Despite losing in extra time, the team from Kazan proved they are ready to reach new heights.

Another dark horse from last season, Amkar, will begin their campaign at home against another premier league rookie, Rostov. Amkar finished fourth in the latest championship and qualified for the UEFA cup.

Dinamo Moscow will be playing against city rivals FC Moscow who stood mid-table in the previous season.

Dynamo finished third last year and earned the right to play in next season's Champions League.

The team sold two key players to Zenit Saint Petersburg, raising nearly 30 million euros.

So despite the fact that Dinamo Moscow has yet to be seen in action, it's safe to say that management had plenty of resources to come up with a winning roster.

“Obviously we want to go for the title this year. But a place in the top three is good too. I know it will be tougher since we are playing in the Champions League as well. But that's a while away, so at this stage I would say that we have our priorities set on the domestic championship,” according to Andrey Kobelev, Dinamo coach.

FC Moscow was welcoming the new football year with three new players and a new coach, Miodrag Bojovic.

The Montenegrin specialist is well known to Russian fans after he took Amkar to a fourth place finish in the premier league.

He will become the third coach of FC Moscow in the last three years, following in the footsteps of Soviet football legend Oleg Blokhin, who failed to find common ground with the club.

“At this point I can say that my team is ready for the championship. I don't know whether we'll finish 5th, 6th, 7th or 8th. But we will try and win every game. Our lineup is already set for the upcoming match against Dynamo so I don't expect any surprises nor do I have any predictions. They finished third last year and that say's a lot,” Miodrag Bojovic said.

And finally the opening game of the season will be held in Moscow between Lokomotiv and Khimki. Loko ended last year in a disappointing seventh place.

“I'm satisfied with what we've done during our training camps. Of course, not everything went as planned. Sometimes the weather was bad, but we achieved everything we'd planned before the pre-season. I think Lokomotiv can definitely improve upon last year's 7th place,” Rashid Rahimov said.

While Khimki barely survived relegation, the team from the Moscow Region have high expectations for the new season after signing new head coach Konstantin Sarsanya.