Outrageous mood and a full stadium of fans
For Rostov and Lokomotiv, the full-time match in the Russian championship is of great importance, because it can become one of the key in the fight for a ticket to the Champions League. Before the 22nd round, teams have the same number of points and share among themselves the third place in the RPL standings. Teams are three points behind the second Krasnodar, and 12 points behind the leading Zenit (which spent more on the match).
Many considered the Rostov club outsiders in the fight for medals. But in the first two rounds of the spring segment of the tournament, they not only scored four points, but also won a home victory over a direct competitor in the person of CSKA. Now the wards of Valery Karpin can present another mini-sensation and take the upper hand over the “Locomotive”. Help for them will be that the meeting will take place in full stands. While Moscow and a number of other cities have already imposed restrictions on mass events due to the spread of coronavirus, Rostov-on-Don has not yet touched upon this. Therefore, about a day before the meeting, about 35 thousand tickets were sold.
In the case of a second consecutive victory over the capital’s grand, the yellow-blue will create a three-point reserve from the pursuers in the fight for a ticket to the qualification of the main European Cup tournament of the Old World. And if a misfire in an away match with Sochi gained the turn will be allowed by Krasnodar, Rostov could even climb to the intermediate second line, which gives the right to start a performance in the Champions League from the group stage.
A comfortable schedule also speaks in favor of Rostov. So, he is quite capable of gaining six points in games with Sochi and Arsenal, and in an excellent mood, approach one of the key meetings of the remainder of the season with Krasnodar. It is important that Karpin’s wards will again have the advantage of their field. The same applies to the match of the final round with Zenit, which by that time could easily lose their tournament motivation.
Thus, all matches with direct competitors in the spring part of the season are spent by Rostovs at home, and in the remaining games they meet with the middle peasants and outsiders. So, after a confrontation with the Krasnodar club “Rostov”, “Wings of the Soviets”, “Ufa”, “Orenburg” and “Rubin” will be examined.
On the one hand, Karpin’s wards do not have to complain about the calendar. On the other hand, in matches with inferior teams in the class, they may well lose points, especially given the motivation of competitors fighting for the survival. Yes, and “Rostov” in the current season has repeatedly stumbled where it seemed, it should not. For example, southerners twice lost to Tambov, lost to Ufa, and twice broke up with the Urals.
In addition, four of the six games, if you do not take into account the confrontation with direct competitors, they will spend on a visit. And on the road, yellow and blue look much worse than at home: only 15 points in 11 matches.
Champions League as a chance for the future
In this situation, “Rostov” simply has no right to miss the opportunity to return to the Champions League. Firstly, participation in the group stage of the main European competition will bring the club a couple of tens of millions of euros, which is extremely important for the financial well-being of yellow and blue. After all, at the end of the year they were experiencing serious problems, and the media wrote about the possible sale of leading football players and the departure of Valery Karpin.
Participation in the Champions League is very likely to help the club retain its leaders, who are unlikely to give up the opportunity to play in a prestigious tournament - previously, most of the team watched it only on television. And the appearance on the European Cup arena will only raise the cost of leading players.
Plus, getting into the Champions League is guaranteed to help keep Karpin on the post. Perhaps he is now the main asset of the club. It is no coincidence that the fans before the New Year were most alarmed by the news of the likely departure of Valery Georgievich. As a result, he signed a new five-year contract, but there is no guarantee that the specialist in demand will not accept the offer of one of the top clubs, if he does, or does not decide to try his hand again in Europe.
It seemed that after Berdyev's departure, a figure equal to him in scale and skill level in Rostov-on-Don would no longer be, but the former Spartak mentor is doing everything to overshadow his predecessor. The coach only had to make some noise with Rostov in European competition. And Karpin has already built a cool team, and the big question is whether it is weaker than Kurban Bekievich’s team. Moreover, the current coaching staff managed to create a strong team of “decommissioned pilots”, unknown legionnaires and unclaimed Russians. So, Matias Normann and Eldor Shomurodov turned into real RPL stars, and Pavel Mamaev and Roman Eremenko, who missed for a long time due to non-football reasons, gained a second youth. As a result, the lineup now looks not weaker than that of the same Lokomotiv, but in some ways even stronger.
But the yellow and blue are still suitable for the match with the railroad with certain personnel problems. The main one is the absence of Dmitry Chistyakov. A pupil of St. Petersburg football only made his debut in the RPL this season, but without it it is already difficult to imagine the Rostov defense center. In the game with CSKA, he received a serious dissection of his head and was eliminated indefinitely.
Also, due to various injuries, Yegor Baburin, Alexey Ionov and Arseniy Logashov will miss the game. And Daniil Glebov will not enter the field due to busting yellow cards. But Dennis Hadzhikadunich and Norman will return to operation. Also, one should not forget about Mamaev, who solved health problems and, in the match with CSKA, not only for the first time in six months, entered the field in an official meeting, but also scored a goal. It is curious what role midfielder Karpin will play this time.