“Sunday’s Premier League Matches: Spartak and CSKA Compete for Silver, Dynamo-Lokomotiv Derby, and More”

MOSCOW, May 28. /TASS/. The football club “Spartak” in Moscow will host “Paris Nizhny Novgorod” in the match of the 29th round of the World – Russian Premier League (RPL). The meeting will take place at the Otkritie Bank Arena, the game starts at 14:00 Moscow time.

“Spartak” takes the third place in the standings of the championship of Russia, gaining 53 points. Pari HN is 14th with 26 points. The red-and-whites are fighting for the RPL silver medals, two points behind the second-placed capital CSKA, which played one more game. Nizhny Novgorod are located in the zone of play-offs for the right to remain in the Premier League for the 2023/24 season, 3 points separate the team from the 12th position and the zone of guaranteed residence registration in the RPL.

On Sunday, striker Alexander Sobolev will not play for Spartak, who received a direct red card for an obscene gesture towards CSKA defender Willian Roshi in the match of the 28th round of the Premier League (the game ended with a score of 2:1 in favor of the red-whites). On May 24, the Control and Disciplinary Committee of the Russian Football Union (FTC RFU) decided to disqualify the striker for four matches. Previously, he was suspended for six games for participating in a mass brawl at the end of the Fonbet – Russian Cup match against Zenit St. Petersburg.

In addition to Sobolev, who scored 13 goals and gave 8 assists in this RPL draw in 26 matches, in the match against Pari NN, Spartak head coach Guillermo Abascal will not be able to count on midfielder Nail Umyarov recovering from injury. Nizhny Novgorod on Sunday will do without midfielders Artem Sokolov and Frank Bagnac.

The upcoming match will be only the fourth in the history of meetings between Spartak and Pari NN in the Russian championship. The first match between these clubs ended with a guest victory for Nizhny Novgorod (2:1). In the second round of the 2021/22 season, the teams in Nizhny Novgorod tied (1:1). Before the winter break, Spartak won an away victory (2:1).

Correspondence dispute between Spartak and CSKA for silver

CSKA in Saturday’s match against Krasnodar failed to win an away victory, the meeting ended with a score of 0:0. The red-and-whites, if they win on Sunday, will be one point ahead of the army team and become the favorite in the fight for silver in the Russian championship. A draw or defeat will reduce the chances of the Spartacists for the final second place.

The former midfielder of Spartak and the Russian national team, Alexander Mostovoy, in a conversation with TASS, noted that even before the draw in Krasnodar, he considered the red-and-white favorites in the fight for second position in the Russian championship. “CSKA has a match with Rostov at the end of the championship, while Spartak has Nizhny at home and Krylya Sovetov on the road. “Pari NN” made life easier for himself by securing himself from a direct relegation in the last match, so “Spartak” has a huge advantage over both CSKA and Nizhny,” the agency’s interlocutor said.

Pari NN guaranteed itself participation in the play-offs for the right to remain in the Premier League, but in order to maintain a residence permit in the elite of Russian football, they need to achieve maximum results in the remaining matches. In case of a victory over Spartak and the defeat of the Samara Krylya Sovetov from the Voronezh Fakel, the Nizhny Novgorod team will get out of the play-off zone before the 30th round.

“Definitely, Nizhny will have incredible motivation. If the teams played in Nizhny Novgorod, we could talk about some minimal advantage. Another thing is that “Spartak” is of a higher class and level of skill than “Sochi” (the Nizhny Novgorod team at home in the 28th round defeated the team from the Krasnodar Territory with a score of 4:0 – TASS note). In any case, it will be interesting,” Mostovoy added.

Derby without tournament motivation

The second chronological match of the day will be the Dynamo-Lokomotiv capital derby, in which both teams lack serious tournament motivation. The Blue and White after 28 rounds are in seventh place with 45 points, while the railway workers are in ninth place with 39 points. The game in Moscow at the VTB Arena will start at 16:30 Moscow time.

Dynamo is coming to the end of the season not in the best shape – in the last six matches the team won three victories and suffered three defeats. On May 14, after the defeat from Grozny “Akhmat” (0:3), the leadership of the blue and white decided to stop working with head coach Slavisha Jokanovic. After the departure of the Serbian specialist and. O. Pavel Alpatov became the head coach – under his leadership, the Dynamo team won a major victory over the Torpedo First League, who had taken off ahead of schedule to Melbet (3: 0).

Lokomotiv looked more stable at the same distance – the railway workers won four victories in six matches of the RPL, drawing twice. Before the derby with Dynamo, the club’s management announced the extension of contracts with team leaders Dmitry Barinov and Artem Dzyuba. The new agreement with the midfielder and captain of Lokomotiv runs until the end of the 2025/26 season, and with the forward until the end of the 2023/24 season with the option to extend for another season.

Dynamo will have to do without injured defenders Roberto Fernandez, Milan Maistorovich and Saba Sazonov on Sunday. Also questionable in the derby is the participation of attacking midfielder Arsen Zakharyan. Barinov and defender Yegor Pogostnov will not play for Lokomotiv at the VTB Arena due to disqualifications. Due to an injury, Stanislav Magkeev will not be able to help the team, the appearance of Dzyuba and defense player Lukas Fasson on the field remains questionable.

In a parallel match in Voronezh, a head-to-head battle will unfold for a place in the direct residence zone in the RPL between the local Fakel (27 points) and Wings of the Soviets (29), before Sunday’s meeting, the teams take 13th and 12th places in the tournament table, respectively. The result of this game will largely determine which of the teams will retain their residence in the RPL, and which will fight for a place in the elite of Russian football for the 2023/24 season in play-offs with one of the representatives of the First League.

At 19:00 Moscow time in Rostov-on-Don, the match between Rostov (50 points) and Grozny Akhmat (49) will begin, which, after 28 rounds, are fourth and fifth in the RPL standings, respectively. The winner of this meeting in the event of a misfire “Spartak” will keep the chances of getting into the top three winners at the end of the championship.