Russian Premier League leaders Zenit St. Petersburg are nine points ahead of the competition with seven games remaining and can all but end third-placed Lokomotiv Moscow’s title hopes with a win Saturday.
CSKA Moscow are Zenit’s closest rivals but face a difficult task to avoid dropping points against seventh-placed Anzhi, who have conceded just three goals in seven games under new boss Guus Hiddink.
The Russian capital will be crowded with all four Moscow teams playing at home this weekend, as Dynamo and Spartak Moscow battle for Champions League qualification places, as Dynamo host fellow challengers Rubin Kazan, and Spartak take on Dan Petrescu’s FC Kuban.
Zenit may hold a commanding lead at the top of the table, but they cannot afford to rest on their laurels, defender Tomas Hubocan told RIA Novosti on Thursday.
“We’re not champions yet. Anyway, 21 points are still up for grabs in the seven remaining rounds.”
“We should be thinking about the next game against Lokomotiv. We have to take three points from them, then we’ll take the next step forward.”
Andrey Arshavin, on loan from Arsenal, is likely to return to the Zenit side after recovering from a hip problem, but Zenit have other injury issues.
Hubocan may not feature after hurting his knee in training yesterday, while experienced midfielder Sergey Semak is a doubt with a foot injury and midfielder Viktor Fayzulin has been ruled out due to an injury he sustained against Dynamo last month.
Zenit boss Luciano Spalletti has vowed to sit with Zenit’s away contingent at the Cherkizovo stadium after he picked up a touchline ban for remonstrating with officials during Zenit’s 2-1 win at Spartak last week.
No new injuries have been reported for Lokomotiv, who are hoping for a swift return to form after Dynamo inflicted the Railwaymen’s first defeat since November with a 2-0 win Sunday.
Anzhi’s trip to CSKA on Saturday reunites the Caucasus club’s goalkeeper Vladimir Gabulov with his former team, and he has predicted “special feelings” when he meets his ex-teammates again, he said on the Anzhi website Thursday.
The artificial pitch at the Luzhniki stadium may pose problems, Gabulov warned.
“Us goalkeepers also have to watch out, the bounce on an artificial pitch is hard to predict,” he said.
For CSKA, a win will mark a welcome return to form after a 2-0 defeat to Lokomotiv and 1-1 draw with Kuban in their last two games.
Anzhi boast the championship group’s meanest defense in 2012, but have scored only twice in their last four games, while former Anzhi coach Gadzhi Gadzhiev branded the team’s attack “toothless” in an interview with Sport Weekend on Thursday.
Dynamo have produced wildly varying performances in the last three weeks, beating Lokomotiv but slumping to heavy defeats against CSKA and Spartak.
Dynamo striker Alexander Kokorin has warned that his team need to focus on defense Saturday in order to beat sixth-placed Rubin for the first time since 2006.
“We can start out playing defensively against them, but get drawn into attacking anyway, and Rubin catch us out in this case,” he told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.
“In our upcoming home game we’ll play more disciplined in defense and keep our concentration from beginning to end.”
Spartak will be without goalkeeper Andrey Dikan when they face eighth-placed Kuban on Sunday, after the Ukrainian suffered severe facial injuries in a clash with Zenit’s Alexander Kerzhakov on Saturday.
Dikan will be replaced by either Artyom Rebrov or Nikolai Zabolotny, both of whom have featured for Russian youth teams but lack more than a handful of appearances for Spartak.
In the relegation group, 13th-placed FC Volga take on 14th-placed Krylya Sovetov in the weekend’s opener Friday, before Terek Grozny host bottom club Spartak Nalchik.
Saturday pits Amkar Perm against FC Rostov, both of whom enjoy a double-digit points buffer against relegation.
Fifteenth-placed FC Tomsk are on their best of run of form this season, unbeaten in four games without conceding a single goal, and can come closer to escaping the relegation zone with a win at FC Krasnodar in Sunday’s early game.
