Akhmat – Zenit

Fans will see at least three goals in the cup match in Grozny.

Akmat and Zenit have been drawn into the same group of the Russian Cup alongside Orenburg and Rubin. In fact, such a group signifies the role of an obvious favourite for the St. Petersburg club, as well as competition for the secondary positions among the other participants. In recent years, the Grozny club has been a source of points for the 'blue-white-blue' team. Just last season, Zenit defeated Akmat four times – twice each in the national cup and the championship. However the upcoming match is certainly not devoid of intrigue. The thing is, both teams have serious debts to their supporters. Moreover, these debts have not only accumulated at the beginning of this season. Many of them were carried over from the previous championship, where one nearly faced relegation to the FNL, while the other lost its long-standing championship status. During the offseason, Zenit offloaded a huge burden of players with Russian passports that had formed over the last few seasons as a result of acquiring nearly all decent players from clubs with lesser financial capacity. They were replaced by Gerson from Flamengo and Roman Vega from Argentinos Juniors. Over thirty million euros were paid for these players. And how many similar players have passed through Zenit's system... Akmat's reinforcements cost the club just over five million euros. In particular, Konate, Kasintra, Zare, and Mansilya have joined the team. Bookmakers have identified the visitors as the favourites for the upcoming match, offering odds of 1.71 for their victory. Akmat started the current season with a ridiculous home defeat to Rubin. The Grozny team struck at goal more than twenty times against the Kazan club but failed to score even once, losing 0:2. In the second round of the Premier League, Akmat scored an early goal against CSKA in Moscow but conceded twice to Krugovoy in the last three minutes of the first half, losing again. A third consecutive defeat and a second at home could spell big problems for a team assembled from genuinely good players. Zenit won their first-round match in a spirited style against Rostov, scoring the winning goal shortly before the final whistle. In their second match of the season, the St. Petersburg club let a victory slip in Kazan, where they led Rubin 2:0, but were 'torn apart' by their opponent in the second half – 2:2. Zenit’s sponsors and fans are also dissatisfied. The maximum effort from the opponents in Grozny is expected to result in at least three goals.