We are waiting for the most interesting tour since the start of the RPL. Whatever the match, the ultimate intrigue!
Kirill Zakatchenko August 18, 2023, 12:00 Moscow time
Loko visiting the leader, the derby between CSKA and Dynamo, Karpin’s uncomfortable rival, the battle of outsiders… And Spartak – Zenit!
New week – new round in the RPL. He will give us some great matches at once. Perhaps the most interesting weekend awaits us since the start of the RPL (and a match today). Here is the fundamental match of Spartak with Zenit, and the capital derby, and important matches in the fight for survival. We talk about the intrigues of the upcoming tour.
The program of the 5th round will open with the match in Kazan. The main intrigue is whether Rashid Rakhimov will retain Rubin’s head coaching job after this game. The Kazan club is the only one in the RPL that has never won a new season. Rubin played six official matches (including the Russian Cup): two draws, four losses. The coach complains about the short bench and hopes to transfer four or five newcomers before the window closes. Whether Rakhimov will keep his job until now is a big question.
Krylia pleasantly surprises at the start of the new season. Igor Osinkin’s team lost both matches in the Cup, but in the RPL everything is in order. Last week, the Samarans unfortunately lost a victory in the match against Lokomotiv (1:1) in Moscow. The guests had the advantage, they significantly outnumbered the opponent in the number of shots and scoring chances, but conceded in the end. Now “Wings” is on the 5th line of the table, but they could be in the top 3 if they do not fail in the “RZD Arena”.
The main game of the tour’s Saturday show. Both teams went into the season hard but have now picked up a good rhythm. The army team won three straight wins in RPL, Dynamo three straight wins in all tournaments. The CSKA medical staff is counting on the return of Igor Akinfeev to the squad. The captain of the army team missed the previous match with Sochi (3: 1), and then 19-year-old Vladislav Torop took the place at the gate. If the army team beats the blue and whites, they will definitely be victorious (Ural and Krasnodar will play their matches later). And Dynamo, if successful, will overtake CSKA and get closer to the leaders.
At the beginning of this season, Baltika plays more often away than at home. So far, Sergei Ignashevich’s team has perfect statistics at its stadium: one match, one win. It is true that Baltika beat Fakel, who did not score a single point this season. And now the game with the Ural fort is next in line. A week ago, the team of Viktor Goncharenko “nailed” Spartak and after the fourth round rose to the second line of the table. By the way, “Ural” played only once on the road this season of the RPL and met “Orenburg” (2: 0).
“Krasnodar” after the results of the last round came out in a clear first place. “Spartak” lost, and the “bulls” won the fourth victory in a row. Also, it is impressive that Vladimir Ivic’s team conceded only one goal in the RPL (the best result in the league). But for Lokomotiv, the last games are very difficult. At first, the railway workers devastatingly lost to CSKA (1:4), and then, with great difficulty, achieved a draw in a meeting with Wings of the Soviets (1:1). If it weren’t for goalkeeper Ilya Lantratov, the red-greens would definitely have lost the second match in a row.
The teams played the matches of the previous round in completely different ways. Sochi couldn’t stand a few minutes in Moscow and lost to CSKA (1-3). Thus, the Black Sea club extended the losing streak to three games. But Rostov sent a three-ruble note to the troublesome Rubin (3: 0) and climbed into the first half of the table. Sochi is a very uncomfortable opponent for Valery Karpin’s team. Rostov hasn’t beaten a team from the city that hosted the 2014 Olympics in four years. In Sochi, the teams met four times – the hosts won four times. Karpin’s statistics against the Black Sea club are also not very good: one win, two draws, three losses.
An incredibly important game for Fakel. The Voronezh club meets the fifth round in the last line of the RPL – it has not scored a single point yet. Pari NN, in turn, beat Akhmat (2:0) in the last round and did it without Sergei Yuran at the edge of the field. The suspended coach watched the game from the stands as his team posted its first win of the season. Another intrigue: will Vadim Evseev enter the match with a chair? This was the case in Fakel’s two previous games, although in Saint Petersburg the coach was already on his feet after the break.
The central match of the tour will take place in Moscow. Spartak announced that it had already sold 25 thousand tickets, but at the same time opened additional sectors. Apparently, the game will take place with good attendance, which is good news. Spartak has not beaten Zenit in the RPL since 2017, then the rojiblancos won with a score of 3: 1. Since then, the rivals have met 10 times, and the Moscow club has suffered six defeats.
Zenit closes into the game, ranking lower in the table than Spartak. This has not happened for a long time, but the victory of blue-white-blue in Moscow will allow them to bypass their main rival. Last week “Spartak” lost very disappointingly in Yekaterinburg (2:3), conceding two goals at the end. Zenit suffered a victory over Fakel (2:0), scoring the second goal in the last minutes.
Akhmat will play the first match after the dismissal of Sergei Tashuev. An unsuccessful start to the RPL (three losses in four games) led to the fastest resignation of the season. The opponent, by the way, is doing even worse – not a single victory, apart from the penultimate place in the table. So far, it seems that no one will touch Jiri Yaroshik, but another loss may change the situation for the worse. Akhmat has bad statistics in his field. This season, the team played three times at home (including the Cup) and suffered three defeats.
