Revenge for lost silver, the battle for leadership and Smolov’s principles: the main intrigues of the match “Krasnodar” - “Lokomotiv”

The key battle in the base zone and the loss of Krasnodar

The match between Krasnodar and Lokomotiv will become central in the seventh round of the RPL and at the same time truly unpredictable. It was difficult to determine the favorite from the beginning, but a small advantage on the rights of the owners was given to the southerners. This was due, among other things, to the fact that the red-greens in a single meeting with a direct competitor at the start of the season lost to CSKA in a slurred game.

However, the unexpected major defeat of the wards of Murad Musaev in Greece called into question their prospects, because such a painful defeat cannot but have a negative impact on any team. Moreover, after the victory over Porto, they expected Galitsky’s club to almost dominate the match with Olympiacos.

Lokomotiv, on the contrary, not only got the opportunity to calmly prepare for the match with a key rival, but it was clearly on the move. In the last three rounds of the RPL, the vice champion won three victories and scored eight goals. Plus, Yuri Semin, unlike Musaev, has a balanced composition, which underwent minimal changes in the summer.

In addition, due to injuries, Krasnodar immediately lost two key performers - Remy Kabella and Alexander Martynovich, who went to an already crowded infirmary. Participation in Ari's match, recovering from an injury, is still in doubt.

We should expect that in the most important game with Loko, Musaev will once again bet on young people and launch fresh Ivan Ignatiev and Magomed-Shapi Suleymanov in the attack, and Kristofer Olsson will come out in the base zone instead of Cabella. Another young pupil of the club - Daniil Utkin, who scored in the last round after coming on as a substitute, may get a chance.

Moreover, it is in the reference zone that the fate of the confrontation should be decided. If the center of the “Krasnodar” field begins to make mistakes, guests can organize a lot of quick attacks, as did the same “Olympiakos”. With the vice-champion of Russia, the hosts will have no less difficulty than with the silver medalist of the Greek championship, because Lokomotiv in the center of the field relies on proven masters.

The unyielding and tenacious Dmitry Barinov, who ousted Igor Denisov himself, and Grzegorz Krykhovyak, who does a huge amount of work and coolly moves the ball to the attack, rule the ball in the supporting zone of the railway workers. Ahead, Yuri Syomin has the Miranchuk brothers, capable of creating serious problems for any opponent at speed. It is not surprising that Lokomotiv is the most productive squad of the championship with 11 goals, but Krasnodar lags behind Muscovites by just one exact blow.

And the southerners missed even less than their opponents - four goals versus five, but the already mentioned absence of Martynovich could be a huge problem for the hosts. Without a captain, the collective defense acted, to put it mildly, not in the best way.

In the reporting match, the fans have the right to wait for high performance and taking into account the history of the confrontation between the teams. In 16 meetings between the rivals there were no goals scored in only one, it ended in a single draw. Three more games ended with the victory of one of the parties with a minimum score, but more often opponents diverged by a difference of two, three, or even more goals.

Attempted revenge for lost silver

On the one hand, “Krasnodar” after the defeat from “Olympiakos” will not be easy, on the other hand, a loss could anger the southerners, who will be eager to rehabilitate themselves. Especially taking into account the fact that the Kubans have practically no chances to continue the fight in the Champions League.

In the RPL, they simply do not have time for blues, because Krasnodar and Lokomotiv are currently the main pursuers of Zenit and are only one point behind it. And both teams, before the break for the matches of the national teams, simply do not have the right to lose points, so as not to lose sight of St. Petersburg.

In this case, an additional incentive for the hosts will be an insulting defeat from Loko last season, which actually left the team without a ticket to the Champions League group stage. At the end of the season, the rivals scored an equal number of points, and the railroad team finished higher only due to the more goals scored on the road in face-to-face meetings.

Moreover, the fateful victory with a minimum score in Cherkizovo wards Semin won thanks to an extremely controversial penalty. It is symbolic that then “Krasnodar” came to Moscow also after failure in European competitions. A few days before, in the 93rd minute of the second leg against Valencia, the Southerners missed the decisive goal and missed the opportunity to break into the quarterfinals of the Europa League.

Old accounts for Kambolov and Smolov

Entering the field of Fyodor Smolov will be no less intriguing, since the striker spent several seasons in the Krasnodar team at once and during that time managed to become a real legend of the club. With 64 goals in all tournaments, the forward of the Russian national team is still the best scorer in the history of southerners. Now he will have the opportunity to upset the former club.

In addition, Fyodor should be motivated by a competition with Luka Djordjevic, who moved to Lokomotiv from Zenit. Recently, Smolov was essentially the only striker of the railroad, if you do not take into account Eder, who scored only on major holidays. However, the arrival of the Montenegrin should additionally charge Smolov, who still hopes to move to Europe.

By the way, it was Fedor, along with Alexander Samedov, who was the top scorer in the confrontation between Lokomotiv and Krasnodar. On the account of both four goals. Three each - in assets with Dame N'Doye and Joaozinho.

Of the other players for whom the battle in Krasnodar will become especially important, it is worth highlighting Ruslan Kambolov. The midfielder is a pupil of Lokomotiv, but spent only 17 matches for his native team. But later, he really revealed himself in Rubin, and then got a chance to try himself in the ambitious Krasnodar. The start of the season was successful for the midfielder, and he quickly became his own in the team. However, the meeting with Olympiacos turned out to be unsuccessful for Ruslan, and he will probably be full of desire to prove that this is only a coincidence.

Ari with Lokomotiv became the champion of the country and the winner of the Russian Cup, although he missed almost six months due to a severe knee injury. As already mentioned, this time his participation in the match is in question due to another damage.