Spartak Moscow v Dynamo Kyiv preview

In what is surely one of the most exciting of Champions League qualifying matches tomorrow, Dynamo Kyiv return to Moscow to face Spartak Moscow. Prior to the break-up of the Soviet Union, Spartak and Dynamo Kyiv were the two most successful clubs in the country and while they haven’t met in thirteen years, the rivalry is far from dead. FC Dynamo Kyiv President Ihor Surkis put it best: “We have to beat Spartak. The players have to understand that and give all they have to win.”

The last week has been a turbulent period for Spartak with Valeri Karpin assuming the duties of general director and long-time cornerstones of the club Yegor Titov and Maxym Kalynychenko moved out. However while it has been a bit of a stumbling period, they will be looking to go on the attack against their old nemesis. Both squads come in from weekend draws, Spartak’s 1-1 against Khimki and Dynamo Kyiv 2-2 against Vorskla Poltava and unquestionably had an eye towards this historic match-up.

While the lineups have not been announced I am expecting Dynamo Kyiv to come out with a very attacking 4-3-3 with Miloš Ninkovi?, Tiberiu Ghioane and Ognjen Vukojevi? in the mid-field and a striking trio of Oleksandr Aliyev, Maksim Shatskikh, and Artem Milevskyy up-front. Spartak will throw forward a very aggressive attack with Mozart and Vladimir Bystrov pushing forward from the midfield to sharpshooter Roman Pavluchenko and a rising star in the game, Nikita Bazhenov, at Striker. Interesting to note Dyiv will start Olexandr Shovkovskiy at ‘keeper who played the last time the clubs met.

There are a host of great matches tomorrow but one of the most exciting rivalries is Spartak Moscow versus Dynamo Kyiv. I will provide a full report after the match.

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Yegor Titov no longer with Spartak

This seems impossible to me to imagine but since joining the youth squad at the age of seven and logging over four-hundred matches of Spartak Moscow since 1995, the venerable Yegor Titov will be joining FC Khimki. The thirty-two year-old midfielder will make an immediate impact upon the Khimki squad but of-course, always be remembered as part of the Red-Whites

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Week 17 review

It was an incredible weekend in the Russian Premier League and hopefully you had a chance to chance some of the matches. It’s going to be quite a stretch run towards the title race with Ruben Kazan maintaining lead with powerhouse Dynamo Moscow in hot pursuit. This is starting to look like a classic battle of the great Moscow clubs, Dynamo, CSKA and Spartak heading straight at Ruben Kazan. I’ll be going over next weeks matches but first the following is a brief recap of the weekends action:

Sunday
CSKA Moscow 4 Saturn Moscow 0
CSKA’s offense came back with a flourish with Vagner Love netting a brace before the thirty minute mark in a completely dominating performance.

Rubin Kazan 4 Zenit St Petersburg 1
A stunning tactical domination of the defending champions that asserts Kurban Berdyyev led Rubin Kazan’s title hopes. Turkish international, Gökdeniz Karadeniz, had a career-day and destroyed the Zenit defense with stunning runs and slick passing. For Zenit, the defense of their title looks bleak now and they face further challenges this week with both Sébastien Puygrenier and Anatoliy Tymoschuk receiving red-cards as well as Dick Advocaat being expelled late.

Dynamo Moscow 1 Amkar Perm’ 0
Spartak Nalchik 2 Terek Grozny 0

Saturday
Spartak Moscow 1 Khimki 1
In a day of upsets, this was a surprise as Spartak looked in control after Roman Pavluchenko goal at the twentieth minute mark. Mozart created a series of brilliant (notice I didn’t say a symphony of chances) scoring opportunities but finishing was just off the mark and Spartak let Khimki grab the tie when Bosnia and Herzegovina international Dragan Blatnjak, scored with twenty minutes left in the match. Spartak was the aggressor through the match and losing the three points is costly for them.

Samara Kryliya Sovetov 2 Lokomotiv Moscow 0
Luch-Energiya Vladivostok 2 YFK Shinnik Yaroslav 1
FC Moscow 2 Tom’ Tomsk 1

	P	W	D	L	GS	GA	PTS
Rubin Kazan	17	9	6	2	24	13	33
Dynamo Moscow	17	9	4	4	24	18	31
Amkar Perm’	17	8	4	5	18	12	28
Spartak Moscow	17	7	7	3	29	24	28
Samara Kryliya Sovetov	17	6	8	3	24	14	26
CSKA Moscow	17	6	7	4	23	15	25
Spartak Nalchik	17	7	3	7	18	19	24
Lokomotiv Moscow	16	6	6	4	22	17	24
Zenit St Petersburg	16	5	7	4	25	20	22
Terek Grozny	16	6	3	7	14	20	21
Tom’ Tomsk	17	5	4	8	15	22	19
FC Moscow	17	4	7	6	17	20	19
Saturn Moscow Oblast	17	4	5	8	15	20	17
Luch-Energiya Vladivostok	17	3	7	7	13	22	16
Khimki	17	2	7	8	22	36	13
YFK Shinnik Yaroslav	16	2	5	9	16	27	11

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Terek Grozny v Spartak Nalchik match preview

Both these clubs, while sitting in the bottom half of the table are only nine points out of the top spot and could very easily see themselves in the final race to a European date. Hence each squad will be pushing for offensive creativity and three points.

Recent Form
Terek Grozny - combined (2 W, 3 D, 0 L) (5 GS, 2 GA)
Jul 6 Terek Grozny 3 - 1 Spartak Moscow
Jul 13 FC Moscow 0 - 0 Terek Grozny
Jul 20 Terek Grozny 0 - 0 Rubin Kazan
Jul 27 YFK Shinnik Yaroslav 1 - 1 Terek Grozny
Aug 3 Terek Grozny 1 - 0 Saturn Moscow

Terek Grozny - away (1 W, 2 D, 2 L) (3 GS, 5 GA)
Apr 13 Lokomotiv Moscow 2 - 0 Terek Grozny
May 7 FC Khimki 0 - 1 Terek Grozny
May 16 Dinamo Moscow 2 - 1 Terek Grozny
Jul 13 FC Moscow 0 - 0 Terek Grozny
Jul 27 YFK Shinnik Yaroslav 1 - 1 Terek Grozny

Spartak Nalchik - combined (1 W, 2 D, 2 L) (5 GS, 7 GA)
Jul 9 Zenit St Petersburg 3 - 4 Spartak Nalchik
Jul 13 Tom’ Tomsk 1 - 0 Spartak Nalchik
Jul 19 Spartak Nalchik 1 - 1 PFK Samara Kryliya Sovetov
Jul 25 FC Khimki 2 - 0 Spartak Nalchik
Aug 3 Amkar Perm’ 0 - 0 Spartak Nalchik

Spartak Nalchik - home (2 W, 1 D, 2 L) (6 GS, 7 GA)
Apr 19 Spartak Nalchik 1 - 2 Spartak Moscow
May 2 Spartak Nalchik 0 - 3 FC Moscow
May 10 Spartak Nalchik 2 - 0 FK Rubin Kazan
Jul 5 Spartak Nalchik 2 - 1 YFK Shinnik Yaroslav
Jul 19 Spartak Nalchik 1 - 1 Samara Kryliya Sovetov

Since returning from the break Terek Grozny has retooled their tactics, playing intelligent Football within their means and climbing slowly up the table. Their new trio of Romanian Internationals Andrei Margaritescu (formerly Dinamo Bucure?ti), Daniel Pancu (formerly Rapid Bucure?ti) and Florentin Petre (CSKA Sofia) are changing the teams fortunes and Spartak will need to be at their absolute best to keep them in control and shut-them down in the midfield as they did last week against Amkar Perm’. They will come out in a 3-5-2, with heavy emphasis on possession and creating scoring chances off the counter.

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Zenit St Petersburg v Rubin Kazan match preview

This is one the heavyweight battles of the day that will have a profound impact upon the table. Reigning champion Zenit slowly climbs back up the table but they will need to be at their absolute best if they are take points from Rubin Kazan. Tactically this is a superb battle between the free flowing Zenit and the disciplined defensively-minded Rubin Kazan.

Recent Form
Zenit St Petersburg - combined ( 2 W, 2 D, 1 L) (5 GS, 3 GA)
Jul 19 Zenit St Petersburg 2 - 0 Amkar Perm’
Jul 23 Zenit St Petersburg 1 - 1 Lokomotiv Moscow
Jul 26 Dinamo Moscow 1 - 0 Zenit St Petersburg
Jul 30 CSKA Moscow 0 - 0 Zenit St Petersburg
Aug 2 Zenit St Petersburg 2 - 1 FC Moscow

Zenit St Petersburg - away (1 W, 3 D, 1 L) (3 GS, 5 GA)
Apr 19 Saturn Moscow 1 - 1 Zenit St Petersburg
Jul 13 Khimki 1 - 4 Zenit St Petersburg
Jul 16 Luch-Energiya Vladivostok 0 - 0 Zenit St Petersburg
Jul 26 Dinamo Moscow 1 - 0 Zenit St Petersburg
Jul 30 CSKA Moscow 0 - 0 Zenit St Petersburg

Rubin Kazan - combined (0 W, 5 D, 0 L) (3 GS, 3 GA)
Jul 5 Samara Kryliya Sovetov 2 - 2 Rubin Kazan
Jul 16 Rubin Kazan 0 - 0 Saturn Moscow
Jul 20 Terek Grozny 0 - 0 Rubin Kazan
Jul 26 Rubin Kazan 0 - 0 CSKA Moscow
Aug 3 Luch-Energiya Vladivostok 1 - 1 Rubin Kazan

Rubin Kazan - home (1 W, 3 D, 1 L) (2 GS, 4 GA)
Apr 20 Rubin Kazan 1 - 0 Amkar Perm’
May 2 Rubin Kazan 0 - 3 Spartak Moscow
May 15 Rubin Kazan 1 - 1 YFK Shinnik Yaroslav
May 16 Rubin Kazan 0 - 0 Saturn Moscow
May 26 Rubin Kazan 0 - 0 CSKA Moscow

Of the many interesting sub-plots to this match is that if Rubin Kazan are to win the title they need to start playing like champions. Their brand of the padlock without a counter ability is of the mid-tables and must take chances if they are going to hoist a trophy at years-end. Last weeks encounter in Vladivostok was a perfect example as they were heading towards their fourth consecutive shutout before Gokdeniz Karadeniz scored late in the match to give them the draw. However with that said and done, I absolutely do not expect them to take any chance against the beautiful attack of Zenit and we could be headed towards a nil draw. Failing that, if they take a counter-attack approach, given that Zenit often over-commits, we could see them in many opportunistic goal-scoring situations and this match could blow wide-open.

Zenit has their own problems, both on and off the pitch. Off the pitch, the squad is sea of rumours perpetuated mostly by the media, particularly those who are taking translations out of context, aren’t aware of the entire situation or acknowledging how player agents are attempting to use the media itself to assist its campaign. The Andrei Arshavin situation alone has been a series of mis-quotes and embellished language translations as well as out and out lies as with Anatoly Tymoschuk situation. While the English speaking media prefers to portray Gazprom’s as a villainous ownership group, I have yet to see anyone mention that offers for Andrei have been heavy back-end deals that are performance based upon his and team performance and beyond the typical one-year transaction date that English clubs abide by. It is unreasonable to expect a club to sell one of the top players of the game but equally provide longer-term financing for it without a guaranteed fair-market price. As of this date a straight offer with a reasonable base-line guarantee has yet to be received.

On the pitch, the club is simply exhausted and doing what it can to put its best foot forward but they long-since passed the point of having anywhere near fresh legs. This weeks crash out of the Russian Cup was inevitable given this and will assist their efforts to climb the table. The played five matches within a remarkably short two week span which is noble to get through and they luckily escaped any major injuries other than extreme fatigue. Zenit will attack with a 4-3-3 using Andrei Arshavin, Fatih Tekke and the extremely creative Alejandro Domínguez up-front. If they are to break down the Kazan padlock, look for it to come from Igor Denisov, Konstantin Zyryanov and their tenacious captain Anatoliy Tymoschuk.

Don’t miss this fascinating match which is set to begin in one hour.

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