Refereeing the matches of "Spartak" and "Rubin"
The beginning of the RPL season was overshadowed by a number of referee scandals. In particular, the referee made gross mistakes in the matches between Spartak and Rubin. Vasily Kazartsev and Aleksey Eskov, serving the game of the red-and-whites with Sochi, were forced to undergo a polygraph test.
And the head coach of Kazan citizens Leonid Slutskiy argued with the referee Sergei Ivanov so zealously in the meeting with Lokomotiv that he received a red card during the break. At a post-match press conference, he harshly criticized the referee from Rostov-on-Don for an unassigned penalty in favor of his team. Later, the specialist received a two-match suspension. He will also be forced to pay a fine of 200 thousand rubles.
It is especially curious how the teams' games in the second round will be judged after what happened. The match between Spartak and Akhmat in Moscow will be served by Evgeny Turbin's team. He can be called a lucky referee for red and white. Under his refereeing, they won five out of six meetings. The only defeat fell on the last year's game against Rostov - 1: 4.
And the home match between Rubin and Ural will be served by Alexey Sukhoi. The young referee has judged games with Kazan only four times. Under him, they won two victories, suffered one defeat and once parted with the rival world.
Confrontation of last year's winners
In turn, Lokomotiv will receive Krasnodar at home after the victory in Kazan. Thus, the fans will face a confrontation between the two teams that made it to the Champions League following the results of the previous season.
And the southerners on Wednesday became one step closer to participating in the group stage. Due to the fact that all four teams that reached the semifinals of the Europa League have already secured tickets to the Champions League, Murad Musaev's wards were able to start immediately from the playoff round. So the team's autumn schedule will be somewhat unloaded.
Lokomotiv, along with Zenit, will have the hardest part in August, as the team will play seven games in a month. In addition, Eder will not play on the field with Krasnodar due to injury. But for the first time, the Belarusian newcomer Vitaly Lisakovich can get into the application of railway workers. It is likely that another rookie will appear on the bench - Serbian defender Slobodan Rajkovic.
Also, the opportunity to meet with the former team will receive Fyodor Smolov, who returned from lease. As part of Krasnodar, the striker played 101 matches in all tournaments, in which he scored 64 goals. He is still the top scorer in club history. After leaving Krasnodar, Smolov confronted the southerners four times, but never distinguished himself.
As for personal meetings, teams rarely delight the audience with a large number of goals. They scored more than three goals last time for two on August 3, 2014, and both meetings within the last season of the RPL ended in a draw with the same score - 1: 1, and Grzegorz Krychowiak opened both scores in both.
Antagonism of Karpin and Dziuba
Equally interesting is the meeting of other participants in European competitions from Russia, Rostov and Zenit, which, like Krasnodar and Lokomotiv, started with victories in the domestic championship. Petersburgers gained an excellent move in the summer and in the last ten RPL matches won nine victories and one draw. The team of Sergei Semak has not lost in the Premier League since September 28 last year.
"Rostov" at home will try to become the first opponent to defeat the champion in 2020. However, last season, the yellow-blue Petersburgers lost twice. In St. Petersburg, Valery Karpin's wards conceded six goals, and Artyom Dziuba designed poker.
And Karpin himself has a hard time playing against Zenit. In 16 matches, his teams lost half of the time to the champion with five wins and three draws. As for the confrontation with Semak, here too the advantage is on the side of the opponent (three defeats with two victories and no peaceful outcomes).
The first game of Dynamo and Rotor in 16 years
But the signboard "Dynamo" - "Rotor", for sure, will cause pleasant nostalgia among the fans. In the 1990s, these teams fought for medals, but in 2004 the club mired in debt from Volgograd flew out of the Premier League, and then completely lost its professional status.
The return to the elite took place only 16 years later. Exactly so many rivals did not meet each other. But the last match at the Dynamo stadium ended for Rotor with a crushing defeat - 0: 5.
The teams started the new season differently. The blue and white defeated Ural (2: 0) and entered the group of the leading teams. The RPL newcomer was defeated with a similar score from Zenit. Kirill Novikov's wards will try to extend their successful streak, especially since the team scored an excellent move before the start in the Europa League and won four wins in five matches of the national championship.
Rotor will try to get the first victory in the Russian championship in many years. On September 25, 2004, the team beat Rostov at home - 3: 2. The eminent newcomer Jano Ananidze, who signed a one-year contract with the club, should help Volgograd in this.
Return of CSKA legionnaires
Another RPL rookie, Khimki, also started the season with a defeat. The team from the Moscow region lost to CSKA at home - 0: 2. It is curious that there was not a single legionnaire in the starting lineup of the army team for this match. This happened for the first time in 21 years in the Russian championship with the red and blue.
But it will be difficult to repeat this achievement in the match against Tambov. Nikola Vlasic, who missed the meeting with Khimki, may have time to recover by Saturday. In this case, the Croat will definitely fall into the base. But Alan Dzagoev, who left the field in Khimki ahead of schedule, escaped serious injury.
It is likely that the newcomer Adolfo Gaich, who started the first round in the reserve, will also enter the field from the first minutes. Ahead, he can form a duet with Fyodor Chalov, or even appear on the edge alone.