Russia’s defeat to Slovenia cost Konstantin Zyryanov (pictured left), Russia’s best midfielder in the FTBL ranking at the moment with a score of 84.67 points, 10 rating points in our system, but the Zenit St. Petersburg man has managed to retain a comfortable lead over #2-ranked Sergey Semak of Rubin Kazan (76.26 points).

Zyryanov will face a combined plank of just 2.7 rating points to beat in his next 2 games and that should be easy to clear, even though Zenit will be playing No 1 and No 2 in the Russian Premier League Rubin Kazan and Spartak Moscow in those games.

In the meantime, Semak could effectively grab the lead in the ranking as early as this coming Saturday, given certain conditions are met. But will that make him the favorite to end the season at the top of the ranking? Let’s remember that Rubin still have Champions League games to play against Dynamo Kyiv and Inter Milan, while Semak has just 4 games left with a combined plank of 33.54 rating points to beat. It is still too early to draw conclusions regarding this particular pitch battle.