On 25 January, four RPL teams played friendly matches in UAE, Turkey, and Qatar.

Ural Ekaterinburg 1-2 Botev Plovdiv

Team from Bulgaria top division became first Ural opponent in UAE, also Botev featured Mikhail Prokopyev, known as Prokop, former player for Amkal media football club. Ural ended first half trailing 0-2, and they could only cut the lead through Danijel Miskic’s goal. Another RPL side to face Botev will be Spartak Moscow on 27 January.

FC Rostov 2-0 Johor Darul Ta’zim

Valery Karpin’s team got second straight win and another clean sheet, this time the beaten side was multi-time Malaysian Super League champion. Both goals were scored by Egor Golenkov, who made two-goal lead in first 20 minutes.

Pari NN 1-1 Akron Togliatti

Nizhny Novgorod kicked off the second part of winter camps facing Akron from the First League. Just five minutes divided goals from each side, Vyacheslav Krotov gave the lead to Pari NN, and Dzhamaldin Khodzhaniyazov, played in RPL for Zenit, Amkar and Ural, answered with his goal. That was second game in a row without win for Artem Gorlov, as his first test match with Nizhny ended with loss to Navbahor.

Zenit St. Petersburg 9-0 Al Bidda

RPL leaders met in the first friendly match Al Bidda from Qatar Second Division and made win huge. Zenit ended first half with just one goal scored by Gustavo Mantuan but extended the lead after the half-time with Ivan Sergeev’s hat-trick and goals by second team player Ilya Kirsh, Andrey Mostovoy, Aleksandr Erokhin, Zelimkhan Bakaev and Vyacheslav Karavaev.

Next teams’ friendlies: Saturday 28 January – Zenit vs Lusail City; Monday 30 January – Ural vs Rodina (2 matches); Thursday 2 February – Rostov vs Spartak (RPL Winter Cup)