Akhmat Stadium: Spartak will have a difficult trip to Grozny

There are no really top matches in the schedule of the second round of the Russian Football Championship. But some may still arouse increased public interest. First of all, it is worth highlighting the confrontation in Grozny, where Akhmat will host the current Russian Cup winner Spartak Moscow. In addition, attention will be focused on the two leaders of the Russian Premier League in recent seasons — Zenit St. Petersburg will visit Orenburg, and Krasnodar will host Fakel Voronezh.

Akhmat – Spartak

During his six months at Spartak, his current head coach Juan Carlos Carcedo managed to win the Russian Cup with the red and white, which made the team one of the favorites for the new championship draw. It started with a 3-0 victory over Rodina Moscow. But considering that the RPL debutant played at this level for the first time, and with a squad that was in the First League two and a half months ago, it is difficult to really assess the potential of Spartak players from this match.

Their game in Grozny will be much more revealing. Akhmat started the season with a 1-1 away draw with Lokomotiv Moscow. The team managed to win back in the final match with the bronze medalist of the previous championship, showing good physical fitness.

A little less than a year has passed since the appointment of Stanislav Cherchesov as the club's head coach. Since then, Akhmat has regained its previously lost status as a thunderstorm of favorites. And last season he became an extremely uncomfortable opponent for everyone, finishing ninth in the championship, although in the previous two draws he barely avoided relegation from the RPL. Now that the former coach of the Russian national team has been working with Grozny since the beginning of the season, they can compete for higher positions.

"We played well in the first round against Lokomotiv, created more chances than the opponent, and we should have won," Akhmat defender Turpal-Ali Ibishev told Izvestia. — I hope we will be able to realize our capabilities much better in the match against Spartak and win our first victory of the season. We have everything for that. Yes, we have a difficult opponent ahead of us, but we have prepared very well for the championship, plowed through the training camp, and now we must use the fruits of this work to succeed. I am sure that we will play against Spartak even better at home than against Lokomotiv.

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Orenburg – Zenit

In the spring, Zenit regained the championship, which Krasnodar had taken away from it a year ago. Sergei Semak's team started the current season with a victory in the Russian Super Cup over Spartak (1:1, 4 on penalties:2) and the away defeat of Tolyatti Akron (5-0) in the first round of the championship.

Now they have another guest meeting with a very difficult opponent. Orenburg finished 12th last season, avoiding transitional matches and relegation only in the end. At the same time, during the first half of the championship, this club was considered the main candidate for relegation. But last fall, Ildar Akhmetzyanov took over as head coach. He had previously worked successfully in the First League for several years. Under his leadership, KAMAZ from Naberezhnye Chelny, one of the poorest clubs in the FNL-1, stayed at the top of the table.

Under Akhmetzyanov, Orenburg dramatically increased in the game and began to gain points after the winter break. One of the main successes was the 2-1 home victory over Zenit in March. That misfire almost deprived Peter of the championship. After the summer training camp, Orenburg shows that it is ready to continue moving up.

In the first round, he managed to score a crazy 2-1 home victory over Rostov. Having conceded at the beginning of the second half, Orenburg soon remained in the minority due to the removal of Maxim Saveliev. Everything was heading for defeat, but Ruslan Kul equalized the score in the 84th minute, and Andrei Kasadzhikov, an 18-year—old Zenit graduate who was leased from the St. Petersburg club for this season, assisted him. He scored the winning goal in the last seconds of the match, and next weekend he will try to prove himself in the match against his hometown club.

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Krasnodar – Fakel

Krasnodar has been Zenit's main competitor in the fight for the championship for the past three seasons. A year ago, he managed to take the gold away from Peter, and in two other cases he missed it in an insulting way. Now the bulls will try to return to the top again. This may be hindered by personnel problems, such as the departure of key attacking midfielder Eduard Spertsyan to Saudi Arabia and the injury of main striker John Cordoba.

The Colombian was injured playing for his national team at the recent World Cup and is missing the start of the season in Russia. To solve this personnel problem, Krasnodar acquired Dmitry Vorobyov, its key forward of the last two years, from Lokomotiv, just before the start of the championship.

But in the first round, it was not Vorobyov who brought the bulls a victory over Rubin Kazan, but Juan Boselli. The Uruguayan was acquired from Nizhny Novgorod in the winter, and he came under fire in May when he failed to make a one-on-one exit in the away match of the penultimate round of the championship against Dynamo Moscow (1:2). Krasnodar missed out on gold because of that defeat.

Now Murad Musayev's team lost 0:1 to Rubin in the first half. And for a long time, even the removal from the opponent did not help them. But just before the break, Boselli equalized the score, and at the beginning of the second half he assisted Nikita Krivtsov. At the end of the match, Brazilian midfielder Christian increased Krasnodar's advantage, which eventually won 3-1.

Now he is waiting for the Voronezh Fakel, who returned to the RPL after a season in the First League. Oleg Vasilenko's team started the current championship with a 1-2 home defeat against Dynamo Makhachkala.

There will also be five more matches in the upcoming round. Rodina will host Rostov, Akron will face Rubin on its own field, CSKA will play at home with Samara Wings of the Soviets, Moscow's Lokomotiv will visit Dynamo Makhachkala, and Dynamo Moscow will visit Kaliningrad Baltic.