CSKA Moscow face a tricky away match against Rubin Kazan on Saturday, knowing defeat gives Zenit St. Petersburg the chance to snatch their Russian Premier League lead in the twentieth round of matches this weekend.
CSKA top the league with 41 points after 19 matches, but are reeling from last week’s home loss to second-placed Zenit that saw the gap cut to just two points.
A CSKA loss at Rubin on Saturday combined with a win for Zenit in their home match Sunday against outsiders Amkar Perm will see the St. Petersburg club, the defending champions, capture the lead.
Zenit are boosted by the recovery of striker Aleksandr Kerzhakov from an injury that forced his substitution during Russia’s 1-0 defeat of Serbia in their friendly match in Moscow on Wednesday.
Rubin, in fifth place and suffering from inconsistent form that has seen then win three and lose two of their last five matches, needs a morale-boosting performance ahead of a Champions League playoff at Lyon on Tuesday.
The round of matches also features the expected debut of former Chelsea defender Yuri Zhirkov for Anzhi Makhachkala, who are currently eight points off the lead in fourth.
Zhirkov’s big-money return to Russia has been blighted by a hostile reception from nationalist fans angered by his decision to join a team from a mainly Muslim region of southern Russia. Zhirkov also played in the midweek international match and suffered a barrage of boos and whistles from the 19,000-strong crowd before being substituted with 20 minutes remaining. Anzhi travel Sunday to Spartak Moscow, a club notorious for its hard core of ultranationalist supporters.
Spartak coach Valery Karpin hopes Brazilian striker Welliton and left winger Dmitry Kombarov will recover from injury, knowing victory could see his team, currently sixth, leapfrog Anzhi in the table. Spartak have won three of their last four games including last week’s spectacular 4-2 win at Terek Grozny in a match that was interrupted for 40 minutes due to a floodlight failure with the score at 2-2.
Karpin said on Friday he may give a debut to new 10 million euro signing Emmanuel Emenike, a 24-year-old Nigerian striker who joined in July from Turkish side Fenerbahce. Emenike was arrested by Turkish police on suspicion of match fixing during his two months at Fenerbahce but later released due to a lack of evidence. He joined Spartak for 10 million euros, not having made a single appearance for Fenerbahce.
In other matches Saturday, third-placed Dinamo Moscow host Terek Grozny; Spartak Nalchik travel to Tomsk; and Rostov face Kuban. Sunday’s other games see a resurgent Lokomotiv Moscow, in seventh place and unbeaten in the three games under new coach Jose Couceiro, travel to Volga Nizhny Novgorod; while Krasnodar are home to Krylya Sovietov Samara.
The Russian Premier League is in transition as it switches from a summer to a winter season in a move to synchronize with European leagues. The current 2011-2012 season stretches over 18 months and is played in two stages; the first phase, which is currently two-thirds through, is a regular schedule in which each team plays each other team twice. After a winter break, the top eight and the bottom eight separate to form two mini-leagues in which each team plays the other twice.
Teams in the top league will fight for the championship and places in European competitions, while teams in the bottom league try to avoid relegation.
