The calendar of the Russian championship indulges us with a derby in every round. This time it was the turn of CSKA and Lokomotiv. Not so long ago, their face-to-face meetings were usually battles for the title, and at one time it was even an official gold match, but times have changed. Today, the army men stand firmer on their feet. Under the leadership of Alexei Berezutsky, the team is slowly progressing and in this segment of the championship is fighting with fellow countrymen from Dynamo for the second line in the table. Three victories in three matches after the winter break over Spartak, Sochi in the Cup and Nizhny Novgorod showed that CSKA had a successful transfer campaign: newcomers, especially the Turks Yazici and the Colombians Carrascal, moved to Krasnoy in just a couple of games. Army. The Blues, as if they had been played for them since the beginning of the season.
In Lokomotiv, everything is about the opposite. The era of Zorn, Rangnick and the German headquarters began with statements about inevitable successes on all fronts, but life decreed otherwise. The plans went to waste, Rangnik fled to Manchester United, in the winter the club that replaced him Gizdol left just as suddenly, and now it’s not even entirely clear who exactly trains the “railroad workers”: club legends Dmitry Loskov and Oleg Pashinin? Or is it another, this time completely unknown foreigner Marvin Compper? Loko chaotically returned to the season: they received a sensational defeat from Enisey in the Cup and hardly won the match against the last team of the RPL Khimki, almost hitting a penalty. that he will not be able to play in the Cup, where the score was even worse than the “technical” 0:3, but Loko was lucky - the question from the cards from the championship of the Czech Republic was clearly not enough. But the same Jan Kuhta, who was called upon to compensate for the departure of Smolov and Lisakovich, showed his best on the field, as did Kerk with Isidor, who also scored a goal.
The army team looks like the clear favorites, although the statistics of the last face-to-face meetings with Loko are horrendous - five defeats in a row, which means it's time to fix it. Recently, CSKA has improved, while Lokomotiv lost, dropping to 6th place. In terms of betting, it is important that CSKA is the best team in the league in terms of the number of goals conceded: only 16 in 20 matches. Lokomotiv also has problems with the squad: the experienced goalkeeper and team leader Guilherme did not have time to return to action for the match, he will apparently be replaced by Daniil Khudyakov again, Magkeev and Anton Miranchuk are injured, and Barinov and Zhivoglyadov are forced to play. from their positions. The picture for Loko is bleak.