CSKA and Lokomotiv in the spring fully deserved the title of kings of the capital. While Torpedo continues to struggle for survival, and Spartak and Dynamo are extremely unstable, these teams won five victories in the RPL and suffered only one defeat. In the 24th round, they had to determine who is stronger at the moment. For the army team, the match was also important from a tournament point of view, because Rostov, leading the fight for silver with them, beat Ural and in the event of a competitor's misfire, they could go into the lead.

At the same time, the wards of Vladimir Fedotov, unlike the opponent, held a difficult meeting with the Yekaterinburg team in the final of the "RPL Way" of the Russian Cup this week, while the railway workers had the opportunity to calmly prepare for the derby. Artem Dzyuba drew special attention to himself. He must have been eager to upset the Red-Blues, because they had never been a convenient opponent for him. Throughout his career, the striker scored only three goals against them, two of which were in the 2010/11 season.

The Red-Blues also faced personnel problems in the center of defense, as Baktiyor Zainutdinov was injured, and Moises went to Brazil to see his newborn daughter. Under the circumstances, Igor Diveev and Willian Roche were accompanied by the experienced Kirill Nababkin. But Fedotov's decisions to send Jesus Medina to the left lateral position, and Ivan Oblyakov to the attacking trio, aroused more interest. Lokomotiv was also not without losses. Due to disqualification, the main midfielder Artem Karpukas missed the game. In his absence, Mikhail Galaktionov was not afraid to trust 17-year-old Mikhail Shchetinin, who had previously spent a few minutes as a basis. But Sergey Pinyaev, who missed the trip to Orenburg, returned to service.

As a result, Fedotov's reshuffle paid off. Medina regularly received the ball on the left edge and with his activity almost turned off the flank of the opponent's attack. He also became the best in touches of the ball (85), passes under the blow (six) and touches in someone else's penalty area (11), and in dribbles he lost only to Nair Tiknizyan (three against six). Even more useful was Ivan Oblyakov, who opened up well between the lines and regularly created dangerous chances. What is the assist to Anton Zabolotny or another episode involving the striker, when he brought him one-on-one with Ilya Lantratov with a thin pass into the penalty area, but the striker was in a hurry and did not shoot in the best way. Finally, looking ahead, he earned a penalty for his opponent.

At the same time, the match did not start in the best way for the army team. Already in the fourth minute, Pinyaev, after Shchetinin's pass, burst into the penalty area and hit the post in the fight with Willian Rocha. It seemed that difficult times awaited the hosts' defense, and danger would regularly arise on the flanks. However, a serious blow to Lokomotiv was the injury of Pinyaev. The young midfielder was replaced by Mario Mitai in the 20th minute.

CSKA gradually seized the initiative and began to systematically undermine the opponent's defense. It quickly became clear that she lacked reliability. Firstly, Karpukas was noticeably lacking in the defensive zone with his performance. Young Shchetinin tried to catch up everywhere, but only made mistakes. It is not surprising that it was he who did not have time to cover Zabolotny's shot in the episode with the goal. And a couple of central defenders in the person of Stanislav Magkeev and Yegor Pogostnov did not act perfectly. As a result, the CSKA team regularly met with the ball in someone else's penalty area.

Ahead of the railway workers after the departure of Pinyaev also turned out to be a little. Gradually, they fell on throws forward in the direction of Dzyuba. However, the striker was reliably closed by Igor Diveev, who did not allow him to receive the ball and turn around. A couple of times, the top scorer in the history of the RPL still shot on goal, but inaccurately. It is significant that in added time to the first half, he hit the legs of Fedor Chalov out of the blue and received a yellow card.

But most of all, Mitai let down his partners, who managed to earn two "mustard plasters" in just 20 minutes after entering the field. In both episodes, he did not keep track of Oblyakov: first he kept him in the center of the field, and then knocked him down, forced to disrupt the one-on-one exit. After the removal of the Albanian, the red-greens switched to a 4-4-1 formation.

Moreover, immediately after the break, Galaktionov changed Shchetinin, who did not get into the game, for Konstantin Maradishvili. And after an hour of the match, Rifat Zhamaletdinov entered the field instead of the inconspicuous Francois Camano. However, all these castlings did not affect the actions of the red-greens. They still had great difficulty penetrating even into the other half, not to mention the penalty area. And the tired Dzyuba and Glushenkov clung to the ball less and less. It is significant that Pogostnov missed the most dangerous moment until the last minutes. Having dispersed the counterattack, he himself could have completed it at the far post, but failed to adjust to the ball.

But the army men caught courage and carried out one attack after another. They wove combinations in the final third, taking advantage of Lokomotiv's defensive failures. In the second half, the hosts had a lot of chances, but Lantratov kept his team in the game. Ilya recorded two important saves shortly before the final whistle. Moreover, both times the role of assistants in the CSKA squad was played by young players who came on as substitutes. First, Kirill Glebov made a soft pass into the penalty area for Oblyakov, but he failed to send the ball between the goalkeeper's legs. And then Nikita Ermakov brought Jorge Carrascal to strike, but in this episode Lantratov, using hockey terminology, managed to "bring the shields together".

In general, Fedotov's castling turned out to be not indisputable. On the one hand, he removed the tired and hanging on the cards of the leaders from the field and gave the practice to young people. On the other hand, it struck a blow at the established game structure. But the latest substitutions of Galaktionov definitely helped. Dzyuba and Glushenkov gave way to Anton Miranchuk and Wilson Isidor.

Their exit allowed the railroad workers to seize the initiative in the end, when no one believed in them anymore. As a result, one approach was enough for the guests to escape, although they did not deserve it in the game. In the 87th minute, Lokomotiv's first shot on target in this match was struck by Maradishvili, but Igor Akinfeev coped with it.

But the corner kick ended with a completely unexpected goal. Barinov, after Miranchuk's cross, made a discount for Isidor, who calmly shot through Akinfeev from close range. In this episode, Diveev, who lost his opponent, did not play in the best way. In turn, the Frenchman returned to action remarkably, because due to injury he had not entered the field since November, and in the winter he could well leave Russia.

So the railwaymen managed to get away from defeat in the derby, although they scored only two shots on target and possessed the ball 39% of the time. CSKA, on the other hand, interrupted a series of five victories in the RPL and is now four points behind Rostov, which is located on the second line.