Rubin Kazan appointed Franck Artiga to the position of head coach in the winter of last year, ending its partnership with Rashid Rakhimov. The Kazan club decided to change its development direction, and it seemed they had not made a bad call. In the spring portion of the last championship Rubin became the scourge of the favorites, delivering a long unbeaten streak and finishing eighth in the standings. In the summer the team underwent its first full training camps under the guidance of the Spanish coach, but the results have not yet been good. The team's leading striker Mirlind Daku moved to Moscow, for whom Spartak paid a transfer fee of 11 million euros. Overall, Rubin's decision to part ways with the Albanian was influenced not only by the substantial transfer fee but also by the results of spring 2026. At that time Daku was injured, but the Kazan club kept scoring and collecting points reliably. The new season for Artiga's team began with one defeat in five games, but there is little for the Spanish coach to boast about yet. The fact is that there is also only one win. In the last round Rubin tragically dropped two points, conceding to Baltika in Kaliningrad 30 seconds before the final whistle. Such an incident provoked a storm of anger from Artiga, who urged the players to maintain concentration until the end of the matches. Undoubtedly, Rubin is the favorite for the upcoming match, but the opponent arrives with a distinctive character. Vadim Evseev joined Dynamo Makhachkala around the same period as the Spanish coach joined Rubin. Since then, the Dagestani side's play has transformed. Evseev does not differentiate between away and home games, or between strong and weak opponents. Dynamo under his leadership seeks to take the initiative in every match—regardless of external conditions. The match against Krasnodar in the last round was the first of seven games played by the Dagestanis this season in which they failed to score. A side effect of Evseev's strategy and varied tactics is that in these seven matches the Dynamo players have not kept a clean sheet even once. The last head-to-head meeting between the opponents took place on February 28, 2026, produced goals for both sides and gave Dynamo a 2:1 victory. Probably the upcoming Rubin–Dynamo match will also be high-scoring.