Zenit St. Petersburg’s Russian international Igor Denisov added 13.66 rating points to his overall FTBL score after Russia defeated Slovenia 2:1 in the first leg of their World Cup 2010 playoff yesterday to claim the 3rd spot in the FTBL ranking of Russian midfielders.

For playing the entire game without substitution and for the victory, Denisov got the entire bonus in the FTBL system. He went into the game with a low plank of just 1.98 rating points to beat, and the victory allowed him to climb high in the ranking, to 3rd place.

In the 3 games remaining before the end of the Russian season, Denisov will have to “defend” a little over 11 rating points. Yet that might prove hard: after the return leg against Slovenia, Denisov will return to Zenit to play Rubin Kazan, the leaders in the Russian Premier League at the moment, before a clash with No 2 Spartak Moscow. We will refrain here from any predictions.