MOSCOW, May 22 (RIA Novosti) -- The 9th round game of the Russian Championship between CSKA (Central Sports Club of the Russian Army) and Spartak (Moscow) takes place on Sunday at 7 p.m. (Moscow time).
Traditionally, any meeting between the two teams draws a lot of attention. This time, though, there are two factors that make the coming game even more interesting.
CSKA comes to the game on the field of the Olympic Stadium in Luzhniki (the main sports arena of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games) as a winner of the UEFA Cup, which the team led by Valery Gazzayev won last Wednesday defeating Sporting from Portugal in Lisbon (3:1). The fans who will attend the game in Luzhniki will not be able to see the trophy, though. The leadership of the club, refused to show the cup after the end of the game, as Spartak leadership suggested, and decided to show it to the public at the beginning of the game against Zenit from St. Petersburg during semi-finals of the Russia Cup on May 25.
Besides, it will be the first game of the Russian Championship served by foreign referee Florian Mayer, whose reputation in Germany is impeccable.
Therefore, the attendance at the game might hit a new record in the history of the Russian Championship. The previous record (60,000 people) was established in 2000 at the game between Spartak and Lokomotiv. Spartak spokesperson Vladimir Shevchenko told RIA Novosti on Friday the estimated attendance at the upcoming game might be as high as 70,000 fans.
After the 9th round games on Saturday, CSKA holds the 13th place with 8 points mainly because the team played only five games of the Championship due to their run for the UEFA Cup. Spartak, which led the competition with 16 point temporarily lost its leading position to FC Moscow that defeated Tom, the newcomer to the Super League, on Saturday (4:1).
Among other games of the round, worth mentioning is another meeting between Moscow-based teams, Torpedo and Lokomotiv.
Recent leader Zenit suffered a surprising defeat from Shinnik in Yaroslavl yesterday (0:1).
