CSKA will be the first so far: the army team became the leaders of the Russian championship

The CSKA players came out on top in the Russian championship following the results of the 10th round at the end of the week. Having snatched a 1-0 victory over Kaliningrad Baltika at home in the last minute, the Army team seized the lead, pulling away by just one point from Moscow's Lokomotiv, which won on its own field against Rubin Kazan (1-0) and broke a five-match draw. Meanwhile, the fight for gold is getting very tight — Spartak Moscow, which closes the top five, is only three points behind the leader, who defeated Pari Nizhny Novgorod (3:0) at home.

CSKA — Baltika

This match in Moscow was formally the centerpiece of the entire round, as both teams were in the top three. And if few people were surprised by the presence of CSKA in it, then getting Baltika there became the main sensation of the summer and early autumn. The Kaliningrad team only returned to the RPL from the first league in May, but once in the elite, they did not lose a single match in the first nine rounds of the championship.

Moreover, these successes could not be attributed to an easy calendar, since during the last segment, Andrei Talalaev's wards managed to defeat Spartak away (3:0), as well as draw with three more top clubs — on the road with Dynamo Moscow (1:1), at home with Lokomotiv." (1:1) and Zenit St. Petersburg (0:0). Baltika could have avoided defeat in the away game against CSKA Moscow.

Conquer Baltika: CSKA faces a difficult match with its closest competitor

The meeting of the two teams from the top three will be the main one in the next round of the RPL

Although the Army team had the advantage for almost the entire meeting. There were even a few killer moments at the Kaliningrad goal, but they were saved several times by goalkeeper Maxim Borisko, and twice CSKA hit the post. Nevertheless, in the last seconds of the meeting, Fabio Celestini's team put the squeeze on the opponent — Igor Diveev's goal led to Baltika's first defeat in this championship and the Army team's entry into first place. Kaliningrad dropped to sixth place, but they are only four points behind the leader.

"I think that despite the defeats, we showed a good game — the team fought, fought," Ravil Izmailov, Baltika's general director, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — Of course, I would like to continue going undefeated, but I don't think the guys will lose heart because of this setback. In any case, we will continue to fight for victory in every match. We are maximalists, we set ourselves the highest goals, so we are not going to lower the bar.

Lokomotiv — Rubin

After Baltika's defeat by CSKA, Lokomotiv remains the last team in the current RPL championship that has not lost a single match. However, he himself ruined the impression of a successful start when he was able to win the first four meetings. Following that, the Railwaymen had five draws in a row. Moreover, in three of them, victories were missed in an insulting way — in home games with Rostov (3:3), Samara Wings of the Soviets (2:2) and away with Dynamo Makhachkala (1:1), the opponents compared the score in the last minutes. And with Rostov and Krylia, Loko also led by two goals.

It seemed that there would be difficulties in the home match with Rubin, which was also at the top of the table and in close proximity to the leaders. In addition, Rashid Rakhimov's team made a major boost last week by signing a contract with Daler Kuzyaev, a former midfielder of the Russian national team, one of the heroes of the 2018 World Cup, a five-time national champion with Zenit, who played for Le Havre in the French championship for the last two years.

"I don't lose hope of returning to Spartak and playing for it all the time"

Nikita Chernov, a football player from Krylia Sovetov, talks about renting to a Samara club, his chances of finishing in the top eight of the Russian Premier League and the opportunity to play in the ranks of the red and white

He made his debut for Rubin in the match against Loko and performed well. The game itself turned out to be very sticky, and everything was decided by one mistake by the goalkeeper of the guests, Evgeny Stavera, who was prevented by rain. Towards the end of the match, after Dmitry Barinov's long-range shot, the goalkeeper of the guests tried to catch a wet ball, but it slipped out of his hands into the goal. As a result, Loko won and came in second place, while Rubin dropped to ninth place.

"The match was even and went rather to a draw," Nikolai Naumov, former president of Lokomotiv, said in a conversation with Izvestia. — Rubin managed to impose its viscous football on the opponent and deserved to avoid defeat. But the goalkeeper's mistake allowed Loko to win. Congratulations to the Railwaymen for breaking the series without a win. But it's hard to say now that with such a game they have got out of the crisis and can fight for gold. Lokomotiv plays very poorly in positional play. He keeps trying to be number two, but he doesn't want to or can't play from a position of strength, which is exactly what needs to be done against lower-class teams.

Spartak — Pari Nizhny Novgorod

The red and white looked to be the clear favorites of the match against the struggling Pari Nizhny Novgorod, which is struggling to score points. The expectations were fulfilled, and the guests did not oppose Spartak with anything serious.

Pretty quickly, Dejan Stankovic's team took the lead thanks to Manfred Ugalde's goal in the 10th minute. Closer to the break, Jedson Fernandes doubled the advantage of the hosts. And in the middle of the second half, he also brought the matter to a rout — in both cases, the Brazilian was assisted by young midfielder Igor Dmitriev.

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Krasnodar's misfire was exploited by CSKA, who came close to first place.

Pari Nizhny Novgorod is the penultimate 15th place in the relegation zone at the bottom of the table. But the leadership of the region has stated that it is not going to change head coach Alexei Shpilevsky and sports director Alexander Udaltsov yet.

"The results are bad, but we believe in the head coach," Gleb Nikitin, Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, said after the match. — Will Udaltsov be fired? Not yet. The last two matches were good. Today, the class of Spartak players has affected, the game cannot please today. But overall, we have a good team, a team. We do not see any specific mistakes, much determines both previous decisions and circumstances, including personal injuries, for example, (Alexander) Ektov.

Five more matches took place in the 10th round. Dynamo Moscow won 3-2 against Krylia Sovetov Samara. Akhmat Grozny defeated Akron Togliatti at home (3:0) and still does not lose in the championship after the appointment of Stanislav Cherchesov as head coach - this series has already reached seven meetings. Krasnodar drew with Rostov on the road (0-0) and lost the lead, falling back to third place with a one-point gap from the first. Zenit St. Petersburg, which has risen to fourth place, is two points behind the leading CSKA, having defeated Orenburg on its own field (5:2). Dynamo Makhachkala drew at home with the outsider of the Sochi championship (0:0), who scored only the second point in this tournament.