CSKA, Spartak, and Rostov Battle for Silver and Bronze Medals in Final Round of Russian Premier League

CSKA, Spartak and Rostov are fighting for silver and bronze medals. The main thing about the final round of the Russian Premier League (RPL) – in the material “RBC Sport”

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All matches of the final 30th round of the Russian Premier League (RPL) will be held on June 3 at 16:00 (Moscow time).

CSKA – Rostov

Venue: VEB Arena

This match will be the main one in the final round of the Russian championship. In this meeting, it will largely be decided who will become the owner of the silver and bronze medals.

In the last round, CSKA drew with Krasnodar (0:0), and Rostov defeated the Grozny Akhmat (3:2). Valery Karpin’s team was able to break a three-match losing streak and still have a chance to become the silver medalist of the championship in case of a victory over CSKA and a draw or defeat of Spartak in a parallel match with Wings of the Soviets. If the Rostovites win, and the “red-whites” beat the Samara team, then Karpin’s team will take third place. In the event of a draw and the defeat of Spartak, the Rostovites will also become third. Defeat leaves no chance for a podium.

The day before, the captain of the Rostovites Danil Glebov extended the contract with the club until the summer of 2028, despite the fact that journalist Ivan Karpov reported on the possible transfer of the midfielder to Spartak. This season he has played 38 matches for the team, scoring four goals and making five assists.

In order to keep the silver, the “army team” needs to defeat “Rostov” or draws will be enough for them if “Spartak” draws or loses to “Wings of the Soviets” in a parallel meeting. If the Rostovites win and the Red-Whites fail to beat the Samara club, then CSKA will take third place. However, if the Rostovites and the Red-Whites win, then CSKA risks being left without medals.

In the last five face-to-face meetings, CSKA won four times and only one match ended in a draw. Rostov last defeated the Army Men in March 2020 (3:2).

Akhmat – Krasnodar

Venue: Akhmat Arena

In this confrontation, it will be decided who will enter the top five at the end of the season. By the last round, Krasnodar is in sixth place with 47 points, but is only two points behind Akhmat (49), which occupies fifth place.

In the last match against CSKA, 18-year-old Georgy Harutyunyan made his debut for the Krasnodar team. In the first match for the main team, he immediately became the best in successful actions

Krasnodar midfielder Eduard Spertsyan approaches the last round as the RPL leader in assists. The player has 11 assists.

In the last five matches of the championship, Krasnodar won two victories and drew twice, the Grozny team had three victories and two defeats in the same period.

Midfielder Artem Timofeev, who was sent off in the last match, will miss this meeting with the Grozny team. For the same reason, defender Vyacheslav Litvinov will not play for Krasnodar.

In the last five face-to-face meetings, the score of the teams is equal: two wins and one draw. The last game within the framework of Fonbet – the Cup of Russia took place in March, then the Krasnodar team won with a score of 3:0.

Zenit – Fakel

Venue: Gazprom Arena

If Zenit, which became the champion, has known its fate since the 26th round (if not from the beginning of the championship), then Fakel needs to make every effort in the last round not to get into the zone of play-offs. By the 30th round, the Voronezh team comes in 12th place with 30 points. However, “Fakel” is on the verge of joints, ahead of the Samara “Wings of the Soviets” (29), which are in 13th place, by only one point.

In early May, the Voronezh team was headed by Vadim Evseev. At the time of his arrival, Fakel was in 14th place in the RPL, gaining 21 points in 25 matches. Under him, the team won three out of four matches under Vadim Evseev: Voronezh had the same number of victories in the first 25 rounds of the season before the arrival of a new specialist.

Previously, Evseev had already solved the problem of maintaining a residence permit in the RPL in Amkar and Ufa, and Yaroslavl Shinnik brought him to the FNL, winning group 2 of the second division.

The last time the Voronezh club defeated Zenit was in 1997 (0:1). Taking into account the fact that this meeting is unprincipled for the St. Petersburg team, and Fakel needs a victory, the Voronezh team will try to repeat that result.

Wings of the Soviets – Spartak

Venue: Solidarity Arena

Despite the fact that Spartak is in the race for second place, this match is no less important for the Samara team. Krylya Sovetov are in the play-off zone, taking 13th place. They are only one point behind Fakel Voronezh, so they have every chance to get out of the joint zone if Spartak wins, and Fakel loses or draws with Zenit.

Spartak, which is fighting for silver medals, has 54 points and is third in the table. In order to secure the second place in the RPL, the Red-Whites need to defeat the Wings, and CSKA lose to Rostov.

In the last round, the players of Spartak played a draw with Pari NN in the home match (0:0). Wings lost to Fakel with a score of 1:2.

The last meeting of the teams took place in November 2022 as part of the group stage of the Russian Cup: then the Samara team won with a score of 2:1. However, out of the last five face-to-face meetings, this victory is the only one: all the other four times Spartak won.

Orenburg – Dynamo

Venue: Otkritie Arena

In the last round, Orenburg defeated Torpedo (3:1), and Dynamo lost to Lokomotiv with a score of 2:4. Dynamo is seventh in the RPL standings with 45 points before the last round, Orenburg is in eighth place (43), two points behind the blue and white.

In the last round, Orenburg midfielder Danil Kapustyansky scored the club’s youngest goal in the RPL (18 years and 209 days) and the third youngest goal of this RPL season after Sergey Pinyaev (Lokomotiv) and Alexander Koksharov (Krasnodar).

The day before, Dynamo striker Fedor Smolov extended his contract with the Moscow club. The new agreement runs until the end of next season with the possibility of an extension for one more season. On account of the 33-year-old Smolov 12 goals and six assists in 31 matches of the season for the Blue and White.

The last time the Orenburg team defeated Dynamo was in July 2020 (0:1). The remaining last five head-to-head games ended three times with a draw and two times with the victory of Dynamo.

“Locomotive” — “Torpedo”

Venue: RZD Arena

Lokomotiv is in ninth place in the standings with 42 points, Torpedo, which was eliminated from the Russian championship ahead of schedule, scored 13 points. In the last round, the “railroad” beat “Dynamo” with a score of 4:2, “Avtozavodtsy” lost to “Orenburg” with a score of 3:1.

Under Mikhail Galaktionov, Lokomotiv lost in the RPL only to Zenit: the railroad workers are the best team in the spring part of the season in terms of points scored (29) and goals scored (31). They extended their goalscoring streak to 14 games, the team’s best result since September 2013 (15).

In the last round, Dziuba was the captain of Lokomotiv, who missed the previous two matches due to injury. He gave an assist: now he has 13 effective actions in 10 RPL matches for Lokomotiv.

Torpedo lost 7 matches in a row in the RPL – this is the worst series of defeats in the history of car manufacturers in the Russian championship. The last time the team managed to defeat Fakel was in April (2:0).

The last time the car factory team defeated Lokomotiv was in 2005. Four of the last five face-to-face meetings ended with the victory of the “railroad” and only one game in a draw.