the last, 30th round, three more matches took place that had no tournament significance. Kaliningrad Baltika lost at home to Dynamo Moscow (1:2), but despite the blurred ending (the last eight matches without a win), they took sixth place — the best result in their history.

Sochi, which had lost its chance of escape from relegation, hosted Akhmat Grozny, which could no longer move up or down from ninth place. The teams sluggishly exchanged goals at the end of the meeting (1-1).

The transition matches for the right to play in the RPL will be held on May 20 and 23. Rodina Moscow and Fakel Voronezh joined the Premier League directly from the First One.

The championship returned to the banks of the Neva River a season later. But Krasnodar still has a chance for the trophy — on May 24 in Luzhniki they will play Spartak in the superfinal of the Russian Cup.