2008 Russian Premier League


The Russian Premier League 2008 was the 17th edition of the Russian Football Championship, and the seventh under the current Russian Premier League name. The season started on Friday, 14 March 2008 with a match between Terek and Krylia Sovetov in Grozny. Krylia Sovetov won 3–0. The first goal of the season was scored by Krylia Sovetov's forward Yevgeny Savin.
Due to Russia's participation in UEFA Euro 2008, the season was interrupted from 16 May until 5 July.
The champions were determined on the 27th matchday, 2 November 2008. Rubin claimed their first championship title in Russian Premier League, defeating Saturn 2–1 away, with Savo Milošević scoring in the 89th minute to claim the title for his club. Rubin became the third non-Moscow club to become Russian champions.
The last round of matches was played on 22 November 2008.

Teams

14 clubs placed 1–14 in Russian Premier League 2007 and 2 top clubs from 2007 season of Russian First Division took part in the league:
TeamPlaceHead CoachTeam CaptainVenueCapacityAvg. Attend.KitmakerShirt sponsor
FC Zenit Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg Dick Advocaat Anatoliy TymoschukPetrovsky Stadium21,72520,825PumaGazprom
FC Spartak MoscowMoscow Michael Laudrup MozartLuzhniki Stadium76,00023,380NikeLukoil
PFC CSKA MoscowMoscow Valery Gazzaev Igor AkinfeevLuzhniki Stadium76,00016,243ReebokVTB
FC MoscowMoscow Oleg Blokhin Dmitri GodunokEduard Streltsov Stadium13,4224,813UmbroNorilsk Nickel
FC Saturn Moscow OblastRamenskoye Jürgen Röber Aleksei IgoninSaturn Stadium16,7269,480Adidas
FC Dynamo MoscowMoscow Andrey Kobelev Dmitry KhokhlovDynamo Stadium36,54013,067UmbroMetalloinvest
FC Lokomotiv MoscowMoscow Rashid Rakhimov Diniyar BilyaletdinovLokomotiv Stadium28,80014,108AdidasRussian Railways
FC Amkar PermPerm Miodrag Božović Aleksei PopovZvezda Stadium20,00016,514Adidas
FC KhimkiKhimki Sergey Yuran Roman BerezovskyArena Khimki18,0008,347NikeMezhregionalnaya Developerskaya Kompania
FC Rubin KazanKazan Gurban Berdiýew Sergey SemakCentral Stadium30,13318,641NikeTAIF
FC Tom TomskTomsk Valeri Nepomniachi Valeri KlimovTrud Stadium14,95012,820Adidas
PFC Spartak NalchikNalchik Yuri Krasnozhan Miodrag DžudovićSpartak Stadium14,40010,460Nike
FC Krylia Sovetov SamaraSamara Leonid Slutsky Matthew Paul BoothMetallurg Stadium33,22022,400UmbroRosTekhnologii
FC Luch-Energiya VladivostokVladivostok Semen Altman Dmitri SmirnovDinamo Stadium10,2008,413NikeDalEnergo
FC Shinnik YaroslavlYaroslavl Sergei Pavlov Denis BoyarintsevShinnik Stadium19,00010,387Adidas
FC Terek GroznyGrozny Vyacheslav Grozny Timur DzhabrailovSultan Bilimkhanov Stadium10,4008,935UmbroRAO UES

League table

Results

Top goalscorers

RankNat.PlayerGoals Team
1Vágner Love20CSKA
2Marko Topić10Saturn
2Peter Odemwingie10Lokomotiv
2Danny10Dynamo / Zenit
2Eldar Nizamutdinov10Khimki
6Diniyar Bilyaletdinov9 Lokomotiv
7Alan Dzagoev8CSKA
7Fatih Tekke8Zenit
7Anton Bober8 Krylia Sovetov
7Héctor Bracamonte8 Moscow
7Martin Kushev8 Amkar

Awards

On 16 December 2008 Russian Football Union named its list of 33 top players:
;Goalkeepers
  1. Igor Akinfeev
  2. Sergei Ryzhikov
  3. Vyacheslav Malafeev
;Right backs
  1. Aleksandr Anyukov
  2. Cristian Ansaldi
  3. Vasili Berezutskiy
;Right-centre backs
  1. Denis Kolodin
  2. Rodolfo
  3. Dmitri Belorukov
;Left-centre backs
  1. Sergei Ignashevich
  2. Leandro Fernández
  3. Aleksei Popov
;Left backs
  1. Radek Šírl
  2. Aleksei Berezutskiy
  3. Renat Yanbaev
;Defensive midfielders
  1. Anatoliy Tymoschuk
  2. Sergei Semak
  3. Dmitri Khokhlov
;Right wingers
  1. Miloš Krasić
  2. Igor Denisov
  3. Kirill Kombarov
;Central midfielders
  1. Danny
  2. Igor Semshov
  3. Alan Dzagoev
;Left wingers
  1. Yuri Zhirkov
  2. Konstantin Zyryanov
  3. Diniyar Bilyaletdinov
;Right forwards
  1. Vágner Love
  2. Pavel Pogrebnyak
  3. Roman Pavlyuchenko
;Left forwards
  1. Andrei Arshavin
  2. Marko Topić
  3. Gökdeniz Karadeniz

    Medal squads

1. FC Rubin Kazan

Goalkeepers: Sergei Ryzhikov, Sergei Kozko.

Defenders: Cristian Ansaldi , Roman Sharonov, Dato Kvirkvelia , Stjepan Tomas , Lasha Salukvadze , Aleksandr Orekhov, Aleksei Popov, Jefthon , Andrei Fyodorov , Gabriel Atz .

Midfielders: Gökdeniz Karadeniz , Sergei Semak, MacBeth Sibaya , Serhiy Rebrov , Aleksandr Ryazantsev, Christian Noboa , Andrei Kobenko, Yevgeni Balyaikin, Aleksei Rebko, Vagiz Galiullin , Pyotr Gitselov .

Forwards: Hasan Kabze , Aleksandr Bukharov, Roman Adamov, Savo Milošević .
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Manager: Kurban Berdyev.
Transferred out during the season: Gabriel Atz , Pyotr Gitselov , Aleksei Rebko.
2. PFC CSKA Moscow

Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev.

Defenders: Sergei Ignashevich, Vasili Berezutski, Aleksei Berezutski, Deividas Šemberas , Chidi Odiah , Anton Grigoryev.

Midfielders: Miloš Krasić , Yuri Zhirkov, Evgeni Aldonin, Elvir Rahimić , Alan Dzagoev, Caner Erkin , Pavel Mamayev, Dudu , Luboš Kalouda .

Forwards: Vágner Love , Ricardo Jesus , Jô , Dmitri Ryzhov, Ramón , Daniel Carvalho , Dawid Janczyk .

Manager: Valery Gazzaev.
Transferred out during the season: Dudu , Jô , Daniel Carvalho .
3. FC Dynamo Moscow

Goalkeepers: Vladimir Gabulov, Žydrūnas Karčemarskas , Anton Shunin.

Defenders: Leandro Fernández , Denis Kolodin, Jovan Tanasijević , Marcin Kowalczyk , Aleksandr Dimidko, Luke Wilkshire , Vladimir Granat, Arūnas Klimavičius , Nikita Chicherin, Aleksandr Tochilin.

Midfielders: Dmitri Kombarov, Igor Semshov, Dmitri Khokhlov, Kirill Kombarov, Danny , Andrei Karpovich , Aleksandr Denisov.

Forwards: Aleksandr Kerzhakov, Tsvetan Genkov , Aleksandr Kokorin, Fyodor Smolov.
Manager: Andrey Kobelev.
Transferred out during the season:''' Danny , Aleksandr Denisov.