It's always a grudge match when Spartak meet CSKA - but this weekend's Moscow "superderby" means more than most.

Spartak go into the crunch clash knowing nothing less than victory will do as they hope to clinch their first league title since 2001.

The Red-and-Whites currently trail leaders and defending champions Rubin Kazan by four points with two games left - but with the Tatar side facing a tricky fixture against Zenit St. Petersburg the title race could be blown wide-open again.

Spartak fans have been going nuts for their Brazilian stars Welliton and Alex, with 31 goals between them, but much of the team's success since Valery Karpin took over has been built on emerging youngsters like Pavel Yakovlev, Nikita Bazhenov and Zhano Ananidze.

Meanwhile CSKA have more than local bragging rights to worry about. The Army Men, now under their third coach of a troubled season, are two points adrift of FK Moskva and Lokomotiv in the race for Europe.

And Leonid Slutsky's team will be out to avenge a 2-1 defeat earlier in the season and appease an increasingly disgruntled fanbase, while his troop of young players have a chance to prove that the club's revised philosophy of investing in youth is a genuine strategic plan and not merely a cost-cutting measure.

By the end of last week more than 36,000 tickets had already been sold for the game, which takes place at the 78,000-seater Luzhniki arena. Tickets are still available from the stadium ticket office (m. Sportivnaya), with the cheapest available seats costing 300 roubles.

The derby day action doesn't stop there - Dinamo, languishing in midtable, will be out to derail Lokomotiv's push for Europe at Arena Khimki.

The Railwaymen haven't given up hope of third place, though they trail Zenit by two points and have Moskva in close attendance.

Meanwhile Dinamo, with the influential likes of Denis Kolodin and Alexander Kerzhakov fit again, showed signs of recovering from their mid-season slump in an emphatic win over Spartak Nalchik last time out.

For Loko, Dmitry Sychyov is the key man with 11 goals this season and in recent weeks he's started adding long-range screamers to his traditional repertoire of tap-ins.

How they stand

                                                   P          W        D         L          Pts

Rubin Kazan                                  28       18       5          5          59

Spartak Moscow                            28       17       4          7          55

Zenit SPB                                     28       14       8          6          50

FK Moskva                                    28       13       9          6          48

Lokomotiv Msc                              28       13       9          6          48

CSKA Moskva                                28       14       4          10       46

Saturn Msc Reg                             28       12       6          10       42

Dinamo Moscow                            28       11       6          11       39

Krylya Sovietov                             28       10       6          12       36

Tom Tomsk                                 28       9          8          11       35

Terek Grozny                               28       9          6          13       33

FK Rostov                                    28       7          10       11       31

Amkar Perm                                 28       7          8          13       29

Spartak Nalchik                             28       6          11       11       29

Kuban Krasnodar                           28       5          10       13       25

FK Khimki                                     28       2          4          22       10