The Bulls will meet the St. Petersburg team only in November.

The further the season progresses, the greater the joy of finishing among the top three RPL. Who would have thought that after nine rounds Zenit would not still be leading the championship?! We tell you what the charm of the current Premier League is.

Loko helped Krasnodar, the Bulls were first with a margin

In the ninth round, Zenit was in second place: after a 2:3 draw with Dynamo, the St. Petersburg team beat Fakel, Spartak, Ural and Rubin and shared points with CSKA visit. It seemed that the “blue-white-blue sky” had reunited after the preparation and would now overtake Krasnodar in the next few weeks. The gap was only 1 point.

By this time, the “Bulls” had lost points in three of the last four matches – they drew with the league leaders “Lokomotiv”, “Fakel” and “Akhmat”. There was no doubt that the Southerners would be able to score points against the Bumblebees at home, but there was no doubt that the blue-and-whites would win at home.

The defeat by the “railway” team was an absolute sensation. Sergei Semak’s team took the lead in the first half, had the initiative and dominated possession, missing the shot. The guests took advantage of this: in the second half Maxim Glushenkov came on in place of Anton Miranchuk. He scored and assisted Tiknizyan (Galaktionov said that such a substitution was initially planned). As a result, the “red-greens” brought the situation to a strong-willed victory – and liberated Krasnodar at a high cost.

Vladimir Ivich’s team played later and understood the importance of the match with the Urals. This is why the southerners got the better of the “hornets”. Now the gap from Zenit is 4 points. And the most interesting thing is that the current national champions are not even in second, but in third place. Above is another sensation: “Wings of the Soviets.”

Southerners are a team of coaches, “Wings” follow in the footsteps of “Rostov”

Krasnodar is an example of how quickly a team can adapt to the needs of a new coach. Vladimir Ivich has been at the club for less than a year. In the winter, a number of acquisitions were made under the new coach, and already in May-June it was a coaching team.

The “citizens” have reactive wings (Batchy and Borges play as wingers, there is also Olusegun, the full-backs are fast Olasa and Volkov), in the support zone there is a fighter-Chernikov, and in the front line Cordoba holds well the balloons. The “Bulls” have improved in a component that had always failed before: they strengthened their character.

The Wings’ second-place finish is an anomaly when you look at their injury list. Since the beginning of the season there were many players in hospital, and now there are no fewer: striker Dmitry Tsypchenko, important starter Roman Yezhov and central defender Ilya Gaponov are missing. There are also Denis Yakuba, Artyom Sokolov, Vladimir Khubulov, Egor Ushakov. Only recently Vladimir Pisarsky returned. But Rasskazov, Rakhmanovich and Benjamin Garre performed well before the microdamage, earning points in five consecutive rounds. And the most interesting thing is that 19-year-old winger Nikita Saltykov, who has already scored 4 goals in 8 league matches, is developing rapidly. “Wings” this season continues the work of “Rostov”: the southerners also became the main discovery of the last campaign and fought for medals until the last rounds. Injuries also interfered and there were also problems with logistics.

This hasn’t happened for 3-4 years

Year after year, Zenit was already in first place at the end of the first third of the championship. In the last draw RPL The “blue-white-blue” allowed their opponents to compete for the leadership in the first 6 heats. Even before that they immediately took the initiative. The 20/21 season was anomalous because, after finishing the eleventh round in 1st place, the St. Petersburg team suddenly fell back to second place at the end of the first round.

And the 2019/20 championship turned out to be equally anomalous: after 9 rounds, the competition for the Semak team was the same “Krasnodar” and “Rostov” (all scored 20 points), and it was slightly lower CSKA, behind by 1 point. Loko also kept a minimum distance.

Zenit still has problems: only if they were previously linked to the game on 2 fronts, now a lack of motivation is suspected. After the home defeat against Lokomotiv, blue-white-blue footballer Andrei Mostovoy said that the team held a meeting behind closed doors. There was also an insider that the club’s general director, Alexander Medvedev, scolded the players in the locker room after the match and scolded them for “not fighting for the club.”

The head-to-head bet between the champion and the leader will close the first round of the championship

Now everyone has turned to the Premier League calendar in search of the nearest Zenit – Krasnodar match. But it’s not yet early: November 11th. Their clash will close the first round of the championship and this will only fuel further interest.

It is important that the Citizens do not lose ground at this point, which will be quite difficult. During this period, the Blue-White-Blues will play Orenburg, Sochi, determine the Wings’ place in the table, then meet Akhmat and Baltika – there will be no serious tests. But for Krasnodar it is more difficult: in October they have a derby with Rostov and an away match CSKA, after which there will also be a cup match against Spartak. They will also play against Rubin, Baltika and Krylia.

Alexander Tarkhanov managed to call the southerners a real contender for the championship, but this can only be judged after the next matches. The true test of a champion is the fights where you can’t lose points.