Spartak Moscow

Russian Premier League
23 Aug 2026
Sunday
Process
3 Edition

The Spartak Moscow Gazette

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Spartak Moscow silence Lokomotiv Moscow

A derby is never about the football alone, but the football helped: 1‑0, and the away end emptied early. Bragging rights renewed for another season.

Player ratings

Marquinhos runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Vladislav Saus turns BATE down

“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.

Player ratings

Esequiel Barco settles the derby

Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Spartak Moscow and a story that will outlast his contract.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Tomáš Chorý rejects the move

Spartak Moscow had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Slavia Prague, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Match

Spartak Moscow cannot stop winning

3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Squad

A falling-out at Spartak Moscow

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Sampson Dweh

Spartak Moscow asked and Viktoria Plzen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Looking ahead

All roads lead to Dinamo Moscow

The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Spartak Moscow will be judged on one thing only.

In brief

Back issues
2 Edition

The Spartak Moscow Gazette

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Market

Daniil Zorin says no to Taraz

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Daniil Zorin had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Squad

A move Daler Kuzyaev would have made for nothing

There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Daler Kuzyaev is living that version at Spartak Moscow, and it tends to show in the first month.

Market

Marquinhos has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Spartak Moscow can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Manfred Ugalde and Spartak Moscow agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Player ratings

Pablo Solari beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Tempers go at Spartak Moscow

Esequiel Barco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Transfer targets

Baltika tell Spartak Moscow: Brayan Gil is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Squad

Georgy Rykov falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

Spartak Moscow get the job done against Rubin

A 2‑0 win over Rubin, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

In brief

1 Edition

The Spartak Moscow Gazette

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

No mercy from Spartak Moscow

Baltika will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Spartak Moscow were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Player ratings

Both of them Mirlind Daku's — 9.28

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.28, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

Roman Zobnin: 10 seasons and counting

311 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and Spartak Moscow know exactly what they have.

Squad

Alessandro Schöpf gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alessandro Schöpf has just signed for Spartak Moscow, and for once the answer mattered.

Market

Pablo Solari wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Esequiel Barco signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Esequiel Barco and Spartak Moscow agree another 4 years.

Squad

Esequiel Barco in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

A goal and an assist for Esequiel Barco — 7.94

Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.94 beside his name.

Match

Mirlind Daku among the goals in a wild afternoon

7 goals in one match, Mirlind Daku on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Spartak Moscow and Baltika.

In brief