Rubin – CSKA

The visitors should not count on a victory in Kazan.

Rubin and CSKA, ahead of the upcoming head-to-head on another matchday of the Russian Premier League, represent two different worlds in terms of the wellbeing and calm within their squads. The hosts of the upcoming match changed their head coach during the winter break. With a bit of controversy, Rubin's era under Kurban Berdyev ended, replaced by Frank Artiga. The Kazan club's first spring match after a three-month pause ended in a defeat to Dynamo Makhachkala, showing neither due diligence nor focus on obtaining a result. However, this defeat was the only one in the last two months, although after the Kaspiysk meeting Rubin faced much more serious and ambitious opponents. There is now an atmosphere of trust in Kazan; the club's leadership and fans look forward to its bid to achieve something meaningful next season. The situation at CSKA has a diametrically opposite emotional hue. In autumn the army team became genuine title contenders, on par with Krasnodar and Lokomotiv, and slightly behind Zenit in title chances. In winter the Moscow club pulled off several very successful transfers, after which Fabio Celestini was expected to continue the fight for the title. In reality CSKA has already become the main disappointment of the spring portion of the season, and recently its management had to deny plans to dismiss Celestini from his post. Ahead of the upcoming match Rubin enters with a seven-match unbeaten run, during which they beat Krasnodar, Lokomotiv, and Dynamo Moscow. They played the latter in the previous round in Moscow. Dynamo players can count themselves lucky to have conceded only one Rubin goal, as the visitors had five to six real chances to score. CSKA, in midweek, again dropped points, failing to beat Rostov at home. Less than a third of the stadium came to cheer for their team in Moscow. To Kazan the Army men will head without Igor Akinfeev, Mateus Reis, Kirill Glebov, and Matvei Lukin. In turn, Rubin will welcome back the suspended leading striker Mirlind Daku. The hosts will collect at least one point.