Krasnodar – Akhmat

The guests will play well against the runners-up.

Krasnodar began the current Russian championship as the country’s runner-up. In the second half of the previous season, Murad Musaev’s team steadily moved toward defending the title, but after losing to Dynamo Moscow in the 29th round they ceded the lead to Zenit, and as a result of the final round they lost their chances for the trophy. During the off-season, Krasnodar saw captain and team leader Eduard Spertsyan depart, and John Córdoba suffered an injury at the World Cup in North America. For these and other reasons, bookmakers named the Bulls as the third favorites in the Premier League after Zenit and Spartak Moscow. The club’s thin-squad problems were addressed by the management in various ways. Spertsyan was replaced by Nikita Krivtsov, who was already in the squad and did not disappoint his club, being the best on the field in almost all opening matches. Juan Boselli settled into the team and became much more effective than in the spring. Ilya Vakhaniya seemed to have been playing for Krasnodar for the last ten years. Dmitry Vorobyov, covering for Córdoba, and Brazilian Christian, bought in the summer from Cruzeiro for 9.6 million euros, performed quite well. To everyone’s surprise, Krasnodar’s cohesive play with the described players in the squad, thanks to a long-standing core, propelled the Bulls to the top of the table after three rounds of the championship. Moreover, the team did not accumulate the most points in easy fixtures, but managed to beat Rubin in Kazan and Spartak Moscow in Moscow. Akhmat is in its second year under the leadership of Stanislav Cherchesov. The experienced specialist handles well the task of getting his players ready for matches against serious opponents. For example, in the previous round the Grozny side failed to win in Voronezh, but prior to that they had drawn with Krasnodar in the national cup and with Lokomotiv in the league, and they lost to Spartak because of a goal in stoppage time added to the second half, caused by the silliest events. Overall, Akhmat is a cohesive squad with which Krasnodar has always found it difficult to play. The cup match from about a week and a half ago provides further confirmation. The visitors will put in a respectable performance on the runners-up pitch.