Baltika – Krasnodar

In Kaliningrad, spectators will see a goal as early as the first half.

The reigning champion of Russia will complete the first round of the current Premier League season in Kaliningrad. Here, Krasnodar will meet the season's main surprise - Baltika. The local team, under the guidance of Andrei Talalaev, won last year's FNL competition and has quickly entered the ranks of the strongest clubs in the elite Russian division. Who would have thought that the newcomer to the Premier League would find itself in fourth place, just two points away from Zenit, before the last match of the first round? It is already familiar to see Krasnodar in its current position. Musaev's team won the first round in both the 2022 and 2023 seasons, during which there were significant differences in the final results: in 2024, Krasnodar became the vice-champion, and in 2025, they became the full-fledged champion of Russia. The match in Kaliningrad is expected by bookmakers to be not very productive. A key reason for this is the number of goals conceded by their opponents. Baltika is the most reliable defensive team in the Premier League, having conceded six goals in fourteen matches. Krasnodar ranks second in this regard with eight goals conceded. However, will Baltika's defensive reliability index hold up against the champion's coordinated attack, and will the 'bulls' defence cope with the local club's lightning-fast counterattacks? Bookmaking companies have made the guests the favourites for the upcoming match, offering odds of 2.45 for their victory. Baltika conceded one goal in the last nine Premier League rounds. It came in the 90+5 minute of the Moscow match against CSKA when the Kaliningrad team had already been down to ten men for twelve minutes. Such defensive organisation is extremely frustrating for Baltika's opponents, however, three of the six clubs from the upper half of the league table that the team has already played against managed to score one goal each against them. Krasnodar arrives in Kaliningrad on a run of six victories, during which the 'bulls' have only scored less than two goals once. At the end of the last match, due to yellow and red cards, Douglas Augusto, Cordoba, Diego Costa, and Krivtsov were suspended. Despite the level of losses, each player has a replacement ready for Musaev. Krasnodar's coach understands perfectly well the kind of opponent he is facing, which is why he will motivate his players for an early goal.