Translated material
Victory off schedule
Lokomotiv won without Dmitry Loskov
Anatoly Byshovets will be in a good mood preparing for the fundamental and in many ways determining Sunday's championship match with CSKA. Yesterday, in the rescheduled match of the 19th round, his Lokomotiv beat Khimki near Moscow (2:1) and rose to fifth place in the standings. And he did it without Dmitry Loskov, who was sold to Saturn.Lokomotiv played the match of the 19th round in advance because of the Russian Railways Cup. In August, Real Madrid, Milan and PSV will come to Moscow for Railway Worker's Day to compete for a new trophy in a couple of days. The whole idea will cost Lokomotiv 8 million euros. As stated by the chairman of the club's board of directors, Sergei Lipatov, this amount also includes fees to participants.
These expenses, however, do not prevent the “railroad workers” from making extensive plans for the additional application campaign. Yesterday, French media reported that Lille striker Peter Odemwingie, who had been negotiating with Spartak for quite some time and even specially came to the red-white training camp to meet head coach Stanislav Cherchesov, would be sold to Lokomotiv. The sum of 10 million euros that was offered to Lille by Loko is unlikely to be outbid by any of the other contenders for the Nigerian national team forward with a Russian passport. Cherchesov, for example, in response to this news yesterday said that Spartak is not going to participate in any auctions.
And yesterday’s match in Khimki showed that Lokomotiv needs to strengthen the attacking line. Byshovets, for some reason, did not include Dmitry Sychev in the starting line-up - maybe he was heading to CSKA. And Malkhaz Asatiani, whom previous Lokomotiv coaches almost always used as a central defender, unexpectedly appeared in attack paired with Traore.
The coaching move worked: it was this pair that managed to open the scoring. In the middle of the first half, Kantsedalov threw Asatiani into the gap from the center of the field, he picked up the ball, moved forward, and then, without being greedy, passed the ball to his partner on the empty goal. Traore just had to put his foot up - 1:0.
In fact, Asatiani’s services would be in demand in defense as well. Lokomotiv could not boast of impenetrable defensive formations before: in 15 matches they conceded 19 goals - only outsider Rostov had more. The 20th goal from Khimki further worsened the statistical indicators of Byshovets’ team. This goal, scored in the middle of the second half, turned out to be the final chord that crowned the siege organized by the home team. Italian Loko goalkeeper Ivan Pelizzoli, who made his debut in the championship, coped with several shots, including from Arkhipov at point-blank range. Once the visitors were saved from Zabelyan's excellent long-range strike by the post. But in the end, Pelizzoli failed to save his goal: after a corner, Antipenko, heading the ball into the net, still upset the Italian - 1:1.
For the remaining half-time, both teams thought about how to maintain this score. The debutants of the Premier League were flattered not to lose to the favorites, and Lokomotiv, it seems, was pleased even with such a draw on a foreign field. But a slightly clumsy attack in the last seconds of the match allowed Byshovets’ team more. In the chaos at Berezovsky's goal, Rodolfo managed to drive the ball into the net with a rebound from the goalkeeper, and the guests achieved an illogical victory - 2:1. Lokomotiv was still able to win the first match after the official divorce from the former team captain Dmitry Loskov.
Russian Championship. Match of the 19th round. "Khimki" - "Lokomotiv" - 1:2 (Antipenko 68 - Traore 33, Rodolfo 90) .
Premier League
| 1. Zenit | 16 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 26--19 | 30 |
| 2. Spartak M | 16 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 20--15 | 29 |
| 3. Dynamo | 16 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 21--15 | 25 |
| 4. "Moscow" | 15 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 15--11 | 24 |
| 5. "Lokomotiv" | 16 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 20--20 | 23 |
| 6. “Wings of the Soviets” | 16 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 18--18 | 22 |
| 7. CSKA | 16 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 18--15 | 22 |
| 8. "Ruby" | 15 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 15--16 | 20 |
| 9. "Beam-Energy" | 16 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 16--17 | 19 |
| 10. "Tom" | 16 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 20--19 | 19 |
| 11. Khimki | 17 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 18--18 | 19 |
| 12. "Amkar" | 16 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 15--15 | 19 |
| 13. "Spartak" N | 16 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 14--18 | 18 |
| 14. "Kuban" | 16 | 3 | 9 | 4 | 13--17 | 18 |
| 15. "Saturn" | 15 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 14--16 | 17 |
| 16. "Rostov" | 16 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 11--24 | 10 |