Two of the teams that gained wins in last weekend’s opening fixtures of the new Russian Premier League will go head-to-head this Saturday at the Rostov Arena with Rostov taking on Zenit with another valuable three points up for grabs.
Rostov opened their account in the new domestic top flight season last weekend with a 1-0 win away from home at last term’s third from bottom finishers, Tambov, and they now return to the more familiar surroundings of their Rostov Arena for a date with one of the challengers for another domestic league title, Zenit.
Last season’s early curtailment of the Premier League finished with Rostov occupying 5th place but a massive 27 points behind Zenit who sat top of the league with a 15-point cushion over 2nd placed Lokomotiv Moscow.
However, following a five-match winning streak from mid-August through to late October, the wheels came off the Rostov wagon somewhat.
The hosts could only manage a further two wins from the subsequent eight matches with victories over CSKA Moscow and Arsenal Tula but defeats to Tambov, Lokomotiv Moscow, Ufa and Saturday’s opponents, Zenit, saw Rostov end their campaign with a whimper.
Onto Zenit, and although it’s still very early days, the visitors registered a business-like 2-0 win away from home at newcomers, Rotor Volgograd, in last weekend’s season opener at the Volgograd Arena which not only started Zenit’s new campaign off in positive fashion, but also extended their unbeaten run in the Russian Premier League to an impressive 20 matches overall.
16 wins within this 20-match sequence underline Zenit’s dominance over the rest of the Premier League field and also includes a 6-1 home win and a 2-1 away victory against Saturday’s hosts, Rostov.
Indeed, Zenit have won four of the previous five encounters against Rostov and having finished the last campaign with an impressive away record which stood at 12-1-2 28/9 (which included winning nine of their final 10 away matches of the term), Zenit look a tough prospect for Rostov once again this Saturday.
You'll be able to catch Rostov v Zenit live on the #RPL YouTube channel with English commentary this Saturday! #RostovZenit 🎙️🇬🇧 https://t.co/A55loaope4— FC Zenit in English✨ (@fczenit_en) August 12, 2020
You'll be able to catch Rostov v Zenit live on the #RPL YouTube channel with English commentary this Saturday! #RostovZenit 🎙️🇬🇧 https://t.co/A55loaope4
In addition, Zenit’s ability to score goals on a regular basis away from home also looks ominous, particularly as the visitors scored 2 goals or more in eight of these last 10 away matches, and this could be the key difference between the two teams again this weekend.