On Thursday evening, Lokomotiv Moscow lost to CSKA Moscow 3-1, losing their chances of qualifying for the knockout stages of the Russian Football Cup. The match was held at CSKA Stadium in Moscow, within the fifth round of the group stage of the Russian Premier League.
The match started with CSKA's fast-paced attack, with Daniil Kozlov scoring early in the seventh minute, then Joo Victor adding a goal in the seventeenth minute, making it 2-0 early on. On the other hand, Alexander Kovalenko was able to score Lokomotiv's goal in the seventeenth minute, returning the team to the match at 2-1. However, Lokomotiv did not succeed in amending the score, as it made a fatal mistake when it opened "friendly fire" into its own goal in the 66th minute, allowing CSKA to score a third goal.
With this victory, CSKA's score increased to 8 points, placing it in second place in the fourth group standings, while Lokomotiv's score froze at 3 points in the fourth and final place. This meant that Lokomotiv lost five straight matches in the tournament, officially stopping them from any chance of qualifying for the knockout rounds.
The standings of Group 4 indicate that the Rostov team leads the list with 12 points, followed by Akron Tolyadi with 7 points. In the final round of the group stage, CSKA will host Akron on November 24, while Lokomotiv will host Rostov the next day.
This result shows the challenges Lokomotiv faces in its current campaign, while CSKA continues to rise in the group standings thanks to continuous wins.