Lokomotiv M – Zenit

In the main match of the round, the opponents will exchange goals.

Lokomotiv went into the winter break, which in Russian football lasts about three months, as a full-fledged contender for the championship title. However spring events already split the quartet of ambitious clubs—Krasnodar, Zenit, CSKA and Lokomotiv—into two halves. The reigning champion and the country’s vice champion began to compete for the main Russian football trophy of the current season, while Lokomotiv and CSKA started making serious slip-ups that practically nullified their autumn efforts. Now the railwaymen sit in third place in the table, seven points behind the leader and the upcoming opponent. Probably only a win can bring Lokomotiv back into the title race. Zenit, a week and a half ago, played a key match of the second half of the season, in which at their home arena they could not beat Krasnodar (1-1). After that match the psychological and competitive edge went to the reigning champion, but it melted away literally within a week. In the previous round, Murad Musaev’s team dropped points, which allowed Zenit for the first time in many months of the season to move into first place. Now the aforementioned advantages in the race for the championship title are on the side of Sergei Semak’s team, but will this help them win at Lokomotiv’s stadium? Bookmakers have named the guests as the favorites for the upcoming match, offering odds of 2.10 on their victory. Lokomotiv can be considered one of the strongest Premier League teams at home. At their stadium the railwaymen have not lost a single match this season. At the same time, Zenit has won less than half of its away games: 5 of 12. Moreover, Semak’s team away record is quite decent — on average 1.5 goals per match. Considering that both clubs score on average about two goals per game, regardless of where they play, a bet on both teams to score seems quite obvious. At least in the first round Zenit’s 2-0 win over Lokomotiv became the first meeting since 2023 in which the opponents did not exchange goals. Let’s bet on their mutual scoring.