Lokomotiv Moscow lost their last match in Group E of the Europa League to Marseille – 0: 1. Thus, the railroad finished fourth and dropped out of the European competition, failing to make it to the Conference League playoffs.
In order to secure a European spring, not only in the Europa League, but in the Conference League, the third most important continental club tournament, Lokomotiv, like Spartak, needed a victory in the last round of the group stage. However, achieving it objectively was much more difficult. First, Marseille is superior to Legia in all respects. And secondly, the composition of the railway workers was even farther from the optimal than Spartak’s. In particular, one of the most significant problems of their head coach Markus Gisdol was the absence of a holding midfielder Dmitry Barinov, who had gone through yellow cards.
Lokomotiv played the first half with dignity, reflecting numerous attacks from the hosts. But Marseille opened an account. This happened in the 35th minute, when, after a pass from a corner, the guests’ defenders missed the Polish striker Arkadiusz Milik, who, ahead of 17-year-old goalkeeper Daniil Khudyakov, struck an irresistible headbutt.
Soon after the break, Khudyakov came to the rescue, fearlessly rushing across to the Brazilian Gerson and hitting the ball to the side.
And a quarter of an hour later, the young goalkeeper was again in the spotlight, repelling the blow of the same Gerson in the split, hitting almost point-blank. Lokomotiv did not have such acute moments. The guests created threats to other people’s goal only on the outskirts of the penalty area. It was there that Valentin Rongier received a second yellow card for another violation on Maciej Rybus, as a result of which Marseille was left with ten men. The sharpness at the gates of the French club was added, but the Muscovites did not manage to extract any significant dividends from the numerical advantage. Moreover, in stoppage time, “Marseille” could double their advantage.
As a result – 1: 0, and in another match of group E “Lazio” and “Galatasaray” in Rome drew 0: 0. Thus, the Turkish club finished first, the Italian – the second, the French – the third, and Lokomotiv, which drew twice in six meetings, remained the last, and the play-off of the first draw of the Conference League will now definitely take place without the participation of Russian teams.
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