Derby again!

ROSGOSSTRAKH Russian Football Championship MD 7 matches will be held in the period between 18 and 21 August. The tournament gains on steam and has already defined the only leader. Zenit after getting Roberto Mancini as the head coach and due to a serious transfer campaign deserved to be on the top of the tournament table. But we don’t have even one third of the championship passed, so we cannot forecast that this particular club will become a champion. And we also should remember about its competitors. Even Spartak which definitely failed the start of the season still has an opportunity to make up lost ground. Besides, we also should not forget that the clubs have an opportunity to strengthen their squads till 31 August. So all the competition of ROSGOSSTRAKH Russian Football Championship 2017-2018 is still ahead.

The first resignation of a coach is also worth mentioning . Anji under the guidance of Vadim Skripchenko will try to overcome crisis and to challenge much higher places. We wonder, if MD 7 will become fatal for some coaches of other teams?

The MD programme will be kicked-off with a match between Tosno and SKA-Khabarovsk. The teams are quite close to each other in the tournament table, so both of them desperately need win. Tosno evidently has high spirit after beating Lokomotiv away, but the club from Khabarovsk also has gained 4 points over two recent matches. It is interesting, but the teams played six times in FNL and in five cases Tosno won. SKA-Khabarovsk has only one win.

An interesting match will be played on Saturday in Ekaterinburg, where Ural, which does not know defeats so far, is hosting PFC CSKA. The Army team had a very uneasy game on Tuesday in UCL, so it will be difficult for the team of Victor Gancharenko, especially taking into consideration all flights they had. But of the Army team want to compete for the tile, they cannot afford to lose points – otherwise Zenit can extend the gap. However, Ural is very unyielding this season and ready to fight till the very end. This is the achievement of coaches and staff headed by Alexander Tarkhanov.

Another capital derby will be played in Moscow! Spartak which had two failures – against Zenit and PFC CSKA – is hosting Lokomotiv which suffers the lack of top class players in attack. This match is extremely important for both teams. Spartak is about to start playing in UEFA Champions League quite soon, but also is quite displeased with its current position in the tournament  table. Lokomotiv was excellent at the start of the current season, but it is suffering the lack of forwards. By the way, Spartak is also facing such problems, it does not have any new purchases so far. Media wrote about some new players, but it never resulted in contract signing. Russian Football Premier League kindly asks supporters who are planning to attend the derby to come to the stadium well in advance.

Rubin is hosting Anji in Kazan. And Anji had just changed its head coach. The club from Kazan is on the 8^th position in the table, but in case of favourable result they can move higher. Anji has got four defeats in a row. The team under the guidance of Vadim Skripchenko has to interrupt this run as soon as possible.

 Three matches will be held on Sunday. Amkar which is occupying the last bottom position is hosting the leader – Zenit. The team from Perm cannot get the first win in the season, the team of Gadzhi Gadzhiev has evident problems in attack, but it does not concede a lot. The match against Zenit will become a real challenge for the club. It will be necessary to stop Alexander Kokorin who is very good now, and the whole Zenit in general represents a very dreadful opponent. But taking into consideration a very uneasy UEL match in the Netherlands, Roberto Mancini might give some rest to some of his key players. Besides the quality of squad allows to do that.

Dynamo Moscow is hosting Ufa. Dynamo had a confident win against Anji in the previous MD match, and Ufa lost with a cricket score to Rostov. So the team from Ufa will do its best to regain its reputation after such failure. Kirill Panchenko continues to score for Dynamo and he is only one goal behind Kokorin in the scorers race.

The southern derby will bring together two teams which can be considered as leaders of the current season – Rostov and Krasnodar. The home team is stable in gaining points in the current season, and Krasnodar will have to play two tournaments at the same time, as their selection of squad is not so good. This match can become the most interesting in the matchday.

On Monday, Akhmat is hosting Arsenal. The team of Oleg Kononov has not been successful over the recent matches and expects to interrupt the unlucky run. The team from Tula intends to take at least one point away from Grozny.

Dear Fans! Russian Football Premier League would like to invite all of you to the stadia and to TV monitors! Your favourite teams need your support!