The stuttering top two teams in the Russian Premier League Zenit St. Petersburg and CSKA Moscow resume their tussle for the domestic title this weekend after midweek disappointment in the Champions League.
Zenit look to bounce back from Wednesday’s 0-0 draw with APOEL when they host Lokomotiv Moscow on Sunday.
CSKA, thoroughly outplayed in a 2-0 defeat by Lille on Tuesday, travel to Anzhi Makhachkala looking to close the three-point gap at the top.
It is the final round of matches before a three-month winter break.
Zenit coach Luciano Spalletti, who is still without injured top striker Aleksandr Kerzhakov, gave his players the day off on Thursday and only put them through light drills on Friday after Wednesday’s enthralling but energy-sapping encounter.
That was their third straight draw in all competitions.
Opponents Lokomotiv occupy the league’s last Europa League berth in fifth and will look to extend their one-point cushion over Rubin Kazan in sixth.
CSKA, defeated at home last week by Rubin, face an Anzhi side on a mini-run of form, with two wins and a draw against Zenit in their last three games.
Coach Leonid Slutsky welcomes back the league’s top scorer, Seydou Doumbia, who sat out the Lille game through suspension. The Ivorian’s importance to the team is difficult to understate – he has scored half of CSKA’s 58 goals this season.
Slutsky also has Doumbia’s strike partner Vagner Love back after the Russian Football Union reversed a decision to ban him for three games over a sending off earlier this month.
By the time CSKA take to the pitch they could be in third place if cross-town rivals Dinamo Moscow, just a point behind, beat Rubin in Kazan on Saturday.
Elsewhere, Spartak Moscow head to Krasnodar to play Dan Petrescu’s FC Kuban, who boast the league’s second-meanest defense along with Rubin.
Spartak are two points behind Dinamo but, buoyed by last week’s 2-0 home win over Lokomotiv and red-hot form of Nigerian striker Emmanual Emenike, are more than capable of closing the gap.
At the bottom, last-placed Tom Tomsk host Krasnodar in ninth; Rostov in 10th host 12th-placed Amkar Perm; Volga Nizhny Novgorod in 13th travel to Krylya Sovietov Samara; and second-from-bottom Spartak Nalchik face off against Terek Grozny in a Caucasus derby.
