Fakel – Zenit

The guests from Saint Petersburg will score three points

Fakel Voronezh missed only one season in the Premier League. After being relegated from the bottom position in the 2024/2025 season, the club appointed Oleg Vasilenko to the coaching post, who four years ago had already successfully solved the task of promoting Fakel from the FNL to the elite division of Russian football. And once again Vasilenko handled it, as in the 2021/2022 season, finishing in second place, the second-tier league of the country. With the goal of stabilizing in the Premier League, the experienced coach is forced to achieve it without financial injections and substantial strengthening of the squad. During the transfer window Fakel spent 120 thousand dollars, paid for Maksim Turishchev. The other players who joined the club arrived on free transfers. Among them are defender Matvey Bardachev of Zenit and midfielder Alexey Sutormin, who left Krylia Sovetov as a free agent. Naturally, Fakel's results are far from spectacular. By the sixth round of the Premier League Fakel had not won a single match, managing to take points only against Akhmat and Orenburg, with both matches ending 0:0. That said, Vasilenko's team did not give away points to anyone. The match against CSKA was lost by one goal, conceded from a penalty by the opponent, and the game with Krasnodar was almost salvaged. Trailing by three goals on the field of the runner-up, Fakel nearly came back to 2:3. Zenit remains the favorite of the current Premier League season. While the reigning champion had already lost two matches at the start of the season, Krasnodar and Spartak Moscow are ranked below Sergei Semak's team. Another thing is that the defeat to the red-and-whites in the previous round 0:2 cannot be attributed to complacency and underestimation of the opponent, just like Rodina's defeat in early August. Two Brazil national team players, who returned to the club last from the World Cup, are not ready to play at 100%. It seems that Semak's problems are worsening with each season, and the squad needs a serious shake-up. Another thing is that the St. Petersburg club should beat Fakel even in a situation where a player of the level of Aleksandr Sobolev becomes one of its leaders. We will bet on the visitors to win.