We have rounded up the best facts and highlights from matchday 12 of the Russian Premier Liga.

Sandro Schwartz claimed his 1st win as Dynamo Moscow head coach. In the first game under his leadership, the Blue-Whites beat Sochi 3-1. The German started his career with the same result at his previous club, his native Mainz, on 12 August 2017, beating Hansa Luneberg in the first round of the German Cup. Not only that, but Schwarz also picked up his last Bundesliga victory over Cologne by the same score on 25 October 2019.

For the 2nd matchday in a row, Reziuan Mirzov scored against a team he used to play for. On 17 October the midfielder scored for Khimki for the first time in a game against Spartak, from whom he moved to the Moscow region club on loan, and a week later he scored the winning goal against Rostov. The 27-year-old belonged to Rostov from 2017 to 2019, going on loan twice - to Tosno and Arsenal - and played only three games for Rostov at the start of the 2018/19 season.

Bernard Berisha had a direct hand in 3 goals against Ufa. This was the most productive game in his career. In the first half, the Akhmat winger earned a penalty and converted it himself, while in the second he became captain after Andrey Semenov’s dismissal, made an assist to Vladimir Ilyin, and nine minutes later scored his second goal and scored a double for the first time in his career. Berisha and Ilyin are Akhmat’s top scorers with four goals each.

Nikola Vlasic has now scored 6 goals this season. Against Arsenal, the CSKA midfielder scored a double, the third of his RPL career, and laid on an assist for Arnor Sigurdsson. In addition to the Croat, six goals have now been scored by Spartak forwards Ezequiel Ponce and Jordan Larsson, who scored in Krasnodar, as well as Zenit’s Artem Dzyuba and Sardar Azmoun, who both last scored on matchday nine in the 6-0 thrashing of Ufa.

Fedor Chalov has now scored 7 goals against Arsenal, more often than against any other RPL side. In the last meeting, the Armyman converted a penalty past Egor Shamov for his first of the season. In May 2017, the striker scored his first double in the RPL in a 3-0 home win against Arsenal, and a year later he scored his first career hat-trick in a 6-0 win. He scored against them again in August 2018 as CSKA kept another clean sheet in a 3-0 win at the VEB Arena.

Rotor's winless streak in the RPL lasted 17 games. It began on 25 September 2004 after a 3-2 victory over Rostov on matchday 24, and ended on 24 October 2020 at the RZD Arena, where Volgograd beat Lokomotiv 2-1. In 2004, Rotor drew four times in the last six matches and lost twice, after which they were relegated from the RPL, and in the first 11 matchdays of the 2020/21 season they only earned three points from draws. Rotor also picked up their previous away win in the Premier League over Lokomotiv, a 1-0 victory on 19 September 2004.

Zenit hadn’t lost for 27 consecutive home games in the RPL until they lost to Rubin. Sergey Semak's team suffered their previous defeat at the Gazprom Arena on December 9, 2018, also against Rubin and by the same 2-1 scoreline. Before the meeting with Rubin, the Blue-White-Sky Blues had won nine home games in a row in the RPL, and in total they won 22 matches during the unbeaten run.

It took 31 seconds for Andres Ponce to score the winning goal against Lokomotiv after coming on as a substitute. In the 56th minute, the Venezuelan came on in place of Cedric Gogoua, and half a minute later celebrated his first goal of the season, and for Rotor. The forward was loaned from Akhmat, for whom he has made nine appearances this season.

Victor Moses played 68 minutes in the RPL before scoring his first goal for Spartak. The Nigerian played 35 minutes in his first match for the Red-Whites against Khimki, and appeared in the starting line-up for the first time against Krasnodar. In the 33rd minute he scored the Muscovites’ second goal, before being replaced by Andrey Eshchenko after 68 minutes. The 29-year-old scored for the first time in 2020. He did not score a goal during his loan spell at Inter, and scored his previous career goal for Fenerbahce on 19 August 2019 in a 5-0 win against Gaziantep.

83 seconds passed between Leon Sabua’s entrance on the pitch and his goal against Spartak. The 20-year-old Krasnodar striker was making his debut against the Red-Whites: he replaced Magomed-Shapi Suleymanov in the 57th minute and scored from Tonny Villena’s pass in the 59th. Sabua is the first Black-Green graduate to score on his senior debut. Earlier this season, he scored five goals in 15 games for Krasnodar-II in the second-tier FNL and took part in one game of Krasnodar-III in the third-tier PFL.

Tambov goalkeeper Sergey Ryzhikov hasn’t conceded for 227 minutes. The last goal he let in was scored by Arsenal midfielder Mohamed Kadiri in the 43rd minute of the 1-1 draw in Saransk on 3 October. After that, the 40-year-old goalkeeper kept clean sheets in Volgograd (2-0) and Ekaterinburg (0-0), and against Rotor he also saved a penalty. On 1 November at the mordovia Arena, Sergey Pervushin's team will take on Dynamo, who have already broken a Tambov run of clean sheets this year; before the 1-0 defeat at the VTB Arena in March, Tambov didn’t concede a single goal for three full matches in a row.

CSKA captain Igor Akinfeev played his 650th match for the Armymen. The meeting with Arsenal was the goalkeeper’s 469th for the club in the RPL; he has also played 128 matches in European competitions and 53 more in Russian Cups and Super Cups. Akinfeev is the Red-Blue's record holder for games played in all competitions. Former teammate Sergey Ignashevich, who is second on the list, is 101 games behind. At the same time, the former defender is still ahead of the goalkeeper in all-time appearances in Russian Championships with 489.

Photo: Konstantin Rybin/RPL