But it will be difficult.

Good to know CSKA

– “Soldiers” have some tough matches against “Urals”. “Bumblebees” and Muscovites met in the final of the Camino RPL Cup of Russia, and before that they played each other in the league. Neither match developed easily for Vladimir Fedotov’s wards. The Urals played on a collision course and created sharpness at Akinfeev’s gate. For the first time, the Rossoneri managed to win: Anton Zabolotny’s goal and a penalty kick helped. The cup match turned out to be an order of magnitude more difficult – Yekaterinburg in Moscow took the lead in the 70th minute and was very close to keeping the lead. However, a controversial penalty allowed CSKA avoid defeat. The second leg will take place in May at the Yekaterinburg Arena.

– In general, the “soldiers” in the second half of the season gained serious momentum, although before the winter break there was a lot of skepticism at the helm of the club towards Fedotov. It all started with a victory over Krasnodar in a two-legged Russian Cup. After the defeat of Sochi in the Premier League, the capital’s team defeated the Wings of the Soviets and sensationally beat Zenit – 1:0. After that, the Fedotov team won 3 more championship victories.

– Legionnaires who led the game CSKA in early autumn they lose the competition. Fedotov found a new combination in the forward group with the previous arrangement: Fedor Chalov went down to the inside position, where he plays with Oblyakov, and Anton Zabolotny comes out the winner. This option proved so successful that both Jesus Medina and Jorge Carrascal sat on the bench. The last, according to rumors, “army” ready to be replaced by another player – the club agreed contract terms with Ahmed Radwan, who now plays for Al-Ahly. At this stage, Jorge doesn’t really have such an influence on the game – earlier, his way of solving episodes on his own brought results, but now something has broken, so questions about the possibility of selling are logical.

Approximate composition CSKA (3-4-2-1): Akinfeev – Rosha, Diveev, Moises – Oblyakov, Zdelar, Mendez, Gaich – Chalov, Medina – Zabolotny.

Good to know about Lokomotiv

– It is interesting how Lokomotiv and CSKA. When they crossed paths in the first round, it was a clash between two teams on the decline – only the “railwaymen” had it many times stronger. Now CSKA on the rise and is about to overtake Spartak, moving up to the top 3, while Lokomotiv has set its sights on the top five and is actively picking up points.

– The only team that left Loko without points in the spring part of the championship, This is Zenith. During the first half, the red-greens gave the blue-white-blues some resistance and maintained the established pace. True, it is still difficult for Mikhail Galaktionov’s wards to do this throughout the entire meeting.

– Artyom Dzyuba, Maxim Glushenkov and Sergey Pinyaev incredibly quickly find themselves in the Moscow team. The 34-year-old former Zenith striker has long shown that he has a fiery time when he faces harsh criticism. For 6 matches RPL as part of Lokomotiv, Artyom scored 6 goals and provided 4 assists – this is more than half of his performance last season for St. Petersburg. Maxim for a long time could not get into the Spartak base – the young striker is not deprived of talent, he reads the episode perfectly and connects to the right zones. But it was felt that he was missing an intermediate link between the First League club and the great Russian. In “Wings” Glushenkov opened to the maximum, scored 5 + 5 in the goal + pass system – and again went to the capital. Only now he is an important part of the Lokomotiv system, and the striker is already having his most productive season. He has 9 goals and 7 assists in 22 games. RPL. Pinyaev, on the other hand, has become the engine of the team’s attacks, to attempt a thread of interaction with Dzyuba: his transfer to Lokomotiv no longer causes concern.

Approximate composition of Lokomotiv (4-2-3-1): Lantratov – Tiknizyan, Magkeev, Konti, Nenakhov – Karpukas, Barinov – Pinyaev, Glushenkov, Kamano – Dzyuba.

Good to know about the comparison

– In the last two meetings, the victory was by CSKA, but before that, Lokomotiv had won four matches in a row, including the elimination of the rossoblùs from the Russian Cup in the 2020/21 season (3-0). Then the gates of the “army squad” were hit by Francois Camano and Grzegorz Krychowiak. Own goal scored by Ivan Oblyakov.

– The top scorer of the derby remains Seydou Doumbia, career Ivorian striker CSKA 6 times hit the gates of Lokomotiv. The “railway workers” have no such players: Miranchuk scored 1 goal against the “army team”, Dzyuba scored “red-blue” 3 times. Pinyaev and Glushenkov have zero points.

Forecast Soccer.en: Loko has proven to be able to hold any pace and withstand any level of resistance. On overcompensation, the team looks extremely impressive. At the same time CSKA manages to pick up more threads in his hands and find weaknesses even in the champion of Russia. This will be one of the brightest matches this weekend: we bet on victory CSKA. The rossoblù are very close to the top three, but Spartak must overcome, while it is weak – no one knows when the “red and whites” will emerge from the crisis.