Translated material
Third stage
Zenit reached the bronze medals
The standings of the Russian Championship 2009 have taken on a complete form. National champion Rubin and silver medal winner Spartak will compete next year in the main Champions League tournament, and bronze medalist Zenit will compete in its qualifying round. Lokomotiv and CSKA will start in the Europa League, while Khimki and Kuban are leaving the Russian Premier League.Event. The main intrigue of the last round was whether Spartak in St. Petersburg would prevent Zenit from taking bronze medals. Even a draw in this match elevated Lokomotiv to the third step of the podium and left the richest Russian club without the Champions League for the second year in a row.
The “red and whites” had lost the gold medals of the youth championship to the St. Petersburg team the day before and seemed determined to take revenge at the senior level. And when the match referee Stanislav Sukhina sent off Zenit midfielder Husti from the field at the very end of the first half for a second yellow card, it seemed that Karpin’s team would be able to take points from the hosts. But immediately Zyryanov opened the scoring with a free kick, and in the second half the guests conceded after a corner kick.
Forty minutes of sluggish attempts by the Spartak players to break through the defense of the St. Petersburg team, which often consisted of all ten players in white, blue and blue uniforms, were only enough for a prestige goal. Now Zenit can safely lure some eminent European coach with a chance to play in the Champions League.
Scandal. “ The Bronze Intrigue” made us remember the biggest scandal of the last championship. Lokomotiv lost to Zenit only in terms of the total difference in goals scored and conceded, but the teams scored the same number of points, and in personal meetings they were completely equal. Everything would have been fair if not for one circumstance: it was in the fifth round match between Lokomotiv and Zenit that the St. Petersburg team exceeded the limit on foreign players and strangely did not suffer any punishment for this. If the St. Petersburg team had been given a technical defeat then, such a collision would not have arisen now.
Recalling the circumstances of that meeting, Lokomotiv head coach Yuri Semin proposed to the management of Zenit, the RFU and the RFPL to play a “bronze match”, but was not heard.
Bombardier . Lokomotiv could have won bronze even if they had beaten Khimki in the last round with a difference of ten goals. It didn’t come to a circus, but Dmitry Sychev, having scored a double, brought his goal count to 13. Thus, the Loko forward won the argument with the former coach of the “railway men” Rashid Rakhimov, who bet that Sychev would score less than 12 goals .
The best scorer of the championship was the Brazilian forward of Spartak Welliton - 21 goals. Next on the list of snipers are Rubin players Dominguez and Bukharov - they have 16 goals each.
Tour phrase. “I will come and present the silver medal to Bystrov personally,” Spartak head coach Valery Karpin promised to reward the Zenit midfielder, who during the season moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg and can now claim two medals at once.
Results of matches of the 30th round . "Zenit" - "Spartak" - 2:1 (Zyryanov 45, Lombaerts 50 - Fathi 83) , "Khimki" - "Lokomotiv" - 1:3 (Antipenko 65 - Odemwingie 6, Sychev 15, 84 ) , CSKA -- Saturn -- 3:0 (Dzagoev 32, Krasic 58, Mamev 66) , "Moscow" -- Dynamo -- 1:2 (Nababkin 40 -- Kolodin 6, Fernandez 33) , " Kuban - Rubin - 0:3 (Kabze 9, Muravski 31, Portnyagin 81) , Krylya Sovetov - Tom - 1:3 (Savin 43 - K. Kovalchuk 10, Dzyuba 26, Klimov 49) , "Spartak-Nalchik" - "Terek" - 4:2 (Leandro 13, Amisulashvili 38, Kisenkov 43, Siradze 58 - Dzhabrailov 52, Lakhiyalov 90) , "Rostov" - "Amkar" - 1:1 (Pavlenko 18 - Volkov 9) .
Russian Championship. Final position
| 1. "Ruby" | 30 | 19 | 6 | 5 | 62--21 | 63 |
| 2. "Spartak" | 30 | 17 | 4 | 9 | 61--33 | 55 |
| 3. Zenit | 30 | 15 | 9 | 6 | 48--27 | 54 |
| 4. "Lokomotiv" | 30 | 15 | 9 | 6 | 43--30 | 54 |
| 5. CSKA | 30 | 16 | 4 | 10 | 48--30 | 52 |
| 6. "Moscow" | 30 | 13 | 9 | 8 | 39--28 | 48 |
| 7. "Saturn" | 30 | 13 | 6 | 11 | 38--41 | 45 |
| 8. Dynamo | 30 | 12 | 6 | 12 | 31--37 | 42 |
| 9. "Tom" | 30 | 11 | 8 | 11 | 31--39 | 41 |
| 10. “Wings of the Soviets” | 30 | 10 | 6 | 14 | 32--42 | 36 |
| 11. “Spartak-Nalchik” | 30 | 8 | 11 | 11 | 36--33 | 35 |
| 12. "Terek" | 30 | 9 | 6 | 15 | 33--48 | 33 |
| 13. "Amkar" | 30 | 8 | 9 | 13 | 27--37 | 33 |
| 14. "Rostov" | 30 | 7 | 11 | 12 | 28--39 | 32 |
| 15. "Kuban" | 30 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 23--51 | 28 |
| 16. Khimki | 30 | 2 | 4 | 24 | 20--64 | 10 |