On Saturday, in the match of the 15th round of the Russian Premier League, the fans were waiting for another metropolitan derby. This time, the Lokomotiv, which is experiencing hard times, received the stalled CSKA. Both teams really needed a victory, and therefore an uncompromising felling could be safely predicted.

For a number of players, the derby had a special principle. Maksim Mukhin, who started his career at Loko, now defends the colors of CSKA, and ex-soldiers Nayair Tiknizyan and Konstantin Maradishvili, in a dispute with former teammates, had to defend the honor of the railwaymen.

Photo: © Alexey Eremin / Match TV

It was the former CSKA player Maradishvili who became one of the most prominent on the field in the first half of the match. In the 16th minute, the midfielder strained Igor Akinfeev with a long-range shot. It would seem that an unpromising attack from such a position could take another goalkeeper by surprise. However, the highly experienced guard of the “red-blue” goal did not lose his head here.

In the middle of the half, Maradishvili was again in the spotlight – the partners brought the 22-year-old midfielder on a date with Akinfeev, Konstantin lost another duel to his senior colleague. To protect the gate, Igor used his legendary leg, through which Konstantin did not dare to throw the ball for some reason.

In the interval between two full-time disputes between the goalkeeper and his former partner at the other end of the field, the main episode of the match took place. Ivan Oblyakov demonstrated that in CSKA there is someone who can hit hard from a distance. The midfielder’s shot was blocked, but Vladimir Fedotov’s wards were lucky with the rebound. The ball was picked up by Jorge Carrascal, found the head of Jesús Medina with a jewelry canopy, and the head of the Paraguayan, in turn, sent the sports equipment into the goal net of Marinato Guilherme.

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Hero and Antihero

Yielding in the score, Lokomotiv did not concede in the game. In some episodes, the “railroad” looked much more preferable than their opponents, but they failed to convert their advantage into goals both before the break and after. The Red-Greens were lucky that they lost with a minimal score difference. Medina’s chance and Fyodor Chalov’s free kick, after which the ball hit the post, made Loko’s fans worry a lot.

At the end of the meeting, when the stadium saw off his former favorite Mukhin with a whistle, Lokomotiv fans were ready to upset another pupil. Egor Ushakov, who appeared on the field only for the second time in the championship game, turned from a hero into an anti-hero of the match in a short time.

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First, the 19-year-old forward scored a tricky goal, deceiving Marinato Guilherme himself, but the young talent was deprived of his debut ball due to a violation of the rules, and even awarded a yellow card. Just a few minutes later, the “soldier” got a second “yellow card” and was removed from the field. True, Lokomotiv did not have to triumph anyway – the score on the scoreboard remained the same, the victory in the derby was for CSKA!