Troubled Spartak is flying to St. Petersburg for execution? All details of the main match of the tour

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Zenit — Spartak in the first RPL round after winter! And Muscovites have a lot of problems. Due to his disqualification received in December, Guillermo Abascal will not be able to lead the team from the sidelines. At the very end of February, Quincy Promes' problems were added to this — the Dutchman was unable to fly to St. Petersburg from the UAE with the team. The player was detained at passport control at Dubai airport. Theo Bongonda, Ruslan Litvinov and Tomas Tavares, who continue to recover, will also miss the meeting in St. Petersburg.

Zenit starts the second part of the season with almost no losses. This, with a stretch, can be called the loan of Robert Renan, Do Queiroz and Alexei Sutormin, who did not have a stable playing experience, as well as the transfer to the second team of Danil Krugovoi, who will move to CSKA as a free agent in the summer. As for entry transfers, Zenit signed four newcomers at once in the winter. They were the Brazilians Nino, Pedro and Arthur, as well as Ilzat Akhmetov, who moved to St. Petersburg from Krasnodar.

“Spartak” loaned out three of its young players in the winter, for whom game practice is more useful than a place on the bench. Midfielders Maxim Laikin and Konstantin Zhiltsov moved to First League clubs — Arsenal Tula and Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk. Forward Pavel Meleshin went to Dynamo Minsk. The only newcomer to the “red-whites” this winter was the Costa Rican Manfred Ugalde.

Statistics against “Spartak”
Zenit comes out of the winter hibernation in the unusual status of catching up — Sergei Semak’s team is second after 18 rounds (36 points). Above is «Krasnodar» (38). “Spartak”, which has 30 points, is in fifth place.

Such introductions give hope for intrigue, because the result of the first game after the break can have a critical impact on the final distribution of places in the standings. If Zenit wins, it will continue to chase Krasnodar and wait for the Bulls to misfire. The defeat of “Spartak” in such a scenario will preserve the “red-white” more or less real chances only of fighting for the top three. A draw will be a gift for all competitors, led by the leader of the Russian championship.

The main referee of Saturday's match will be one of the best referees in the country, Sergei Karasev. Previously, he had already officiated matches between Zenit and Spartak twice — in both cases the St. Petersburg team turned out to be stronger (two victories with the same score of 3:1). In total, under the referee's refereeing, the “blue-white-blues” won 31 victories, 13 draws and seven defeats. The statistics of the “red-whites” are less successful — 12 wins, eight draws, 10 defeats.

The upcoming game will be the 60th in the history of meetings between Zenit and Spartak in the Russian championships. Of the previous 59, 25 ended in the victory of Zenit, 18 in the victory of Spartak. Another 16 times the teams were unable to identify a winner. The Red and Whites have not won in St. Petersburg since May 2012. After that, the clubs played 11 matches on the banks of the Neva (nine Zenit wins and two draws).

In general, the last victory » Spartak» is dated November 2017 (3:1 in Moscow). In the 11 matches that followed that game, Zenit won seven times, and four more times the teams were unable to find a winner. Among the players who were on the teams' rosters then, St. Petersburg players Mikhail Kerzhakov and Alexander Erokhin, as well as Spartak players Alexander Selikhov, Alexander Maksimenko, Georgy Dzhikia and Roman Zobnin, can take part in the upcoming match. More than six years ago, Quincy Promes was part of the Muscovites, but you won’t be able to see him on Saturday at the stadium in St. Petersburg. Starts at 19:30 Moscow time.