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On Saturday, there was one match that could be considered a battle of underachievers - Moscow's "Torpedo" against Yaroslavl's "Shinnik." It seemed like the teams would play an attractive game, as there was nothing to lose, but after scoring a goal at the end of the first half, they displayed a boring performance and bid farewell to the Premier League without much enthusiasm.
According to Russian football analysts, teams playing like this will definitely not return to the top division next year, and in 2007, these relegated teams will be replaced by "Khimki," where Lithuanian Mantas Samusiovas plays, and Krasnodar's "Kuban."
On Sunday, the main intrigue was about the bronze medals. Before the matches started, "Lokomotiv" was ahead of "Zenit" in points, so the St. Petersburg team needed to beat "Tom" and hope that "Lokomotiv" would either draw or lose to "Rostov."
In St. Petersburg, "Zenit" without A. Arshavin, who missed the game due to yellow cards, immediately attacked "Tom's" goal. "Tom's" goalkeeper and defense had to put in a lot of effort to stop the attacks, and if they lacked skill, they resorted to fouling the home team players.
"Zenit" was so focused on attacking "Tom's" goal that they almost conceded goals themselves, but after a slight reorganization, they continued their attack, although no goals were scored and both teams resorted to playing roughly.
In the second half, the situation changed unexpectedly, as "Tom" started playing like "Zenit" in the first half. And a few minutes into the game, Russia's national team and "Tom" forward P. Pogrebniak forced E. Hagen to play roughly, resulting in his expulsion from the field.
"Tom" tried to score a goal, but they almost conceded when "Zenit" player V. Radimov successfully took penalty kicks twice. Meanwhile, in the 69th minute, the teams were reduced to equal numbers as "Tom's" player V. Klimov was shown a second yellow card and sent off.
During the remaining time, the teams failed to make any significant moves, and the match ended in a draw - "Zenit" finished in fourth place, which does not guarantee a spot in the UEFA Cup, as it all depends on who becomes the winner of the 2007 Russian Cup.
"Lokomotiv" only needed to beat "Rostov" to secure the bronze medals. It is worth mentioning that all Sunday matches took place at the same time, so the teams had to play, not calculate points.
"Lokomotiv" started the match with a somewhat unusual tactical formation of 4-5-1, even though they were the hosts and were fighting for the bronze medals. After twenty minutes of play, "Lokomotiv's" head coach realized that playing this way was not helping, so he changed the formation and had two players in the attack. However, in the remaining time of the first half, "Lokomotiv" failed to create anything dangerous as "Rostov's" defense was working well.
At the start of the second half, "Lokomotiv" began to play more actively, and it paid off. With D. Loskov lifting a corner kick and "Rostov's" goalkeeper A. Baga failing to deal with it, D. Traore sent the ball into the net. Despite having more chances to score a goal, "Lokomotiv" struggled towards the end of the match, but M. Hadas of the home team received a yellow card that ultimately saved his team.
"Lokomotiv" won with a score of 1-0 and secured the bronze medals for the second year in a row, while "Rostov" finished twelfth in the final table.
Champions "CSKA," although the match took place at the "Dinamo" stadium, faced Moscow's "Dinamo" team. The "Army Men" had already secured the title in the previous round, so with most of their regular players on the bench, V. Gazzaev's team lost to the "police officers" 1-2.
After this defeat, "CSKA" was overtaken by Moscow's "Spartak" in the league table, who won 1-0 away thanks to Roman Pavlyuchenko's goal against Samara's "Krylia Sovetov." However, this did not matter anymore, as according to the Russian Premier League rules, in case of equal points, the higher position is determined by the number of victories - with 17 wins, "CSKA" surpassed their opponents who won 15 times.
In other matches, Kazan's "Rubin" narrowly defeated Perm's "Amkar" 1-0 at home, Moscow's "Moskva" won 2-1 at home against Ramenskoye's "Saturn," while the league retained the positions of newcomers Nalchik's "Spartak" and Vladivostok's "Luch-Energia" with goalless draws.
Statistics for Matchday 30:
Tom vs. Zenit 1 - 1 43’ [0 - 1] Marek Bakos 45’ [1 - 1] Pavel Mamaev (11m)
Lokomotiv vs. Rostov 1 - 0 49’ [1 - 0] Dramani Traore
CSKA vs. Dinamo 1 - 2 35’ [0 - 1] Igor Semshov 44’ [1 - 1] Ivica Olic 73’ [1 - 2] Denis Kolodin
Dinamo vs. Spartak 0 - 1 20’ [0 - 1] Roman Pavliuchenko
Moskva vs. Saturn 2 - 1 12’ [1 - 0] Sergey Semak 31’ [2 - 0] Dmitriy Kirichenko 71’ [2 - 1] Renat Sabitov
Final standings: (Place, Team, Achievements) 1. "CSKA" (Champions League) 2. "Spartak" (Champions League) 3. "Lokomotiv" (UEFA Cup) 4. "Zenit" (UEFA Cup depending on cup results) 5. "Rubin" (Intertoto Cup) 6. "Moskva" 7. 'Luch-Energia" 8. "Tom" 9. "Spartak Nalchik" 10. "Krylja Sovetov" 11. "Saturn" 12. "Rostov" 13. "Amkar" 14. "Dinamo" 15. "Torpedo" (Relegated to Division 1) 16. "Shinnik" (Relegated to Division 1)
Top goalscorers: 1. Roman Pavlyuchenko ("Spartak") - 18 goals 2. Jo ("CSKA") - 14 goals 3-5. Alejandro Domingues ("Rubin"), Pavel Pogrebnyak ("Tom"), Dmitriy Loskov ("Lokomotiv") - 13 goals each 6-7. Dmitriy Kirichenko ("Moskva"), Mikhail Osinov ("Rostov") - 12 goals each 8-9. Vagner Love ("CSKA"), Ivica Olic ("CSKA") - 9 goals each 10. Roman Adamov ("Moskva") - 8 goals ... Edgaras Cesnauskis ("Saturn") - 6 goals ... Robertas Poskus ("Dinamo") - 2 goals
Final league table:
