The Fifth Round of the Russian Cup: Spartak vs Dynamo and Zenit’s Redemption in Kaliningrad

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Baltic

Russia

This season Zenit surprises its fans with a minus sign. The champion of the last five editions of the RPL does not dominate in many matches, as everyone has become accustomed to over the years, and in ten rounds he managed to suffer one more defeat than in the entire last season. First, the St. Petersburgers lost at home to Dynamo, then everything seemed to be getting better – Spartak was defeated, Ural was defeated. But in the last two matches, the champion first lost at home to Lokomotiv, and the opponent, like Dynamo, scored the winning goal at the very end – and then there was an away defeat from Orenburg, which in all previous years was called a “farm club” and supplier of glasses for Zenit.

In the Cup, Semak’s team also managed to lose – and just to Baltika. On their home field, the Kaliningraders prevailed with a score of 1:0 and now remain the leaders of the group, ahead of Zenit by one point. By the way, in the RPL the situation with Baltika is much worse. There it comes second to last with seven points, although in the last three rounds it tied with Rostov, defeated Akhmat and lost to CSKA with a minimal score. But Zenit should now be angry after two defeats in the championship in a row, and it is unlikely that the Kaliningraders have a chance to stop the blue-white-blue.

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Wings of Soviets

Russia

The Samara team are having a wonderful season, taking second place in the RPL with 21 points. This looks especially unexpected against the backdrop of the torment in the spring of this year, when “Wings” could not rebuild after the winter sales and only in the last round avoided participation in the play-offs. Of course, it cannot be ruled out that this winter the leaders will again leave this city on the banks of the Volga, and the team will decline again – and even without that, a decline is quite possible – but at the moment “Wings” are very good. They collect almost all their points (except perhaps for the defeat against Rubin in Kazan), and they regularly “bite” the leaders. This weekend they completely defeated Spartak at home with a score of 4:0.

“Akhmat” showed off a little after the change of coach, but in the last RPL matches, points and goals are difficult for the team – no more than one goal scored in five rounds and only one victory. True, the Grozny team looks more cheerful in the Cup. There they beat Krylia a month ago with a score of 3:1, and in the second half of September they lost to Zenit in a penalty shootout after 3:3 in regular time. But that was at home, and now Romashchenko’s team is waiting for an away match. “Wings” clearly do not focus on the Cup, but in the spirit after the defeat of “Spartak” they definitely should not lose and may well score three points.

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Orenburg

Russia

The Orenburg team under Deograsia has changed dramatically compared to the start of the season with Yaroshik. The Spaniard managed to cheer up the team after 0:4 in Grozny, after which the team changed coaches – Orenburg immediately took points from CSKA. Since then, Lokomotiv and Zenit have also been defeated, as well as Sochi. The team suffered its only defeat with Deogracia in Nizhny Novgorod. In the Cup it was more difficult, but we managed to score five points from two meetings with Fakel – 1:0 in Voronezh and a home victory in the penalty shoot-out series.

The Sochi team, on the contrary, have already lost five matches in the RPL in a row, and in the Cup they lost twice to CSKA in penalty shootouts. In addition, during these seven games, Sochi managed to score only two goals. The team has already dropped to last place in the championship, and the change of coach from Khokhlov to Tochilin has not helped yet. To be honest, it’s not very clear why Sochi is considered a favorite by bookmakers. The hosts need points first of all in the championship, and Orenburg in this match can guarantee themselves advance from the group in advance.

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Dynamo M

Russia

Spartak M

Russia

This is actually a very difficult match to predict. The Red-Whites continue to be in a storm – three victories in a row to zero, including over Dynamo in the RPL, were followed by the already mentioned defeat in Samara. At the same time, in general, Spartak is doing well. Abascal’s team scored 16 points in 10 rounds – the same as Dynamo and CSKA – and ranks fifth. Not ideal, of course, but given a number of failures before, it could have been worse. And in the Cup, Spartak scored the maximum points and already secured first place in the group. However, given the fundamental status of the upcoming meeting, the red-whites definitely shouldn’t treat it carelessly – especially since their conditional one-and-a-half squad in cup matches often performs better than the main one in the RPL.

Dynamo, on the contrary, needs to score points here if Lichka’s team aims to reach the playoffs along the RPL Path, and not through the Regional Path. In the next match, the Krasnodar team, who now have five points, like the blue and white ones, will play at home with the Nizhny Novgorod team, and if they win there, it will not be easy for Dynamo to overtake them in the event of a defeat from Spartak. However, Dynamo has not been able to win since the beginning of September, when it scored three points against Rostov. The attack also went wrong – three 1:1 draws and a loss to Spartak with a score of 0:1. More precisely, there are moments, but their implementation is clearly lame. But due to the difference in tournament motivation in the Cup, Dynamo should take at least one point here – and the teams are definitely capable of scoring at least two goals if the ball flies into the goal.