Российская премьер-лига
News The 19th RPL season started on 8 August with the match between Khimki and CSKA, and ended on 16 May with the final whistle of Ufa vs Arsenal. After the campaign’s close, we have identified one event from the life of the clubs this season and arranged them in chronological order.
August 18 - Sochi won their first home victory of the season against Rubin, and the main contribution to the success was made by Christian Noboa; he scored from a free kick and made an effective cross to Ivan Miladinovich at the end. This was the beginning of a historic season for both the player and the club. The 36-year-old Ecuadorian became the team's top scorer (12, a personal record) and made the most assists in the league alongside Douglas Santos (seven). Sochi did not lose at the Fisht Olympic Stadium for more than a year - from February 2020 to April 2021 - once led in the RPL table after defeating Akhmat on matchday seven, and finished in the top five to qualify for Europe for the first time.
September 20 - The Kangwa brothers together created one of Arsenal's three goals in a 3-2 win against Sochi: the younger, Kings, supplied the ammunition for older sibling Evans to finish. This was also the case with the Bazaev, Kombarov, Mukhametshin and Miranchuk brothers. What only the Zambians managed to do was both get a red card in the same match. Against Ufa, Kings was sent off in the 85th minute, and Evans followed in added time. The elder brother finished the season as the team's top scorer with four goals as Arsenal finished only 14th after three consecutive seasons in the top half.
September 25 - Igor Cherevchenko, who rested after leaving Arsenal for more than two months, took charge of Khimki, who were down in 15th after eight matchdays. In their first match under their new coach, Khimki beat Dynamo 1-0 for their first RPL victory since July 2009, and from November to April they did not lose in 10 straight matchdays. During Cherevchenko's time, Khimki picked up 42 points in 22 matches; Rubin took the same amount in this time, with only Lokomotiv (44) and Zenit (48) managing more. The Red-Blacks finished in the RPL top half for the first time.
September 30 - The 2-1 win over Greek side PAOK (the same scoreline as in the first leg) confirmed Krasnodar’s Champions League group-stage debut. At this stage, Russia had never been represented by three teams - Zenit and Lokomotiv had qualified directly. Those latter two finished last in their groups, while Krasnodar took five points - a win and a draw against Rennes, and a draw at Chelsea - and reached Europa League knockouts, where they lost to Dinamo Zagreb. In the RPL Krasnodar, having replaced Murad Musaev with Viktor Goncharenko in April, equalled their worst final position - 10th place.
October 18 - The season’s oldest player, Sergey Ryzhikov (the goalkeeper turned 40 on September 19), helped Tambov beat Rotor in Volgograd. The goalkeeper managed to save a penalty, as his teammates scored two unanswered goals. Neither Ryzhikov nor Tambov won again in the RPL; two draws with Ural and 17 defeats followed, as well as a complete revamp of the squad in the winter. In the spring, before the end of the season, the goalkeeper finished his playing career and became a coach, and Tambov were relegated after finishing rock bottom.
October 24 - It took Rotor until matchday 12 to win their first match after returning to the RPL, as they beat Lokomotiv 2-1 away. At that time, more than 16 years had passed since their previous top-flight victory: on 25 September 2004, they beat Rostov 3-2. However, the team was not able to gain a foothold in the league, even despite changes in the coaching staff. After the resignation of Alexander Khatskevich in March, Khasanbi Bidzhiev became head coach. Rotor scored only 15 goals, the lowest tally in the league, and ended up in 15th position.
November 1 - In Dynamo head coach Sandro Schwartz’s second match in charge, he picked two debutants against Tambov; 18-year-old Konstantin Tyukavin and 17-year-old Arsen Zakharyan. The players’ progress began after the winter break as they both established themselves in the senior squad, scoring three goals each in the RPL (Tyukavin also scored against Spartak with an audacious backheel in the Russian Cup). At the end of March they both went to the UEFA Under-21 European Championship group stages, although they hadn’t featured in the qualifiers. Zakharyan even became the youngest goalscorer in under-21 Finals history. Dynamo were among the contenders for continental qualification, but fell three points short to finish seventh.
November 8 - Igor Akinfeev played an important role in CSKA's victory over Rostov: with the score at 1-0, the goalkeeper saved Roman Eremenko's penalty. Thanks to this, the Armymen captain overtook Roman Berezovsky as the Russian championships record-holder for penalty saves (15) and in total number of unconverted penalties against him (19). Already in March, Akinfeev improved the record when he kept out Artem Dzyuba’s penalty. In November CSKA led in the RPL table, and remained Zenit’s main challengers before the spring part of the season, but aside from dropping to sixth by the end of the campaign, for the first time in 20 years they failed to qualify for Europe.
March 8 - Before the New Year, Rubin were ninth in the table - then Leonid Slutsky dropped his iconic Christmas hit. After the season’s resumption, they immediately beat Spartak and Zenit. They were the only team to complete an RPL double over the champions, and the home victory on International Women's Day was emotional. In the second minute of added time Denis Makarov scored a sensational winner on a counterattack, and in the ninth Yury Dupin saved a penalty. In total, Rubin won eight of their 11 spring matches and made it to the third qualifying round of the new UEFA Conference League - their first time in European competition since 2015.
April 3 - Akhmat returned from the March international break with their record RPL victory, thrashing Krasnodar 5-0 away. Bernard Berisha scored twice: before 2020, the midfielder had never made a double in his career, but this season he made three doubles for Akhmat, and was handed the captain's armband. Andrey Talalaev's team started April optimistically, beating Ufa in the Russian Cup quarter-finals on 7 April, but at the end of the month they lost in the semi-finals to Krylia Sovetov. In the RPL, they ended up 11th.
April 4 - Before the home match against Spartak, Rostov were inspired by “Peaky Blinders”: the players dressed in black suits, and Valery Karpin went to the game in the same one, but Rostov lost 3-2 anyway. Incidentally, before the first meeting with the Red-Whites in Moscow on 31 October, the team changed into tracksuits from the movie "Gentlemen" and won 1-0. In general, Rostov’s year turned out to be more modest than the previous one. The team was evolved after the departure of Eldor Shomurodov, Evgeny Chernov, Aleksey Ionov, Ivelin Popov, Baktiyor Zaynutdinov and Roman Eremenko and finished ninth, for the second time in four seasons under Karpin.
April 10 - Ufa began the match against Akhmat under the guidance of their fourth coach of the season. After Vadim Evseev, Rashid Rakhimov and Nikolai Safronidy - who led Ufa to the Russian Cup quarter-finals against Akhmat - the players were led by Aleksey Stukalov. The 37-year-old coach had never worked in the RPL, but his father Boris Stukalov had such experience. The start was successful; 3-0 victories over both Akhmat and Spartak, and after beating Arsenal 2-1 on the last matchday, Ufa escaped direct relegation and rose to 13th place.
April 11 - Thirty-seven-year-old Pavel Pogrebnyak scored twice for Ural against Dynamo and became not only the season’s oldest goalscorer, but also scored the oldest player to score a double in the RPL. The striker only started the season in the autumn: at the end of July, he left Ural after his contract expired, but on 16 October, before the registration period closed, he signed a new one-year agreement with the club. Pogrebnyak became Ural’s second-top scorer in the RPL with four goals, one more than last season. The team itself dropped one place to 12th.
May 2 - Under Sergey Semak, Zenit won the RPL title for the third consecutive season. The final blow was delivered against their closest rivals Lokomotiv, who were beaten thanks to a hat-trick by Sardar Azmun, a double by Artem Dzyuba and a goal from Malcom in a 6-1 epic. Zenit are the most decorated club in RPL history with seven titles, but taking into account all Russian championships, they still lag behind Spartak by three titles. Zenit also set a league record for goals in 30 matchdays with 76, and by scoring four on the last day against Tambov, Artem Dzyuba became the top scorer both in the season (20 goals) and in the history of the league (137).
May 10 - Domenico Tedesco, along with his assistants Andreas Hinkel and Max Urwantschky, said goodbye to Spartak fans at the Otkritie Arena with a spirited 2-1 comeback victory over Khimki. The German coach had announced his departure from the Moscow club in December, but saw out the contract until the end. In Tedesco's last match, the Red-Whites hit back from 2-0 down away to Akhmat to secure a runners up spot in the RPL and make it to the Champions League qualifiers. This represents Spartak’s most successful season since Massimo Carrera.
May 12 - Lokomotiv maintained their status as Russian Cup record holders by beating Krylia Sovetov 3-1 in the final to become nine-time winners of the trophy. They have now won the last four tournaments every odd-numbered year since 2015 under Igor Cherevchenko, Yury Semin and Marko Nikolic. The Russian Cup is the Serb’s first trophy at Lokomotiv, and this spring he equalled the best winning streak in the club's history of 11 in all competitions. Loko added a fourth consecutive top-three RPL finish to the Cup triumph. In July, Lokomotiv and Zenit will open the new season with the Russian Super Cup.
Photo: Anna Meyer/Zenit St. Petersburg; Christina Korovnikova/FC Khimki; Konstantin Tverdovsky/Dynamo Moscow; Artem Gusev/FC Rostov; Evgeny Vasiliev/Zenit St. Petersburg; Lokomotiv Moscow
