More important than the Moscow derby: why is the match between Rubin and Zenit more than a struggle for the RPL leadership

Irreconcilable rivals

If we proceed from the position of the teams in the RPL standings, then the match between Rubin and Zenit should be considered central in the eighth round. However, the proximity to the country's main derby had a detrimental effect on the level of excitement around the confrontation between the championship leaders, although it contains no less intrigue. Sergei Semak's wards will try to keep the first line, and one of the most inconvenient opponents will interfere with them in all available ways.

Of course, the degree of expectation has been raised largely due to the fact that the last meeting between Rubin and Zenit in the RPL turned out to be very dramatic. In the 21st round of last season, Kazan inflicted a sensitive defeat on the reigning champions with a score of 2: 1, and the ending turned out to be incredibly bright. In the 92nd minute, Denis Makarov ran half of the field, “rocked” two enemy defenders and left the goalkeeper out of business. And seven minutes later, Artyom Dzyuba missed the penalty spot and missed the chance to restore parity.

However, that victory of Rubin over Zenit was far from the only one in recent years.

Last season, the champions of Russia suffered only three defeats, and they were twice inferior to Kazan and both times with the same score.

Only Dynamo, also one of the discoveries of the past championship, which continues to develop in the current one, managed to enter the elite club of the teams that beat the blue-white-blue.

Over the past three years of competition, "Rubin" and did three times prevailed over the enemy - more than anyone else.

True, he suffered the same number of defeats, as a result of which he took the fourth place in the list of the most inconvenient opponents of Petersburgers (50% of victories).

Less often, Zenit won only against Lokomotiv (28.6%), Ufa and Akhmat (both - 42.9%).

Nevertheless, the future match promises to become more status and intense for one more reason. The previous six were invariably held in the format of a confrontation between the indisputable favorite and a clear outsider. After all, if Zenit approached them exclusively in the status of the leader of the championship, then Rubin - as the maximum of a team from the middle part of the table. Over the past three seasons, he was ranked above the eighth line only on the eve of one game - in the third round of the 2018/19 championship. But here this was primarily due to the small number of meetings held.

Now Slutsky's wards are not only in the top 4, but if they win, they can catch up with their opponents in the standings - both teams will have 17 points each.

And this will surely become an additional motivation for Rubin, who, after leaving the League of Conferences, had the opportunity to concentrate entirely on playing in the national championship.

Recovery after leaving for London

In turn, the same cannot be said about Petersburgers - the only representatives of Russia in the Champions League. Semak's wards have already started in the main European Cup and almost snatched a draw from the current winner - Chelsea. Guests selflessly defended themselves and conceded only in the middle of the second half, giving too much freedom to Romel Lukaku. Nevertheless, they earned a positive assessment for leaving for London and instilled in their fans the hope that on the third attempt they would finally be able to take a place above the fourth in their group.

But it is necessary to take into account the fact that an impressive performance at Stamford Bridge could not but cost Zenit serious energy costs. On the one hand, the blue-white-blue did not have to travel long distances during the meeting with Chelsea. So, Alexey Sutormin ran the most, but against the background of the rest of his 9.1 km seem more than modest. With this figure, he shares only 140th place among all the participants in the first round of the Champions League, behind the 4.3 km leaders in the person of Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco from Atlético and Mehdi Taremi from Porto. However, the need to constantly practice on the defensive, designate selection, and at the very first attempt to try to organize a counterattack, certainly had a noticeable effect on the functional state of the Petersburgers. And that's not counting the psychological aspect.

In this regard, one of the main intrigues is how exactly Zenit will be affected by the defeat at Chelsea. Semak's wards can use this as an incentive and enter the field of the "Central" stadium extremely motivated to win, or, conversely, not have time to move away from the painful defeat. And that's not to mention the potential problems with recovery. Yes, five days is more than enough time to get in shape, but do not forget about two flights.

In addition, the mentor still cannot count on three players.

Defenders Deyan Lovren and Vyacheslav Karavaev, as well as midfielder Magomed Ozdoev, will not play in Kazan.

And if the latter is not considered the main one since the acquisition of Wendel, then the first two are key performers in the defense.

Consequently, Dmitry Chistyakov and Alexey Sutormin, who have mastered the place of the right-back, will most likely appear at the base.

The first ordeal for Rubin

The owners also risk being left without a number of performers, and given their composition, the losses may well be considered more serious. Midfielder Alexander Zuev, as well as two flank defenders, Vladislav Ignatiev and Ilya Samoshnikov, are at risk of being out of the application. Moreover, the absence of the latter promises to be especially painful. He is an iron base player, and in 2021 he took part in all Rubin's matches in the RPL, unless he was disqualified. It is noteworthy that he was absent only in the game of the 29th round of last season with Arsenal Tula, and it was Zuev who replaced him.

And this is especially not at the right time, because the match against Zenit will actually become the first serious test for Rubin since the game against Spartak in the first round.

Despite his high place in the table, his prospects are still unclear, because he practically did not face strong opposition.

The only exception can be called "Krasnodar", with which the paths crossed at the end of August.

But then the “bulls” took the upper hand (0: 2), forcing once again to doubt the chances of Kazan for a medal.

In addition to Zenit, until mid-October, Rubin will have to face off against Dynamo, Nizhny Novgorod and Lokomotiv - all representatives of the top of the table, most of which are among the favorites of the championship.

And it is during this period that it will become clear in many respects whether the citizens of Kazan are able to perform more successfully than a year ago and strengthen their status as medal contenders.

In the meantime, it is extremely difficult to argue about this.

On the one hand, in the summer the club lost two strong performers - Denis Makarov and Karl Starfelt, and later was forced to release Darko Jevtich, but did everything possible to compensate for their losses.

Almost € 14.5 million has been spent on the purchases of Anders Dreyer, Sead Hakshabanovic and Montassar Talbi to strengthen both the middle and defensive lines.

And all three are already beginning to justify the funds invested in them.

The Dane scored a hat-trick on the move, the Montenegrin scored a goal and an assist, and the Tunisian scored twice at the base.

But whether they will consistently benefit is still a question.

The evil genius of Semak

Slutsky himself commented on the situation with an abundance of injuries and expressed the hope that all injured people will have time to recover by the key game of the eighth round.

This will provide him with the opportunity to compete relatively on equal terms with his former assistant (both worked in the Russian national team) and, possibly, strengthen his status as one of the most uncomfortable counterparts.

At the moment, Leonid is one of the coaches whose wards did not give a single point in the games with Semak's players.

In total, the teams led by Slutsky and Semak confronted each other three times - twice last season, and before that - already in 2014.

Then Leonid headed CSKA, and Sergei acted as the head coach of Zenit.

The meeting at the "Arena Khimki" ended with a score of 1: 0 in favor of the army team, and Georgy Milanov became the author of the victorious goal.

It is noteworthy that, in addition to Slutsky, only two Russian coaches can boast of such statistics - the set of the maximum possible number of points - in the confrontation with Semak's teams. And both are now working in the national teams of Russia. Nikolai Pisarev helps Valery Karpin in the main, and Mikhail Galaktionov leads the youth. But the difference is that their successes belong to the period of Sergei's work at Ufa. And at the helm of "Zenith", he was only inferior to star foreigners - Julian Nagelsmann, Thomas Tuchel, Lucien Favre, Philippe Clement and Javier Calleja.