The reigning champions from St. Petersburg sit in 1st place with 54 points, leading Sunday’s opponents by nine points going into the game, with Rostov level on points with 3rd placed Spartak Moscow, following the Red and Whites victory over Torpedo Moscow on Saturday. 

Sergei Semak’s side showed their winning mentality in their last match, coming behind to beat Lokomotiv Moscow 2-1 in the RZD Arena. Maksim Glushenkov gave the railwaymen the lead in the 26th minute after winning the ball off Wendel and threading it in. Wendel got Zenit back into the game with five minutes left of the first half. The battling central midfielder orchestrated his way through the opposition, and combined well with Malcom to open up the space and fire a shot across the face of goal and beyond the keeper. Mateo Cassierra picked the perfect moment to score his first goal for Zenit and the match winner in the 77th minute. Douglas Santos’ driving low shot from the edge of the left side of the penalty area was deflected high into the air by Egor Pogostnov but only as far as Cassierra. The Colombian acrobatically turned the goal in with a bicycle kick that could not be cleared off the line. 

Rostov have had a tremendous season so far, and have been led by current Sbornaya boss Valery Karpin since 2022. In their last fixture, Rostov fought back from a two goal deficit to draw 2-2 with an 80th and 89th minute strike. Sunday’s opponents have lost just once in the league in 2023, in their first league game of the year against Lokomotiv Moscow due to an Artem Dzyuba hat trick. Karpin sets his side out in a 4-3-3 or 3-4-3 formation depending on the opponents with Nikolay Komlichenko leading the line. The striker has eight goals for Rostov this season. Dmitry Poloz and Khoren Bayramyan occupy the wings. Young prospect Andrei Langovich will be one to watch at right back, with many tipping the 19-year-old for the Sbornaya in the future, especially with Karpin overlooking the side. Between the sticks Rostov rely on the experience of Sergei Pesyakov who has spent six years at the club, playing over 120 times.

The last time the sides faced off against each other was in the reverse fixture earlier this season, with Zenit running out 3-1 winners at the Gazprom Arena. Malcom got the blue-white-sky blues off and running in the 14th minute only for the goal to be cancelled out by Komlichenko just inside the start of the second half. Wendel got Zenit ahead in the 65th minute before Daler Kuzyayev put the game out of sight thirteen minutes from time. 

Zenit boss Semak was quick to play down the importance of the game in his pre-match interview saying; “with eight games left before the end of the season, it makes no sense to talk about the title match now.”

Semak seems to relish the prospect of a tactical battle between the two sides saying “Both teams want to win, and both teams have their plus sides, which we’ll both look to exploit.”

“Rostov play a good game and press and play forward with short and medium passes, so we’re expecting a good, quality game of football.

Rostov v Zenit takes place this Sunday with a 7pm kick-off, you can watch the game live on Match Premier in Russia and on the RPL YouTube channel globally.