Lokomotiv Moscow – Schalke 04

Lokomotiv Moscow hosts Schalke 04 in a match from Group D of the UEFA Champions League. Let’s see what’s going on with these two teams before their clash at the Russian capital.

Lokomotiv Moscow began their participation in the tournament with a loss. The Russian champion suffered a heavy 0-3 defeat during the visit to Galatasaray in Istanbul. Garry Rodrigues, Eren Derdiyok and Selcuk Inan scored for the Turkish team, while Lokomotiv were unable to answer to these three strikes. You can be sure that the Russians hoped for a little bit better start in the competition this year.

In the Russian Premier League Lokomotiv are also not doing very well. The champions are currently 7th in the league standings, trailing on 10 points behind the leader Zenit. In their last five games in the Premier League, Lokomotiv won just twice. Including against Akhmat in the previous round, thanks to goals from Manuel Fernandes and Rifat Zhemaletdinov.

But if you think that Lokomotiv are not doing well in their domestic league, you shall see how Schalke 04 are performing. The Royal Blues started the new campaign in the Bundesliga with five consecutive losses, which was really shocking. In the previous round Schalke finally achieved a win, beating Mainz 05 at home with a goal from Alessandro Schopf.

In the Champions League Schalke 04 started their campaign with a 1-1 draw at home against Porto at the Veltins-Arena. Breel Embolo opened the score for the German team, but Otavinho scored a penalty for Porto and equalized 15 minutes before the end.

How you can see, this is a game between two teams with some obvious problems since the start of the new season. The only difference is that Schalke at least won a point in their first match in the CL. But now Lokomotiv will try to bounce back after their defeat against Galatasaray.