On Wednesday, March 12, 2025, the first match of the RPL Path semi-final of the Russian Cup between the Moscow clubs CSKA and Dynamo will take place at the VEB Arena.
When the game starts and where to watch it
The text broadcast of the game will be available online in our match center.
Sectors 215 and 216 are provided for Dynamo fans, tickets for which can be purchased at the following link. The guest ticket office will be closed on the day of the game.
You will be able to watch the live video broadcast of this game after registering on the website of our title sponsor BetBoom betting company and in its clubs that operate according to the "All Inclusive" concept (look for the nearest club on the map), as well as on Match TV. Beginning at 20:30 Moscow time.
Also on our resources there will be a traditional edition of "Inside" with the highlights of the game itself and everything that happened around it.
Team status
On International Women's Day, the blue and white, despite significant losses in the squad, left no chance for Dynamo Makhachkala, winning the biggest home victory in the current championship – 4:0. Yaroslav Gladyshev was recognized as the best player of the match, who scored a goal + pass, and Daniil Fomin scored in the second a game in a row.
Let's note the first productive pass of Juan Caceres, as well as the ninth assist of Bitello, who took sole first place in this indicator in the RPL. A great debut in the league was made by Egor Smelov, who became the best in the team in strokes.
According to Marcel Licka, Andrei Lunev should recover by the cup meeting, but the participation of Nicolas Marichal, Milan Majstorovic, Diego Laxalt and Luis Chavez is questionable. Konstantin Tyukavin underwent surgery and returned to Moscow on Tuesday.
About the opponent
In winter, the composition of Marko Nikolic's team has not changed much. Of the key players, only Sasha Zdelar left for Zenit, but the army men themselves signed two Latin Americans: the best scorer of last season's Brazilian Serie A Alerrandro and the former defender of the youth national team of Argentina Rodrigo Villagra.
However, they joined the army team quite late and so far they have played only 8 minutes for two in two spring RPL tours. In them, Igor Akinfeev made two clean sheets and helped his team take one point in St. Petersburg, as well as achieve a home victory over Khimki (1:0). The Army team attacked for most of the match and scored the winner in added time thanks to a goal by Willian Rocha, who closed the cross of Miralem Pjanic. At the same time, several team leaders started the meeting on the bench.
— Before the start of the training camp, I told the guys that this year we are not determining the starting lineup for the season, – Nikolic said after the match. – We have more than 20 players who can start because they won this opportunity at the training camp. I have full confidence in these guys. For each match we will choose the squad depending on tactics, scouting of the opponent, physical condition. We definitely did not give the advantage to the Cup, this game was important for us.
At the group stage of the Cup, the army team took first place in the quartet with Krasnodar, Akhmat and Pari NN, and in the quarterfinals of the RPL Path turned out to be stronger than Rubin Kazan (0:0 and 3:0). The second goalkeeper of the army team, Vladislav Torop, played all the matches, missed only two goals, and his current dry streak is 640 minutes.
History of meetings
In the Russian Cup, the teams met only twice, but both times at the semifinal stage. In 1993, Alexander Grishin's only goal brought victory to the army team. In 2009, Vagner Love and Yuri Zhirkov led CSKA ahead, but at the end of the second half, the accurate shots of Dmitry Khokhlov and Alexander Kerzhakov took the game into extra time, and in the penalty shootout, the red and blue ones were more accurate – 6:5.
In the first round of the current Russian championship, the army team won at VTB Arena with a score of 2:1, snatching victory thanks to a late goal by Tamerlan Musaev.
The judges
The meeting will be served by Kirill Levnikov, who will be assisted by linesmen Rustam Mukhtarov and Alexey Stipidi. Sergey Ivanov and Roman Galimov will be responsible for the Video Referee Assistance System (VAR).
This season, the 41-year-old referee from St. Petersburg worked on Dynamo's matches with Fakel (3:1), Orenburg (2:2) and both meetings with Rostov (both – 1:1).
