On Saturday, July 4, 2026, a friendly match between Dynamo Moscow and the Pari Nizhny Novgorod club will take place at VTB UTB Novogorsk-Dynamo.
When is the start and where to watch
The match will be held behind closed doors. You can see the best moments of the match in our social media.
The match starts at 16:00 Moscow time.
Team status
Dynamo Moscow has already spent two weeks training under the guidance of Sandro Schwartz and underwent a comprehensive medical examination last Sunday. Almost all of the players are training with the main group, with the exception of Bakhtiyor Zainutdinov, who is undergoing a period of readaptation to training.
Bitello, Konstantin Tyukavin, Anton Miranchuk, and Ivan Sergeyev have joined the team, having received additional rest days. Without them, as well as Juan Cáceres and Luis Chávez, who are still competing at the World Cup, the white-and-blues lost 2-0 to Moscow's Torpedo in their first pre-season friendly.
Egor Smelov and Aleksandr Khubulov, who have returned from loan, are also training with the main team. Stanislav Bessmertny will spend his second consecutive season on loan at Rodina Moscow, which is set to make its Premier League debut.
About the opponent
Last season, Nizhny Novgorod was relegated to the First League after five years in the Russian Premier League. The task of returning the team to the top flight has been entrusted to former Dynamo Academy coach Vadim Garanin. He took over at Pari NN with three games remaining, when climbing out of the relegation zone was already clearly difficult (two defeats to Akhmat and CSKA, and a draw with Rubin).
"There's only one goal — to return to the Russian Premier League. It can't be any other way. The region, the city, the stadium, the fans. It has to be a Premier League club," Garanin noted. "Of course, a huge number of teams are currently setting the same goal. This season will probably be more challenging than ever for clubs that have set the goal of promotion. Everything is geared toward this goal for us. No one will feel sorry for anyone."
Despite the relegation, Nizhny Novgorod managed to retain almost all of its key players, with the exception of Renaldo Cefas, who left for Qarabag, and Maxim Shnaptsev, who moved to Baltika. Olakunle Olusegun, Alex Sarfo, and Smelov also returned to their clubs after completing their loans.
Even after Yegor's departure, the squad still boasts plenty of players with a Dynamo past: Daniil Lesovoy, Vyacheslav Grulyov, and Andrei Ivlev, who came through the Dynamo Academy, played for Pari NN last season, Vladislav Karapuzov returned from a loan with Ural, and Roman Evgenyev joined from Krylia Sovetov.
Other acquisitions include the signing of Artem Timofeyev, whose contract with Lokomotiv ended, the return of Valeri Tsarukyan, and the loan of promising CSKA winger Gleb Popolitov.
The Nizhny Novgorod team, which will start in the First League on July 12, crushed Tekstilshchik from Ivanovo with a score of 6:1 during the summer training camp, and also played twice against Ufa – a 2:1 win and a 2:2 draw.
