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This weekend, in the Russian "Premier" league, the 27th round of matches will take place (there are a total of 30 rounds in the championship). Of course, the central match of the round will take place in St. Petersburg, where the local team "Zenit" will host the league leader, Moscow's "CSKA" with Deivid Šembera.
In these matches, the fate of the championship will be decided, at least for the St. Petersburg club, which would fall behind "CSKA" by 5 points in case of a loss and would only retain theoretical chances to fight for the title with three rounds remaining. Especially considering that "Zenit", having recently defeated the Greek team "AEK" in a brilliant style, will not be inclined to give up.
However, a draw or even a loss is not satisfactory for D. Šembera's team, as they will face another capital city team, "Lokomotiv", in this round, having relatively weak opponents - the Kazan team "Rubin".
Meanwhile, Roberto Poska's "Krylja Sovietov" will meet the average team "FK Moskva" in the tournament. Only a victory would allow the Samara team to hope, if not to win the championship, at least to place among the prize winners. After a controversial loss in the last round to Perm's "Amkar" team, when the Russian federation admitted that the referee made three serious mistakes that determined the outcome of the match, Samara's "Krylja Sovietov" will try to prove that they are one of the championship favorites. However, they still have to cope without the injured Roberto Poska.
Mantas Samusiov's Moscow "Torpedo" team, currently in fifth place in the standings, will meet the underdog Krasnodar's "Kuban" team. These matches are very important for the Moscow team, which is fighting for fourth place, or, if circumstances develop favorably, even for the bronze, but the players of "Kuban" have much greater motivation, as large bonuses were promised to them for staying in the top league before the round.
The most titled Russian club, Moscow's "Spartak", which practically has no chance of winning, will play at home against the financially troubled Volgograd team "Rotor". Whether the stars of "Spartak" will finally start demonstrating a game worthy of their salaries will determine the future of the team's head coach, Latvian football specialist Alexander Starkov, especially since the Russian football star Dmitry Alenichev will finally be able to help the team.
Moscow's "Dynamo", which, according to the club's head coach, "achieved great form," will host the Pamaskvė team "Saturn". However, no matter how well the Muscovites play, neither promotion to the Eurozone nor relegation to a lower league poses a threat to them or their opponents. So these teams will only compete for honor.
The local club in Rostov, which is very close to relegation to the first league, will host their neighbor on the standings table - the Perm team "Amkar". If we strictly consider football criteria, the away team's form is much better at the moment. However, in Russia, the outcome of such matches is often determined not by the efforts of the footballers, but by the referees' decisions.
