The truth of the penultimate race: will Dynamo stop Krasnodar's championship run

There are two rounds left before the end of the Russian championship, but the denouement may come as early as next weekend. Krasnodar is going to Moscow to defend its leadership in the match with Dynamo, Zenit is hosting the suddenly revived Sochi, and Spartak, Lokomotiv and Baltika continue to fight for bronze. At the same time, the fate of the departing teams is being decided — several clubs retain their chances of escape only in the last rounds.

Dynamo (Moscow) — Krasnodar

Late in the evening on May 7, these teams played another key match — in the framework of the Russian Cup. In Krasnodar, they met in the final of the "RPL Path", where the Bulls proved to be stronger in the penalty shootout. Now Murad Musayev's team will compete for the trophy in the Superfinal, which will be held on May 24 in Moscow at the Luzhniki Stadium. The opponent will be Spartak.

And on May 11, Dynamo and Krasnodar will play in Moscow as part of the championship. For the capital's club, which was stuck in the middle of the table back in the fall, this game will only matter as an attempt at revenge. Krasnodar, on the other hand, risks losing the championship in case of a misfire.

However, the bulls' prospects will be roughly clear by the time the meeting starts, since their competitor Zenit is playing Sochi a day earlier. And in case of defeat of the St. Petersburg club, Krasnodar can secure gold in the next round if it beats Dynamo.

Now, two rounds before the finish, the Bulls are only one point ahead of Zenit. And if the blue-white-blues win in the two remaining meetings, and Krasnodar makes at least one misfire, then the RPL gold will return to St. Petersburg.

Zenit — Sochi

A few weeks ago, this match could have been denied the intrigue, as Sochi had neither the level of play nor the motivation to properly oppose Zenit. From the very beginning of the championship, the southern club found itself at the bottom of the table. And even the appointment of Igor Osinkin as the new head coach in early autumn did not lead to significant progress.

Before the winter break, Sochi scored extremely few points, and since the beginning of the spring part of the season, it has not increased in any way. At the beginning of April, the team had only nine points after 23 rounds, lagging behind competitors in the fight for survival by more than 10 points.

It seemed that by the 28th round, the club would lose its chances of salvation even through transitional matches. All the more unexpected was the Sochi breakthrough of the last month. The RPL outsider won four out of five matches and came close to salvation. Two rounds before the finish, Sochi, still in last place, is only three points behind 14th place, which gives a ticket to the transition matches with the club that took third place in the first league.

Therefore, Sochi has an extremely high motivation to beat Zenit, for whom a misfire in this home game will almost certainly mean losing their chances of winning the championship or at least giving Krasnodar the right to stumble in one of the last two rounds.

"We will do everything to achieve victory in this match and continue the fight for survival,— Sochi midfielder Kirill Kravtsov told Izvestia. Zenit is my former club, and I support them in the championship race with Krasnodar, but I have my own team, which I always try to bring victory to in any match. Especially as it will be in this round, when we were able to close the gap from the competition and regained our chances to escape from relegation. So we will try our best to win the remaining matches. And then we'll see how the competitors will play, and whether we can beat them.

Lokomotiv — Baltika

Both teams spend the spring part of the season much worse than the summer and autumn, when they could actually claim gold. However, for Baltika, given that it played in the First League a year ago and has one of the smallest budgets in the Russian Premier League, the very fact of being in fifth place is a success.

Moreover, in the spring, Andrei Talalaev's wards had bright victories, but less than before. And in the last two rounds, they lost 0-1 at home to Akron and Rubin. Interestingly, they had lost the same amount and with the same score in all the previous 26 rounds, and these were away defeats from top clubs - in the fall from CSKA, which claimed gold at the time, and on February 28, immediately after the winter break, from Zenit.

Recent setbacks have prevented Baltika from taking advantage of the misfires of Lokomotiv, which is failing in the spring, but manages to remain third. After the winter break, the Railwaymen scored only three victories in ten rounds of the championship. But the groundwork gained in the summer and autumn, as well as the failures of competitors, allow Mikhail Galaktionov's wards to have a lead of two points from Spartak, four from Baltika and five from CSKA.

Victory in the upcoming match will be Kaliningrad's last chance to compete for bronze, and for Loko it is almost certain to secure a medal. Both teams did not approach the match in optimal formations. Striker Nikolay Komlichenko is out of Lokomotiv due to injury until the end of the season. In addition, midfielder Alexei Batrakov and defender Jerzino Nyamsi will miss the game due to too many yellow cards. Baltika's key forward, Brian Hill, is injured.

"It's going to be a very tense, unpredictable game," Nikolai Naumov, former president of Lokomotiv, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — Taking into account all the playing and personnel problems of both teams, I expect a minimum of goals — either a 0-0 draw, or one or two goals between the two. Lokomotiv has been on the decline for a long time, besides, Batrakov, Komlichenko and Nyamsi will not play, and the uncertainty about the extension of contracts with Artyom Karpukas and Dmitry Vorobyov, who may leave after the season, is also not good for the team. But at the same time, Loko can tune in specifically for this match, since if he wins, he will almost certainly win the bronze medal. In addition, Baltika has also not won for a long time and has lost Khil, who holds on to a lot in attack.

Spartak — Rubin

The Kazan club changed its head coach in the winter. Instead of Rashid Rakhimov, Spaniard Frank Artiga came. Even before the winter break, Rubin was stuck in the middle of the table. And I didn't get out of it in the spring. He is currently in seventh place, having lost his chance of winning medals long ago. At the same time, the team can still climb into the top five — it is only four points behind Baltika.

However, the main feature of Rubin this spring is stable victories over the leaders. In March, Artiga's team won at home against Krasnodar (2:1) and Lokomotiv (3:0), and at the end of April they prevailed against Baltika (1:0). At the same time, they had no chance to test themselves against Zenit, since both matches were played against him in the summer and autumn under Rakhimov.

But even then Kazan gave Peter a fight — a 2-2 draw at home in the summer and a minimal 0:1 defeat away at the end of November. If the tendency to take points away from the leaders continues, then it will not be easy for Spartak, who is in fourth place. And the red-and-whites need to win in order to get ahead of Loko in the fight for bronze.

The fact that they have already played one match in the middle of the week may also play against Carlos Carcedo's team. They managed to win in the final of the "Path of the Regions" of the Russian Cup against CSKA (1-0). Now Spartak will play the key match of the season on May 24 in the Superfinal. But first he needs to win in the two remaining rounds of the championship. And the home meeting with Rubin will take place five days after the cup derby.

There will also be four more matches in the 29th round. Having almost lost the chance for bronze and being eliminated from the CSKA Cup, they will go to visit Pari Nizhny Novgorod, which is in the penultimate 15th place and risks being directly relegated to the First League. Nizhny Novgorod is only two points ahead of Dynamo Makhachkala, which is in 14th place in the zone of transitional matches, which will have to leave for Akhmat Grozny. Orenburg, another inhabitant of the joint zone (13th place), will play at home with Krylia Sovetov Samara.

In the event of a draw, the Volga team will almost certainly not drop below 12th place and will remain in the RPL without transitional matches. They are now followed by Tolyatti Akron, which has a one-point gap from the joint zone. He will play at home with Rostov in the next round, which is tenth and four points ahead of Orenburg. In case of victory, the Donskoy club will also resolve the issue of maintaining a residence permit in the RPL.

Meanwhile, on May 8, the future newcomers of the Premier League can be determined. In the penultimate 33rd round of the First League, the Voronezh Fakel tournament leader will host SKA Khabarovsk. In the remaining two rounds, it is enough for him to score one point to enter the RPL directly. The second-placed Moscow Rodina will play on its own field with Chelyabinsk.

The participants of the transition matches from the First League are also almost clear. Two rounds before the finish, Ural Yekaterinburg is third, and Rotor Volgograd is fourth.