Lokomotiv is rushing towards us
On Saturday, Gazprom-Yugra will play in Surgut the match of the 9th round of the Russian Championship against Novosibirsk Lokomotiv. Despite, what is the ninth round, this will be the eighth game for our team in the championship: meetings with "Neftyanik", ASK and Dynamo-LO postponed to January, and the games with the capital "Dynamo" and Kazan "Zenit" were held in advance. There is no need to explain the reasons for such a mess: our rival himself recently came out of quarantine, having marked just four matches in the Super League.
On the eve of Lokomotiv got a ticket to the Russian Cup final in Khanty-Mansiysk, having beaten Samotlor Nizhnevartovsk in the truncated semi-final 3:0 and yielding to "Belogoru" 2:3. Novosibirsk team in the last mast after achieving the required result (2:0 and a point in the piggy bank) released reservists. In Surgut Plamen Konstantinov is unlikely to repeat this experience - the team needs points. Which means, what we (thanks to broadcast) we will see all the strongest champions of the country at the moment.
However, Drazen Louburic is not a champion, last season he played in "Belogorie". And here is the new main binder, Novosibirsk pupil Konstantin Abaev, has a medal - he was gaining experience from the Pole Fabian Dzhizgi. Otherwise, the basis of Lokomotiv is the same: Marko Ivovi?, Sergey Savin and Alexey Rodichev in the game, Ilyas Kurkaev, Dmitry Shcherbinin and Konstantin Lyzik in the center, libero Roman Martynyuk and Golubev, always ready to go out and help the most experienced Pavel Kruglov. The opponent is not a gift, but that's not the problem: now Gazprom-Yugra is not a gift to itself.
The past semi-final of the Russian Cup highlighted our problem areas, and over the past week, it will hardly be possible to solve them - except to patch it up in a hurry. The upcoming game will be interesting precisely from the point of view of the progress of Surgut in comparison with the cup battles: the potential of individual players and the team as a whole is far from being selected, there is where to move, and I want to catch this movement. We look forward to Saturday and cheer for Gazprom-Yugra!
