The Russian Premier League heads into the final round of games with three Moscow teams, plus outsiders Anzhi, in the hunt for the country’s second Champions League place.
With Zenit St. Petersburg already crowned champions, second place and a berth in the top tier of European football is now the focus for Sunday’s last day of matches at the top, which will all start at 18.30 Moscow time (15.30 GMT).
CSKA Moscow occupy second place but missed their chance to make sure of Champions League football earlier this week, playing out a goalless draw at home to Dan Petrescu’s FC Kuban on Wednesday, and must now chase a final-day with at Rubin Kazan to avoid relying on other team’s mistakes.
Should CSKA drop points against Rubin, the door is open for third-placed Spartak, a point behind, who can steal the Champions League berth with a win at crosstown rivals Lokomotiv in a match that ex- Russia goalkeeper Sergei Ovchinnikov predicts will be a thriller.
“Spartak need a win, so they’ll attack in any case. Lokomotiv’s no different, they play all their games in an attacking setup. I think that the game will be interesting, there’ll be a lot of goals scored,” he told RIA Novosti on Friday.
Lokomotiv’s stalwart midfielder Denis Glushakov is to serve the first game of a three-match ban for abusing the referee after Lokomotiv’s 3-0 derby defeat to CSKA last week, while Spartak will be without striker Emmanuel Emenike, who has scored 13 goals in 22 games this season.
The Nigerian picked up a red card for celebrating his goal against Zenit last Saturday with a gesture the referee deemed offensive. The Russian Football Union’s disciplinary committee said Saturday it did not consider the gesture obscene, but that rules prevented it overturning the automatic one-match ban.
Fourth-placed Dynamo need both CSKA and Spartak to drop points to have any hope of regaining the second place they held three weeks ago. Sergei Silkin’s Dynamo have the easiest draw on paper, away to eighth-placed Kuban, although Kuban goalkeeper Sergei Belenov has vowed his team will fight to the end.
“In the team, we’ve got no feelings of being on holiday at all, we’re preparing seriously for the Dynamo game,” Belenov told RIA Novosti on Saturday.
“In the last match of the season we’re going to try and show once again what we’re capable of, and we’ll give Sergei Silkin’s team a fight.”
To stand a realistic chance of second place, Guus Hiddink’s Anzhi need CSKA and Spartak to lose and Dynamo to drop points, as well as a home win against champions Zenit. With such long odds, Hiddink has already decided to rest defender Christopher Samba.
Twelve points above the fray, Zenit have nothing at stake, and coach Luciano Spalletti said Saturday he will rest players including first-choice goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev and top scorer Alexander Kerzhakov, opting to give a start to fringe players like little-used striker Alexander Bukharov and young winger Maxim Kannunikov.
The four games in the bottom half of the table kick off three hours earlier Sunday, but little is at stake with FC Tomsk and Spartak Nalchik both already relegated, and 14th-placed FC Volga facing a relegation playoff.
The second team to face a playoff against a First Division team will be either FC Rostov, who visit Tomsk on Sunday, or Krylya Sovetov, two points ahead, who can guarantee their safety with a win at home to Terek Grozny.
The other two matches pit Nalchik against FC Krasnodar and Amkar Perm against Volga.
