After a poor performance in midweek in their 2-0 UEFA Europa League defeat away to Lazio, Lokomotiv Moscow host FC Rostov at the RZD Arena on Saturday in the Russian Premier League.
Rostov have had a dismal start to the season and sit second from bottom after nine matches, having recently sacked their head coach Yuri Semin.
Match preview
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Lokomotiv have had a strong start to their 2021-22 Russian Premier League campaign and are third in the table.
They join Zenit St Petersburg as the only two undefeated sides in the division, winning four and drawing five in their first nine games this season, but still remain six points behind leaders Zenit.
Marko Nikolic's side were poor in midweek, however, and struggled against Lazio with the scoreline flattering Lokomotiv as the hosts missed a handful of goalscoring opportunities.
Having failed to win in their last two league matches, Lokomotiv will be looking to get back to winning ways against a struggling Rostov this season and will take confidence from the fact they have a 75% win record at home this season.
The three-time Russian Premier League champions also boast the best defensive record in the league this season, conceding just six goals after nine games.
Zaur Tedeev has stepped in as interim head coach for Rostov, following the departure of Yuri Semin, with Selmashi struggling near the bottom of the table in 15th after picking up just six points in nine games.
The visitors have lost their last three matches in all competitions, including a 1-0 defeat away to FC Chaika in the second round of the Russian Cup, and their last league match ended in a 2-1 defeat at home to relegation rivals Akhmat Grozny
Defensively, it has not been great for Rostov with them conceding 19 goals this season, which means they have the joint-worst defensive record along with Arsenal Tula.
Rostov's away record has been significantly better this term, picking up five of their six points on the road, and so they will be more optimistic up against Lokomotiv. However, they did lose their last away match 4-2 in the league to Krylia Sovetov.
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Team News
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The hosts have a number of injury concerns for this one with Stanislav Magkeev out with a knee injury and both Anton Miranchuk and Ze Luis also expected to miss out.
Goalkeeper Guilherme is suspended for the match and so youngster Daniil Khudyakov is set to start as the replacement.
Tin Jedvaj, Murilo and Maciej Rybus are all dealing with a variety of knocks and so may also be sidelined here.
Having lost Mathias Normann earlier this summer, Rostov have struggled to replace him and they have not been helped with fellow midfielder Kento Hashimoto also being out for the last three matches as he continues to be a doubt for the match against Lokomotiv.
Khoren Bayramyan is also an injury doubt after he missed the last match against Akhmat Grozny. However, Igor Kalinin and Viktor Melekhin returned to the squad last time out after they were initially considered doubts.
Lokomotiv Moscow possible starting lineup:
Khudyakov; Zhivoglyadov, Barinov, Pablo, Rybchinskiy; Zhemaletdinov, Maradishvili, Kulikov, Beka Beka; Anjorin, SmolovRostov possible starting lineup:
Pesyakov; Bastos, Osipenko, Hadzikadunic; Terentjev, Gigovic, Glebov, Poyarkov; Folmer, Sowe, Almqvist
We say: Lokomotiv Moscow 3-0 Rostov
Lokomotiv will be looking to bounce back from their loss in midweek to Lazio in the Europa League so we are predicting them to get the win here.
Rostov have been very poor this season and it seems likely that this will continue here against a tough side.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Lokomotiv Moscow win with a probability of 41.01%. A win for Rostov had a probability of 33.06% and a draw had a probability of 25.9%.
The most likely scoreline for a Lokomotiv Moscow win was 1-0 with a probability of 9.9%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.72%) and 2-0 (7.01%). The likeliest Rostov win was 0-1 (8.7%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.32%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with a 7.7% likelihood.
