The Russian Premier League season is 7 games old and already the defending champions seem unlikely to retain their crown. Spartak Moscow are down in 10th place having won only 2 of their 7 matches and sit 11 points adrift of current league leaders Zenit St Petersburg.
Russian Premier League – Lokomotiv Stadium, Moscow – Saturday 25th August – 19:00 CET
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Draw Best Odd of: 3 at BetVictor |
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Lokomotiv Moscow
UralHowever, one Moscow based club is making a decent fist of staying with Zenit and that’s Lokomotiv Moscow. Lokomotiv Moscow finished down in 8th place last season and despite qualifying for the Europa League by winning the Russian Cup, did not have a great season. Their opponents in this match, Ural, finished 12 points behind Lokomotiv Moscow in the league table last season and would do well to finish above them this campaign.
Lokomotiv Moscow Form
Lokomotiv Moscow have started the season strongly and have lost just 1 of their 7 league games. The defeat came at home to Tosno, in what was a shock result considering Tosno’s place just above the relegation playoff zone.
Other than that defeat, Lokomotiv Moscow have won all their home matches against Arsenal Tula, Anzhi and SKA Khabarovsk. The interesting thing about those matches is that they all finished 1-0. Lokomotiv Moscow are generally hard to beat at home in the Russian Premier League and have lost only 4 of their last 16 home matches.
Ural Form
Ural are a very interesting team in that they have not won many games this season but have proven very difficult to beat in the Russian Premier League.
Having drawn their opening match at home 1-1 with Rostov, Ural travelled to Dinamo Moscow and picked up a good 1-0 win. However, that was there last victory and since then they have embarked on a run of drawn games which has seen them remain undefeated but pick up just 5 additional points.
There have been draws with Ufa, Krasnodar, Zenit, Arsenal Tula and CSKA Moscow.
Away from home Ural are undefeated in their last 3 games, defeating Dinamo Moscow and picking up a point at Krasnodar and Arsenal Tula.
Team News
Lokomotiv Moscow are without Vedran Corluka and Ari who are both carrying injuries. Dimitri Barinov is also a doubt and Portuguese forward Eder is unlikely to arrive in time to take any part in the match.
Ural are without Vladimir Khozin who is injured. Both Edgar Manucharyan and Nikolay Dimitrov are unlikely to play any part in the match but midfielder Petrus Boumal has recently joined the club and may feature from the bench.
Top Betting Tips
Looking at the recent form of both teams in the Russian Premier League, the draw appears to be the most favourable outcome here. Lokomotiv Moscow have been inconsistent in recent weeks whereas Ural are the draw specialists. Ladbrokes offer 9/2 for the game to end level.
There have been under 2.5 goals scored in Lokomotiv Moscow’s last 5 home league games and in 6 of Ural’s 7 games this season. Under 2.5 goals is available at 4/6 with Ladbrokes.
Lokomotiv Moscow have scored only 3 goals in their last 5 home league matches and Ural have scored 1 or less in 9 of their last 12 away league games. The 1-1 correct score is 10/1 with Ladbrokes.