Zenit – Spartak M

The Moscow club will not lose to the Russian champion in regulation time

Clash of the two capitals opens another season in Russian football. The Russian Super Cup match will be held in Nizhny Novgorod, which sets the situation apart from the May Russian Cup final, in which Krasnodar acted as the de facto guest on Moscow soil against Spartak. Last year Zenit, for the first time in a long while, missed the Russian Super Cup match, which featured CSKA Moscow and Krasnodar, but the 2026 trophy draw will not go ahead without a club from Saint Petersburg. Sergei Semak's team holds the record for the most wins in the Russian Super Cup, with nine triumphs to its name. Spartak has won this one-match competition only once. That was in 2017. Meanwhile the red-and-whites have played in the Super Cup five times, but four times they lost. In this regard Zenit looks much more favorable, having won 75% of matches between the league champion and the cup winner. Spartak's last season wasn't particularly smooth, but in its spring phase they squeezed almost the maximum from the autumn conditions. The decisive factor was the change of coach before the winter break in Russian football. The capital city side parted ways with Dejan Stankovic and appointed Juan Carcedo as head coach. The Spanish specialist not only achieved progress for the red-and-whites in the Premier League table, but also immediately won the Russian Cup. In the hardest match against Krasnodar at the Luzhniki, Spartak players were more successful in the penalty shootout. By the way, in the previous edition of the national cup, Spartak similarly defeated Zenit. Sergei Semak's team spent the entire last Premier League season chasing Krasnodar and got their star hour in the penultimate round, when the Bulls lost to Moscow Dynamo and allowed Zenit to move to first place. It would be fair to say that the Saint Petersburg club did not shine, but they earned Russia's main trophy deservedly. In the off-season Zenit kept the core of the squad, strengthening with Kevin Andrade from Baltika and Felipe Augusto from Trabzonspor. In turn, Spartak cleaned up the ranks, letting go of many players, and has so far only signed Victor Paradu from Deportivo Alavés. Let's bet that the match will be even, and Zenit will not win in regular time.