1998 season
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1998 in Russian football was marked by Spartak Moscow's sixth national title.

National team

Russia national football team began their qualification for the Euro 2000.

Date Venue Opponents Score1 Competition Russia scorers Match Report
18 February 1998 Olympic Stadium, Athens (A)  Greece 1–1 F Igor Kolyvanov RussiaTeam
25 March 1998 Dynamo Stadium, Moscow (H)  France 1–0 F Sergey Yuran RussiaTeam
22 April 1998 Lokomotiv Stadium, Moscow (H)  Turkey 1–0 F Vladimir Beschastnykh RussiaTeam
27 May 1998 Silesia Stadium, Chorzów (A)  Poland 1–3 F Aleksey Gerasimenko RussiaTeam
30 May 1998 Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi (A)  Georgia 1–1 F Igor Simutenkov RussiaTeam
19 August 1998 Eyravallen, Örebro (A)  Sweden 0–1 F RussiaTeam
10 October 1998 Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow (H)  France 2–3 ECQ Igor Yanovskiy, Aleksandr Mostovoi uefa
14 October 1998 Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavík (A)  Iceland 0–1 ECQ uefa
18 November 1998 Estádio Plácido Castelo, Fortaleza (A)  Brazil 1–5 ECQ Oleg Kornaukhov RussiaTeam
  1. Russia score given first
Key

Leagues

The Russian league system underwent reorganization for the 1998 season. The "leagues" were renamed "divisions". The Second Division was extended to six zones with 16-22 teams (compared to three zones of the Second League), while the Third League was abolished. These changes reduced the number of levels in Russian professional football to three.

Top Division

Main article: 1998 Russian Top Division
Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation
1 Spartak Moscow (C) 30 17 8 5 58 27 +31 59 Qualification to Champions League third qualifying round
2 CSKA Moscow 30 17 5 8 50 22 +28 56 Qualification to Champions League second qualifying round
3 Lokomotiv Moscow 30 16 7 7 45 28 +17 55 Qualification to UEFA Cup qualifying round
4 Rotor Volgograd 30 12 12 6 52 37 +15 48
5 Zenit St. Petersburg 30 12 11 7 42 25 +17 47 Qualification to UEFA Cup first round
6 Rostselmash 30 11 11 8 42 38 +4 44 Qualification to Intertoto Cup second round
7 Uralan Elista 30 12 6 12 39 41 −2 42
8 Alania Vladikavkaz 30 11 7 12 46 39 +7 40
9 Dynamo Moscow 30 8 15 7 31 30 +1 39
10 Chernomorets Novorossiysk 30 9 11 10 38 38 0 38
11 Torpedo Moscow[a] 30 9 10 11 38 34 +4 37
12 Krylia Sovetov Samara 30 9 8 13 25 37 −12 35
13 Zhemchuzhina Sochi 30 9 8 13 31 48 −17 35
14 Shinnik Yaroslavl 30 9 8 13 30 40 −10 35
15 Baltika Kaliningrad (R) 30 7 11 12 32 43 −11 32 Relegation to First Division
16 Tyumen[b] (R) 30 2 2 26 17 89 −72 8
Source: rsssf.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:
  1. ^ FC Torpedo-Luzhniki Moscow renamed to FC Torpedo
  2. ^ FC Dynamo-Gazovik Tyumen renamed to FC Tyumen

First Division

Main article: 1998 Russian First Division

Saturn won the First Division, winning their first promotion to the Top Division. Runners-up Lokomotiv Nizhny Novgorod made their return to the top flight.

Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Promotion or relegation
1 Saturn Ramenskoye (P) 42 24 12 6 73 34 +39 84 Promotion to Top Division
2 Lokomotiv N.N. (P) 42 23 8 11 65 34 +31 77
3 Sokol Saratov[a] 42 21 13 8 58 32 +26 76
4 Kristall Smolensk[b] 42 23 3 16 59 47 +12 72
5 Arsenal Tula 42 18 11 13 65 53 +12 65
6 Lada-Grad Dimitrovgrad 42 19 7 16 65 63 +2 64
7 Rubin Kazan 42 19 6 17 56 50 +6 63
8 Dynamo Stavropol 42 16 15 11 51 37 +14 63
9 Gazovik-Gazprom Izhevsk 42 18 6 18 53 58 −5 60
10 Fakel Voronezh 42 17 9 16 54 45 +9 60
11 Anzhi Makhachkala 42 17 6 19 47 56 −9 57
12 Metallurg Lipetsk 42 16 8 18 41 50 −9 56
13 Lokomotiv Chita 42 16 8 18 57 50 +7 56[c]
14 Tom Tomsk 42 15 11 16 54 45 +9 56
15 Spartak Nalchik 42 15 11 16 49 52 −3 56
16 Lokomotiv St. Petersburg 42 14 11 17 38 41 −3 53
17 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk (R) 42 15 7 20 44 56 −12 52 Qualification for Promotion play-offs
18 Druzhba Maykop (R) 42 13 11 18 45 55 −10 50 Relegation to Second Division
19 Lada-Togliatti-VAZ Togliatti (R) 42 15 9 18 52 70 −18 48[d]
20 Kuban Krasnodar (R) 42 10 13 19 42 68 −26 43
21 Irtysh Omsk (R) 42 11 8 23 36 58 −22 41
22 KAMAZ-Chally Naberezhnye Chelny (R) 42 7 5 30 32 82 −50 26
Source: RSSSF
(P) Promoted; (R) Relegated
Notes:
  1. ^ FC Sokol-PZhD Saratov renamed to FC Sokol.
  2. ^ FC CSK VVS-Kristall Smolensk renamed to FC Kristall after playing 6 games.
  3. ^ FC Lokomotiv Chita awarded 5 home wins.
  4. ^ FC Lada-Togliatti-VAZ Togliatti deducted 6 points and awarded 1 home win.

Brazil Andradina of Arsenal became the top goalscorer with 27 goals.

Second Division

Of six clubs that finished first in their respective Second Division zones, five with the best records were promoted to the First Division, and one went to a promotion/relegation playoff.

The clubs promoted automatically were

Torpedo-ZIL won the play-off and were promoted to the First Division at the expense of Neftekhimik.

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
FC Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 1–3 FC Torpedo-ZIL Moscow (West) 1–1 0–2

Cup

The Russian Cup was won by Spartak Moscow, who beat Lokomotiv Moscow 1–0 in the final.

UEFA club competitions

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1997-98

Lokomotiv Moscow reached the semifinal of the 1997–98 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. They eliminated AEK Athens in the quarterfinal but were stopped by VfB Stuttgart in the semifinal.

UEFA Cup 1997-98

Spartak Moscow reached the semifinal of the 1997–98 UEFA Cup after beating Ajax Amsterdam in both quarterfinal matches. However, in the semifinal Internazionale Milano F.C. won both matches against Spartak 2–1.

UEFA Intertoto Cup 1998

Two Russian clubs played in the UEFA Intertoto Cup 1998, both being eliminated in the third round. Baltika Kaliningrad recorded victories over PFC Spartak Varna and OD Trencin before facing FK Vojvodina, and Shinnik Yaroslavl, who had a bye to the second round, defeated Turun Palloseura before being knocked out by Valencia CF.

UEFA Champions League 1998-99

Spartak Moscow qualified for the group stage of the 1998–99 UEFA Champions League by defeating PFC Litex Lovech with an aggregate score of 11–2. Spartak finished third in Group C with Internazionale Milano F.C., Real Madrid, and SK Sturm Graz.

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1998-99

Lokomotiv Moscow began their way to the 1998–99 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup semifinal by eliminating Arsenal Kyiv and SC Braga in the first two rounds.

UEFA Cup 1998-99

Rotor Volgograd were eliminated after the second qualifying round of 1998–99 UEFA Cup, losing twice to Red Star Belgrade. Dynamo Moscow were more successful, winning on aggregate against Polonia Warszawa in the second qualifying round and against Skonto FC in the first round. Their campaign ended after two losses to Real Sociedad in the second round.

References

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