Lokomotiv is struggling to survive: before this round, it is ranked 12th, surpassed by Pari NN only by additional metrics. In the first part of the championship, Lokomotiv played very poorly – in 17 matches, it scored only 13 points, but after the resumption of the championship, Loko already won 2 matches. First, the railwaymen confidently defeated Rostov by a score of 3:1, where the team’s newcomer Artem Dzyuba scored a hat-trick, and then Lokomotiv won against Akhmat (1:0) in Grozny, although during the first half remained in the minority, and at the beginning of the second half lost another player due to removal. Lokomotiv played their last game in the Russian Cup, where they unexpectedly lost on penalties to Akron, a representative of the first league.
Krasnodar looks quite confident now. In the off-season, his main coach was replaced – this position was taken by the Serbian specialist Vladimir Ivic, who has shown himself quite successfully so far. The Krasnodar club resumed the championship with a home match against Torpedo, in which they drew (2:2), although they deserved 3 points in the match. Then, at their own stadium, Krasnodar confidently dealt with Dynamo Moscow (3:1), showing bright offensive football. Then, as part of the Russian Cup, they beat Akhmat away (3-0), which proves the good form of the team. Before this round, Krasnodar is in 7th place, but it can move up in the table: the loss to 4th place is only 3 points.
Both teams are presenting a good game after the break, achieving satisfactory results, so they intend to continue to score points. I can’t pick a favourite, so I bet on the number of goals. I think it’s going to be a productive match: both teams have a lot of great attacking players who can be content with scoring goals.