Goals by Zule and Shupo-Moting and the rescue of Guilherme: how Lokomotiv lost to Bayern in the Champions League

Hope for a miracle

By the last round of the European group stage, Lokomotiv was the only Russian team that was not devoid of tournament motivation.

The railroad workers retained the opportunity to take third place in the Champions League quartet A and continue their performance in the Europa League playoffs. 

However, for this, the red-greens needed to practically perform a miracle - to beat the current winner of the Bavaria trophy on the road.

Plus, it was necessary for Salzburg to lose to Atlético.

On the one hand, after the Munich players guaranteed themselves a ticket to the 1/8 finals of the main European Cup, they put up a reserve squad for the away match against Atlético.

On the other hand, even without a number of leaders, Hans-Dieter Flick's charges took points away from the highly motivated Atletico, equalizing the score in the last minutes - 1: 1. 

That is why Nikolic before the game bluntly stated that in Munich his players need to "do a little miracle."

It is noteworthy that 25 years ago Lokomotiv already succeeded.

Then the railway workers under the leadership of Yuri Semin crossed with Bavaria at the stage of the first round of the UEFA Cup and took away from Germany a sensational victory with a minimum score.

True, in the return match, Loko conceded five unanswered goals and flew out of European cups. 

But already under Nikolic, the red-greens at the end of October looked decent in the confrontation with the grandee and almost took the points from him - 1: 2.

The Russian team came up to the next meeting with the German team with serious losses, which, however, have become commonplace.

Mikhail Lysov, Dmitry Barinov, Ze Luis and Fyodor Smolov were not included in the application due to injuries.

In addition, he missed the game due to the busting of Murilo's yellow cards.

Moreover, Grzegorz Krykhovyak, Vitaly Lisakovich, Daniil Kulikov and Maxim Mukhin were not included in the application.

According to RB-Sport, this turned out to be due to questionable tests of football players for coronavirus.

Taking into account numerous losses, Nikolic decided not to repeat the mistakes of the last round and returned to the alignment with two central defenders (the duet of Vedranu Corluke was made by Slobodan Rajkovic).

At the same time, the coach saturated the center of the field as much as possible, releasing Anton Miranchuk, Stanislav Makgeev, Vladislav Ignatiev, François Camano and Dmitry Rybchinsky.

And Eder was at the forefront of the attack.

But there was practically no one to release to replace the coaching staff.

There were only five people in the reserve: two goalkeepers, Anton Kochenkov and Andrei Savin, central defender Vitaly Lystsov and very young Nikita Iosifov and Alexander Silyanov.  

In turn, Flick, as expected, released a mixed lineup.

In particular, Robert Lewandowski, David Alaba, Lucas Hernandez, Josua Kimmich, Xavi Martinez and Coranten Tolisso did not make it into the application.

And Benjamin Pavar, Serge Gnabry and Kingsley Coman remained on the bench.

But from the first minutes, Thomas Muller, Manuel Neuer and Alfonso Davis, who recovered from the injury, entered the field.

Confident first half from Lokomotiv

From the first minutes it became clear exactly how Lokomotiv was going to stop the venerable opponent.

The railwaymen acted as carefully as possible on the flanks, not allowing the fast and technical Leroy Zana and Douglas Costa to scatter.

Dmitry Zhivoglyadov and Ignatiev acted on the right edge, and Maciej Rybus and Rybchinsky on the left. 

There was only one Makgeev in the guests' support zone, but Miranchuk and Kamano sat down to him when the opponent was attacking.

Thus, Nikolic's wards fell behind the ball line with almost the whole team, with the exception of Eder, who was waiting for the clearances ahead in order to catch the ball and throw it off to his partners. 

Lokomotiv's scheme worked completely in the first half.

Bayern were in possession of the ball, but practically did not penetrate into someone else's penalty area, and if they did hit the goal, then from a long distance and off target.

She worked well for the Russian team and a safety net.

In particular, Zane controlled on the right flank, and through the left Munich they soon stopped attacking altogether.

It was not often that the ball reached Muller, and Eric Chupo-Moting was lost on the field. 

Only after half an hour of the meeting, the hosts managed to strike the first shot on target.

Costa moved from the right flank to the center and shot from the penalty line directly into the hands of Marinato Guilherme.

Lokomotiv responded with a promising attack.

The guests ran away at speed to the other's goal, and Jerome Boateng allowed Rybus to shoot from the left corner of the penalty area.

Neuer deflected the shell with his fists. 

A minute later, the Munich team missed their most dangerous moment in the first half.

Müller received the ball from Davis and shot from 15 yards into the near corner, but missed the target a little.

In general, Loko did not slow down closer to the break, but, on the contrary, began to take the ball under its own control.

In particular, in one of the episodes Zhivoglyadov on the right flank mockingly easily beat Davis, but his canopy did not reach the goal. 

Bavaria class

The second half of the meeting turned out to be much more difficult for the guests.

Munich not only controlled the ball, but more often brought the matter to shots.

The fresh Serge Gnabry instead of Mueller also helped. 

Already in the 50th minute, the hosts almost opened the scoring after a corner.

Tall Niklas Zyula was allowed to calmly shoot almost from the goalkeeper's line, but Guilherme competently took a position on the line and parried the shot. 

The team was saved by a naturalized Brazilian and in a couple of more episodes.

At 54, he was on the alert after hitting Shupo-Moting from close range with his heel, and then made an incredible save.

Guilherme managed to deflect Gnabry's shot in the opposite direction with his foot in the style of Igor Akinfeev.

On finishing the attack, the striker, shocked by such a rescue, did not hit the target himself.

However, after an hour of play, Bayern managed to open an account.

And again, at the corner feed, the railway workers did not keep track of Zyule.

Niklas calmly outplayed Chorluka in single combat and sent the projectile into the far corner.

This time Guilherme was powerless.

It seemed that, having conceded, Lokomotiv would end the resistance, because Nikolic had practically no opportunity to refresh the game, and his players had less strength left.

However, the railway workers spent the penultimate ten minutes relatively actively.

The replacement of 19-year-old Nikita Iosifov instead of Kamano helped.

As soon as he appeared on the field, the young footballer received an excellent pass on the move and ran almost one-on-one with Neuer, but, frightened by his own agility, struck him right in the hands.

And shortly before that, Rybus almost sent the ball into the far corner from the free kick.

Lokomotiv's hope for a positive outcome finally died only in the 80th minute, when Bayern scored the second goal.

And again, the substitute Gnabry played in the best way, who gave a subtle pass to Shupo-Motingu.

Cameroonian with a powerful blow almost broke the net. 

Thus, the railroad workers have completed their performance in European competitions this season.

In their group, they could not even climb to third place.

Nevertheless, they managed to break the world twice with Atlético and look worthy in the matches against Bayern.

The home defeat against Salzburg was decisive.