Translated material
Week calendar
Champions League . Second qualifying round. First matches. July 31, August 1.
UEFA Cup. First qualifying round. Return matches. July 31, August 2 .
Russian Railways Cup. Commercial tournament. August 3. Semi-finals. August 5th. Final and match for third place .
The central match of the next round of the Premier League is a meeting in the capital's Petrovsky Park between the “blue and white” and the St. Petersburg “Zenith”. In the first round, the confrontation between these teams ended with the defeat of Andrei Kobelev's team. On the banks of the Neva, Zenit scored three unanswered goals against the guests in mid-April. Dominguez, Pogrebnyak and Denisov scored. However, since then Dynamo have noticeably improved their game, and it is not possible to name a clear favorite for the upcoming match.
Several matches involving clubs from the countries of the former USSR will take place this week as part of the Champions League qualification. Yerevan Pyunik will host Shakhtar Donetsk, Moldavian Sheriff (Tiraspol) will visit Turkish Besiktas (Istanbul), Ventspils (Latvia) will meet at home with Salzburg (Austria). The Kazakh “Astana” will compete with the Norwegian “Rosenborg” at the stadium in Kostanay, the Belarusian BATE will travel to distant Iceland for a match with the local “Hafnafjörður” and, finally, the Estonian “Levadia” (Tallinn) will arrive in the Serbian capital Belgrade, where they will begin a showdown with Red Star.
In the UEFA Cup, the visit of Santa Coloma to Tel Aviv is of particular interest. In the first match, the team from Andorra sensationally won against the bronze medalist of the Israeli championship with a score of 1:0. Prior to this, the representatives of the dwarf principality had consistently stopped fighting in the first qualifying round for ten years, losing all 20 matches with a total goal difference of 3:117.
The capital's Lokomotiv plays in the semi-finals of the Russian Railways Cup with the recognized world giant - Real Madrid. The second pair was made up of the Italian Milan and the Dutch PSV Eindhoven. The total budget of the tournament is $8 million, of which $6 million is allocated for the prize fund.
VOLLEYBALL. August 3-5. World Commercial Grand Prix Tournament (women). Preliminary stage. 1st round. Rzeszow (Poland), Verona (Italy), Tokyo (Japan).
This season, participation in the Grand Prix for the current world champion Russian team is one of the stages of competitive preparation for the September European Championship, which will be held in Belgium and Luxembourg. In the preliminary round, a dozen play in rounds of fours, and the teams play an unequal number of matches against each other, but the standings are still the same. Led by Italian specialist Giovanni Caprara and his wife Irina Kirillova, the Russians in Poland will meet China (August 3), the USA (4th) and Poland (5th). The composition of our team for the first round: setters - Marina Akulova, Svetlana Akulova; libero - Svetlana Kryuchkova; blockers - Natalya Alimova, Yulia Sedova, Anna Ivanova; diagonal - Ekaterina Gamova, Olga Fateeva; finishers - Lyubov Sokolova, Elena Godina, Tatyana Kosheleva, Natalya Safronova. Also in the general application for the Grand Prix tournament are blocker Yulia Merkulova and libero Ekaterina Kabeshova.
This week the Squadra Azura, Brazil, Holland and Taiwan will gather in Italy, while the Japanese, Dominican Republic, Cuba and Kazakhstan will gather in Tokyo.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL. August 1--5. Competitions from the Grand Slam series as part of the World Tour (men, women). Klagenfurt (Austria).
In the summer, beach volley masters perform non-stop at competitions on the international calendar. Immediately after the end of the World Cup in Switzerland, they move to neighboring Austria, where they will hold the fourth and final Grand Slam tournament of the season. Its prize fund is $600 thousand.
TENNIS. July 30 -- August 5. WTA tournaments (women). San Diego (USA), Stockholm (Sweden). ATP tournaments (men). Washington (USA), Sopot (Poland).
On the San Diego hard court, the girls will gather for the first category BTA tournament with a prize fund of $1.34 million. In the Swedish capital, the total amount of bonuses is much more modest - $145 thousand. In North America, Maria Sharapova is seeded number one. In addition to her, Dinara Safina, Anna Chakvetadze and Nadezhda Petrova were exempted from participation in the opening round matches. The following compatriots are also represented in the main draw: Olga Puchkova, Anastasia Rodionova, Maria Kirilenko, Elena Dementieva (pictured) , Elena Bovina and Alla Kudryavtseva. The winner of the tournament will receive a check for $196.9 thousand and 430 rating points.
For men, Teimuraz Gabashvili, Igor Kunitsyn, Evgeny Korolev and Marat Safin will perform on hard court in the American capital. Nikolai Davydenko (he is considered the first racket of the competition) and Igor Andreev will play on clay in Sopot.
CHESS. July 30--31. International tournament Northern Urals Cup (women). 8th--9th rounds. Krasnoturinsk.
The last two rounds will be played in a tournament with the participation of ten international grandmasters. After six days of play, Ukrainian Ekaterina Lahno was in the lead - 3.5 points.
ATHLETICS. July 30. Competitions according to the World Athletic Tour program. Thessaloniki (Greece). August 3. Tournament series "Super Grand Prix". London (UK).
The fourth of five starts of the Super Grand Prix series will take place in London. Commercially, only the Golden League is considered more prestigious.
"Formula 1". Hungarian Grand Prix. Budapest. Hungaroring.
The riders will have to overcome 70 laps of 4381 m, that is, a total of 306.6 km. Last season, Jenson Button won here, Kimi Raikkonen started in pole position, and Felipe Massa showed the fastest lap time in the race. Let us recall the position in the drivers' championship: Lewis Hamilton (pictured) - 70 points, Fernando Alonso (both McLaren) - 68, Felipe Massa - 59, Kimi Raikkonen (both Ferrari) - 52 , Nick Heidfeld (Sauber-BMW) - 36. - McLaren is in the lead in the Constructors' Championship (138 points), followed by Ferrari (111) and Sauber-BMW (61).