FC Rubin Kazan will hope to overcome FC Sturm Graz on the home pitch today as the teams meet in the third qualifying round of the Europa League.

      A week ago, FC Sturm Graz came back twice but was unable to hold on to a draw against FC Rubin Kazan which managed to come out as winners in an away match in Austria. Rinat Bilyaletdinov will have a hard time back home trying to secure a spot in the next round of the Europa League.

      Elsewhere, FC Krasnodar scored two goals to beat Slovan Bratislava in the first leg of the Europa League. You can watch the goals here.

      Krasnodar is not in its best shape at the beginning of the season. It won 1-0 against FC Amkar in the first round but then lost 0-1 to Spartak Moscow in Gameweek 2.

      Earlier, Russia-IC reported that Dmitry Torbinsky signed a three-year contract with FC Krasnodar, which finished third this season. He is supposed to help the team led by Oleg Kononov to fill the gaps after Roman Shirokov went back to Spartak Moscow.

      In an interview with the daily Sovetsky Sport, Torbinsky called Krasnodar a top class team and said he was happy to join the side where everything is in place, including the infrastructure, resources and engaged management.

      Torbinsky will move from Rostov, where he played in 32 games since July 2014, to the city of Krasnodar.

      Torbinski made his debut in the Russian national team on 24 March 2007 in a game againstEstonia and was called up to play for Russia in UEFA Euro 2008.

      Torbinski came on as a substitute in the quarter-finals in a match against the Netherlands and scored a goal in extra-time to put Russia 2–1 ahead. Russia eventually won 3–1 advancing to the semi-finals. (Wikipedia)

      Krasnodar, however, refused to sign Andrey Arshavin whose contract with FC Zenit St Petersburg ended this summer. Arshavin later joined FC Kuban, a rival of FC Krasnodar.

      On Tuesday, CSKA Moscow put on a disappointing performance in a key qualifier against Sparta Prague as the Russian pundits expected nothing but success from a coach tipped to become Fabio Capello’s successor.

      Sparta tied the game twice under a hard rain, both times within minutes of the goals scored by Alan Dzagoyev and Zoran Tosic.

      CSKA Moscow were considered to be favorites in the first leg of the Champions League qualifiers while Leonid Slutsky is widely touted as the new head coach for the national team.

      Slutsky has stayed with CSKA since October 2009.