The match between Lokomotiv and Dynamo could in many ways become decisive in terms of the struggle for European cups. But if the railway workers continued to fight for a ticket to the Champions League, then their opponents could rather count on getting into the Conference League. Sandro Schwartz's charges were six points behind Sochi, which was fourth, but had a meeting in reserve. Thus, in the derby, both teams needed only a victory, while a draw could make their position extremely difficult.
Perhaps it was the high cost of a mistake, coupled with difficult weather conditions, that contributed to the fact that the first half was not rich in events. It was clearly uncomfortable for the players to combine in the pouring rain, as a result of which the number of losses and errors increased sharply. So, in the first 45 minutes, Lokomotiv players accurately performed only 68% of the passes - the worst indicator in the second part of the championship, and also only once disturbed the Dynamo goalkeeper. And this is especially surprising, because there were plenty of reasons to shoot on goal more often. During the warm-up, the main goalkeeper of the blue-and-white Anton Shunin was injured, and he was replaced by Igor Leshchuk, who has no constant practice.
Dynamo also could not please with productivity. Yes, things were a little better with passes (71%), and the total number of shots looked more impressive (four). The problem is that the ball never reached Marinato Guilherme. Two attempts were found to be inaccurate, and the rest were blocked. At the same time, Konstantin Tyukavin looked unusually dull. For the entire time, the young forward touched the ball only 17 times, and even then only outside the penalty area.
The most striking episode of the first half of the meeting took place in the very ending. Ze Luis sent François Camano to the breakthrough, but he unexpectedly lost the race to Ivan Ordets. The Ukrainian defender closed the ball with his body and was already preparing to give a pass back to Leshchuk, when he fell onto the lawn and with an awkward movement led the opponent into an empty net. The winger of Lokomotiv easily ferried the ball into the net, but referee Pavel Kukuyan consulted with the video assistant and did not count the goal. On the replay, it was clearly visible how the Guinean held the opponent by the shoulder, thereby breaking the rules.
Unsurprisingly, during the break, both mentors decided to make line-up changes. Unlike his colleague, Marko Nikolic was forced to use one substitution during the first half, when Vladislav Ignatiev was injured. But this did not stop him from releasing two fresh players at once before the start of the second. Kamano and Rifat Zhemaletdinov went to rest, and instead Fyodor Smolov and Anton Miranchuk came out.
Schwartz limited himself to only one permutation, replacing Tyukavin with Vyacheslav Grulev. However, this did not have a positive effect on the play of the blue and white. Yes, they still tried to act in a speedy manner and often gave the opponent problems with their raids on the flanks, but in the final stage of the attack they experienced difficulties. During the entire match, they performed 32 serves into the penalty area (three times more than the opponent), but none of them led to a shot on target for Guilherme. This is especially surprising, because in the previous three meetings, Dynamo harassed the opponent's goalkeeper at least eight times.
As a result of the meeting, the indicator of expected goals for Dynamo was equal to 0.45.
The last time they were so unconvincing on offense was in November 2020, when they parted ways with Spartak.
Then xG was 0.49, which did not prevent the blue and white from hitting the gate of Alexander Maksimenko.
Lokomotiv, on the other hand, drew conclusions from their unsuccessful performance in the first half, demonstrating significant progress in the second.
Of course, the absence of the disqualified Grzegorz Krychowiak still seriously affected the game of the red-greens, but dangerous moments began to arise regularly at the Dynamo goal.
But on this day, luck was on the side of the guests.
First, Murilo struck the post after Miranchuk's pass from the flank, and then Leshchuk made an incredible save.
The 25-year-old goalkeeper miraculously reacted to the strike of Ze Luis with his head at close range and moved the ball to the crossbar.
It is worth noting that the episode with the participation of the ex-forward of "Spartak" arose a few seconds after Ordets was sent off the field for a second yellow card. Left with ten men, Schwartz's wards were forced to focus on defending their own goal and only occasionally thought of counterattacks. Suffice it to say that in the last 15 minutes they have shot only once on goal.
Lokomotiv tried their best to snatch three points, but in the end they did not succeed. Substitute Smolov chalked up three hits, but none of them reached the target. Fedor was very focused on the gate, and in one of the episodes he was even ready to break the rules, just to go to a rendezvous with Leshchuk. However, the judge noticed that the forward played along with his hand. Stanislav Magkeev missed the last chance to score. He shot tightly from outside the penalty area, but missed a little into the far corner.
Lokomotiv and Dynamo did not reveal a winner in the 29th round of the Russian football championship, which hardly satisfied at least one of the teams. The railroad workers, although they caught up on points with Spartak (both - 53), but on Monday they can drop to the third line. For this, Domenico Tedesco's wards will only need to beat the Premier League debutant Khimki. The blue and white scored 47 points and caught up with CSKA, but could not get close to Rubin and Sochi (52).