Zenit snatched victory in the RPL from Dynamo and Krasnodar. The team became champions for the sixth time in a row

St. Petersburg Zenit won the Russian Premier League (RPL) in the 2023/2024 season.

In the final round, the team defeated Rostov. The meeting took place at the St. Petersburg stadium and ended with a score of 2:1 in favor of the hosts. Rostov scored first in the 54th minute: midfielder Ronaldo scored. In the 64th minute the score was equalized by midfielder Gustavo Mantuan. In the 85th minute, midfielder Arthur Guimaraes put the blue-white-blues ahead.

The club became the champion of Russia for the sixth time in a row

Zenit has won the RPL since 2019. The blue-white-blue managed to win the championship on the day the team was founded: it turned 99 years old. The club also managed to equal the number of victories in the national championship with Moscow Spartak. Now Zenit has won ten titles, just like the red and white.

All this time, the St. Petersburg team has been led by Sergei Semak. Right during the celebration of the championship, the coach took the stage at the team’s home stadium and signed the contract, which runs until 2030.

Semak, in an interview with Match TV, called the match of the final round of the RPL the quintessence of the entire season. According to the expert, in some matches of the season the team was fatally unlucky, and many unnecessary mistakes were made.

Who was in the fight for victory?

Before the final round, the leadership in the RPL was with Dynamo Moscow. The team could have become the national champion for the first time in 48 years if they had not lost to Krasnodar in the last round. Krasnodar also had a chance of winning the championship: if Zenit had won and lost points in the meeting with Rostov, the club would have won gold medals in the national championship for the first time in history.

As a result, in the 30th round the Krasnodar team turned out to be stronger. The only goal in the home match was scored by striker John Cordoba. Thus, both teams lost their chances for the championship. Krasnodar took second place, and Dynamo took third. Both clubs were one point behind the winner Zenit.

According to former Dynamo general director Yuri Zavarzin, Dynamo showed itself to be a spineless team that hoped to play for a draw, but as a result missed out on the championship.

Zenit legend Andrei Arshavin called the end of the season a miracle. In his opinion, no writer could write the script for this championship. Arshavin emphasized that Zenit showed character, even when the match was going badly, the team managed to turn the game around and win.

Baltika and Sochi were eliminated from the championship

The Kaliningraders lost to Lokomotiv Moscow with a score of 1:3. Anton Miranchuk, Artem Karpukas and Timur Suleymanov scored goals among the winners. Vitaly Lisakovich scored for the losers, converting a penalty.

Thus, Baltika scored 26 points and took penultimate, 15th place in the standings. The future of the team’s head coach Sergei Ignashevich, according to the specialist himself, should be determined in the coming days. Together with the Kaliningraders, Sochi was relegated from the RPL, taking the last, 16th place with 24 points.

Paris Nizhny Novgorod and Ekaterinburg Ural, who took 13th and 14th places respectively, will play in the play-offs for the right to compete in the RPL next season. Nizhny Novgorod will play against Arsenal Tula, which took fourth place in the First League. “Ural” will meet with Tolyatti “Akron”.

RPL added two teams

Khimki, located near Moscow, won the First League and received the right to play in the RPL next season. In the final match of the tournament, Andrei Talalaev’s team beat Novorossiysk Chernomorets with a score of 2:1. The gap between Khimki and Dynamo Makhachkala, which took second place and also directly qualified for the RPL, was five points.