Zenit this year will bring the championship to its logical conclusion and become the champion in the RPL WORLD, according to ex-CSKA player Valery Masalitin.

In the match of the 20th round of the WORLD RPL, Zenit lost away to CSKA 0:1. Zenit is leading the Russian Championship with 48 points. CSKA (35) is fifth.

– CSKA liked the mood very much. We used our favorite home tactics: we started to put pressure, create pressure, preventing the defenders from passing to the middle line. In the absence of Barrios, who is sinking back, Zenit could not manage to move from defense to attack. This is the merit of CSKA.

We created some moments, but, unfortunately, we could not bring them to their logical conclusion. The second half started again from defense. Apparently, the forces ended, which Zenith took advantage of. I took control of the ball and started playing my game. It’s good that Chalov scored, the rebound helped him well. As they say, houses and walls help. CSKA was helped by the bars and Akinfeev’s good game, especially in the first half. Football gods were on the side of CSKA.

The ball crushed across the field – it was a typical spring field. But if you are a master, you have to adapt to everything. There are no ideal conditions, especially in our climate. And if there was still dirt in bulk and snow lying? CSKA does not train on this field either, so as not to spoil the lawn. So in this regard, the teams were in the same conditions.

CSKA started the second half of the championship indistinctly. The team is still holding out, sticking to its game. In the absence of Carrascal, Fedotov rebuilt the scheme, they began to play 3-5-2. We saturated the middle line, started to control the ball somewhere, create pressure. But then again, if Chalov gets injured, who will replace him? You will need to rebuild the game again. None of the attackers are on the bench.

In my opinion, the Cup games played their role in the middle of the week. The teams could not recover – this applies to both Spartak and Zenit, which was used by CSKA and Orenburg.

There are always chances to catch the first place, but in fact only on paper. Now “Rostov” will lose and “Spartak” – and then what? Who thought that Spartak would lose in Orenburg? “Zenith” this year will bring the championship to its logical conclusion, he will become a champion. But next year, all teams need to do something and compete. Otherwise, this is not the case,” Masalitin told Metaratings.ru.

In the next round, the team of Sergei Semak will host the Yekaterinburg “Ural” on April 1. The next day, the Red-Blues will meet Fakel Voronezh on the road.

Watch live broadcasts of MIR RPL matches on the Match TV channel and the thematic channels of the holding, as well as on matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru websites.