Reality of the 5th round of the group stage.

“Ural” – “Ruby”

– A very unpleasant situation for the “hornets”. The fears are justified after the defeat against Zenit. It has been noted more than once that Gancharenko’s Ural is a series team. Now the unsuccessful match continues: refereeing errors also prevent us from scoring points. Ivanov examined the referees of the match with Rostov. But how could it be otherwise, when in the 9th round Krasnodar’s goal was incorrectly counted, and the next weekend they awarded a controversial penalty (and did not award a much more noticeable one) and showed Egorycheva’s red card – also doubtful?

– For the people of the Urals, the main thing is that anger at injustice pours into football. With Rubin it will be established who will have the “right of priority” to fight for tickets to the upper group. Unfortunately for the Kazan team, they come to the match in very poor form: one win in the last 5 matches.

“Zenit”-“Baltica”

– Now no one in St. Petersburg will take into account the fact that the “blue-white-blue” play with the “Baltics” in the Cup – the St. Petersburgers already have two defeats in a row. Before that, the victory over Akhmat in the Cup was difficult, and even before that, a draw CSKA and the away defeat against Baltika, in July-August – 1:1 against Rostov and 2:3 against Dynamo. Too many misfires early on for the hegemon RPL.

– But the Kaliningraders will have a chance to exploit Zenit’s internal contradictions. If the current situation affects the pride of Petersburgers and causes a negative reaction, Ignashevich will have the opportunity to create a sensation. Meanwhile Baltika is as good in the Cup as it is weak in the league.

Lokomotiv-Rostov

– The success is consolidated, the top 3 have submitted to the “railway workers” – they approach the match against Rostov with victories over Zenit away and over Pari NN at home. The only thing is that Artyom Dzyuba’s statistics are not encouraging. The recent leader of the “red-greens” has passed into the shadows, perhaps focusing on the media component.

– With CSKA the most peaceful team RPL – this is Rostov. The Army team had failed to win in regular time since the end of August (in 6 matches – 4 draws and 2 wins on penalties). For Rostovites, such a series lasted 4 matches: 3 draws and a cup victory over Rubin on penalties.

“Wings of the Soviets” – “Akhmat”

– What a strong impetus the victory over Spartak will give to “Wings”! Samara has further strengthened its position in the top 3: Loko is ahead by 3 points, Zenit by 4! Moreover, now there is a complete set: the “Wings” beat the “red-whites”, and before that they took points from CSKA“Dynamo” and the same “railwaymen”.

– But if we talk specifically about the Cup, the position of the Samara team is as bad as that of Akhmat. Both are 4-6 points behind Baltika and Zenit. Hopes for the upper group are illusory: if the “blue-white-blue” beat the Kaliningraders, only one ticket for the Path of Regions will remain.

“Torch” – CSKA

– The victory over Sochi is the first since August. In this segment, the Voronezh team lost to Rubin, Krylia and Orenburg, shared points with Krasnodar and Ural, and in the return match of the cup with the Orenburg team reached the penalty shootout, but even there they were weaker . Result of the match with CSKA it will most likely close the way to the upper group – and then everything depends on the Southern Urals themselves and Sochi.

– The series of draws at the end of regular time was interrupted: thus the “red-blue” completed 6 matches in a row. Two took place in the Cup, so the matches ended in penalty kicks and already there the Muscovites won. Now the trend stopped in the match against Baltika.

Sochi-Orenburg

– Khokhlov is gone, but things have not improved. Under Tochilin, the southerners lost on penalties to the CSKA team, turned out to be weaker than the Wings in the championship and lost without scruples to Fakel. The search for a new coach must continue: in the championship the “leopards” are generally at the bottom of the table with six points.

– But the Southern Urals do not need to do this: everything went smoothly as soon as David Deogracia took over as chief. In 7 games – one defeat, by Paris NN. And most importantly, there was a great feeling last weekend. Then Orenburg beat Zenit at home with one move.

“Dinamo” – “Spartak”

– Again the Moscow derby between “white-blue” and “white-red”, two more problematic teams. Only this time Spartak’s position is even worse. Abascal’s team failed miserably against the Wings: they missed an early goal and fumbled the ball. The possession led to nothing and in the end it was 0:4.

– Dynamo has achieved 1 victory in the last 7 matches. In this period Marcel Lička’s team has already lost twice to Spartak and dropped points to Rubin, Paris NN and Akhmat. They also lost to Krasnodar on penalties.

“Krasnodar” – “Paris NN”

– In any case, neither Dynamo nor Krasnodar will see the front row of Group D – the “red and whites” have guaranteed it. With the same points, the “red and white” are ahead, so in the 5th round the “bulls” only need victory.

– Nizhny Novgorod is capable of causing chaos in the group standings: if they beat Krasnodar, three teams will have 5 points each. At the same time, Paris NN’s trips are difficult: during the entire current season, the team managed to share points only with Dynamo and Ural. The remaining four matches were defeats.