Preview of the match Lokomotiv U-21 - Dynamo U-21: where to watch, news and opponent

Mikhail Kobyakov’s team will play their third match at the final stage of the Youth League 2024 at the Sapsan Arena at the address: Moscow, st. Bolshaya Cherkizovskaya, 125 lit. 21.

Dynamo fans will be allocated one of the sectors of the arena. Admission to the game is free, there is no need to buy or receive tickets before the match!

You can follow the main events of the match in the match center on our website, as well as on the club’s social networks VKontakte and Telegram.

You can watch the live video broadcast of the game:

– in the official Super League account on VKontakte using this link

The meeting starts at 18:00 Moscow time.

The previous match, in which the blue and whites met in Novogorsk with Moscow Spartak, was already the second personal meeting for both teams. And this despite the status of a newcomer to Russian women's football: the red-whites made their debut this season in both the Youth League and the Super League). For the first time, Dynamo and Spartak met in their new status back in the winter at pre-season training camps in Turkey. Then the Dynamo team were stronger, who, thanks to the efforts of Daniella Petrova and Taisiya Razvorotneva, won a landslide victory (2:0).

The official game in the Youth League turned out completely differently for Mikhail Kobyakov’s team. The red-and-whites, who showed their medal ambitions in their debut season, were eager to take revenge on the blue-and-whites, and even on their field. And I must admit, they succeeded.

From the first minutes it was a double-edged game with numerous approaches to the goal, but these moments did not lead to goals. And yet, the guests were more acute at first, actively using the flanks and escalating the situation in the Dynamo penalty area. Such pressure was bound to produce results sooner or later. Therefore, it was logical for Spartak’s goal in the 30th minute, and how after it the Spartak team, having received a powerful charge of confidence, ran forward and threatened Arina Taranchenko’s goal more than once.

Towards the end of the first half, our girls finally perked up, became more active and began to play much faster, which almost immediately bore fruit. In the 43rd minute, Dynamo earned the right to a penalty kick, which was coolly converted by Anastasia Orlova – 1:1.

The beginning of the second half, as well as the beginning of the match, was more active by the guests. Alas, this activity brought them results again. After another set piece at the Dynamo goal, the ball found the head of a Spartak football player, and the score became 1:2 in favor of Spartak. A few minutes after the second goal was missed, the Dynamo coaching staff tried to change the game with substitutions, sending Anastasia Linnikova and Daria Guskova onto the field, but almost immediately the blue and white conceded the third goal, missing Spartak forward Elizaveta Petrunkina, who took a well-aimed shot from a distance and increased the guests' advantage up to two goals – 1:3...

The blue and white tried to win back until the final whistle, but they couldn’t even reduce the difference in the score. The first capital derby between Dynamo and Spartak in the history of the Youth League was left to the red and white.

— The first half, both in terms of content and creation, was generally good. The game went on with a variable advantage - either Spartak took control of the ball, or we took control. However, once again we were let down by the implementation of critical moments. Thanks to the penalty, they managed to equalize the score, and in general it spoke of equality on the field.

In the second half, we noticeably got weaker physically, and Spartak outran us in some respects. When we stopped keeping up with the opponent, they had more time to carry out attacks and other technical actions, especially for counterattacks. Unfortunately, this is a serious problem that is not occurring for the first time. We couldn’t revive the game through substitutions, — said Mikhail Kobyakov, head coach of the Dynamo youth team, after the match.

Blue and White midfielder Anastasia Orlova also tried to understand the reasons for the defeat in the derby:

— In the second half, we pressed close to our goal, did not attack and did not put pressure on, which is why we got the second goal. Then we didn’t have time to collect ourselves and the second ball flew in, also chaotic.

After the goal was scored, we felt the game, started attacking more, and in principle there were a lot of chances in the first half. The last pass in the final stage was missing to score. We need goals because in recent matches we have scored very few goals and conceded a lot.

The defeat from Spartak extended Dynamo's winless streak: the blue and white have not won 4 matches in a row, and their last victory at the moment was won at home over the WFC Sochi (7:0) on May 12. Since then, Mikhail Kobyakov’s team has had 3 defeats and one draw.

All this, of course, distances the blue and white from the fight for medals: Dynamo still has no points scored at the second stage of the Youth League, and the gap from 5th place, which is now occupied by Spartak, is already 10 points.

The blue and white's opponent in the 3rd round, the youth team of the Lokomotiv JFK, has existed since 2020. In their first season, the red-green youth team called “Lokomotiv-Molniya” played in the “Center” zone of the First League, where they eventually took the last, 9th place.

Since 2021, the Lokomotiv youth team has been playing in the Youth League and doing so with much greater success than in the league of a lower rank. So, in their first season in the youth championship, the railway workers took 6th place among 8 participants, and in the next season they became champions of the Youth League. As we remember very well, the 2022 season was the debut for the Dynamo Football Club, which was then represented by a youth team. And it was the blue and white, under the leadership of Sergei Lavrentyev, that competed with the railway women for the title until the last round.

The head-to-head meeting between Dynamo and Lokomotiv, which took place on October 23 at the Sapsan Arena in Cherkizovo, was especially bright at the end of that season. Kaylan Williams, then playing for Loko, opened the scoring in that game, but the Dynamo team showed incredible character and the will to win. Even in the first half, Liana Kotelnikova equalized the score with a beautiful shot from the Loko penalty area. It is no coincidence that this goal was later recognized by fans as the best of the season!

And then, in the 93rd minute of the match, Valeriya Azeeva, who came on as a substitute at the end of the second half, brought the blue and white the most important victory in the fight for gold medals! You can remember how it all happened in the episode “Between Us, Girls” at this link.

And yet, the championship title then went to Lokomotiv. In the remaining two rounds, Alexander Zayakin’s team played flawlessly and was only one point ahead of the blue and white, taking the gold of that crazy Youth League season...

The 2023 post-championship season has not turned out so well for the red-greens. The team made it into the top eight teams at the preliminary stage, but at the final stage it was unable to impose a fight on the leaders CSKA and Zenit in the championship race, and in the last round it completely lost at home to Krasnodar and even lost bronze medals to the southerners.

If we accept that Lokomotiv alternates successful seasons with unsuccessful ones, then this one certainly lays claim to championship status. The fact is that the team from Cherkizovo has not lost yet this year: it has 8 wins in 8 matches, and half of them are major ones! The railway workers currently occupy 1st place in the standings, with the best goal difference of 17-3.

The main stars of the current Loko youth team are midfielders Sofia Stelmakhova and Polina Pavlova, who have already scored 9 goals each, forward Ksenia Kaurova (8 goals), and goalkeeper Ksenia Agapkina, who is actively involved in working with the main team.

In the offseason, after Alexander Zayakin left the post of head coach, the Lokomotiv youth team was headed by 53-year-old Nikolai Kovardaev, who should be well known to Dynamo fans. In the 90s, he played for different teams of our football club - the reserve team, Dynamo-2 and even the main team. But he made a great contribution to the development of Dynamo youth as a coach: for many years he worked at the Dynamo Academy, headed the blue and white youth team, with which he won silver and bronze medals at the youth championship, and was part of the coaching staff of the main team under Dana Petrescu and Stanislav Cherchesov. In general, a rich Dynamo biography.

Having headed the youth team of the Lokomotiv Sports Club in March of this year, Nikolai Nikolaevich made his debut in women's football. As can be seen from the results of his team, the debut can already be called a success - the railway workers under his leadership, along with CSKA, Zenit, and Krasnodar, are considered one of the main contenders for gold medals, second in their history.

If you can no longer find Dynamo traces in the youth Lokomotiv, except on the coaching bridge, then in our youth team there are enough former representatives of the team from Cherkizovo: these are defenders Anastasia Gnennaya (2021-2023: 32 matches, 6 goals, champion of the Youth League - 2022), Daria Guskova (2023: 7 matches) and Anastasia Orlova (2022: 6 matches, 1 goal, Youth League champion 2022). They are also in the main team: the same Kaylan Williams, Elina Samoilova and Alexandra Nesterovich, who is now on loan at the Belarusian Sports Club Vitebsk, played for the teams of Sports Club Lokomotiv in different years.

But as for the history of the confrontation between the two clubs, the teams have not met in official games for quite a long time - since that autumn thriller match in 2022, in which the Dynamo team beat the railway workers at the Sapsan Arena and which we already recalled above. The teams did not meet each other last season. At the preliminary stage they played in different groups, and at the final stage they found themselves in different halves of the standings: Lokomotiv played in the one where the clubs fought for 1-8 places, and Dynamo for 9-16 places.

But there were friendly matches - both last year and already this off-season. Lokomotiv was always stronger in them: 1:5 and 0:3. So in the history of the confrontation, the advantage is now on the side of the red-greens: 3 wins for Loko, one win for Dynamo, the goal difference is 3-11.

The first official meeting within the Youth League in almost two years will be served by a refereeing team led by Anastasia Varfolomeeva, who will be assisted by assistant referees Ekaterina Kozyreva (both from Moscow) and Ekaterina Chernova (Ulyanovsk).

Previously, Varfolomeeva worked at Dynamo matches: in the Youth League - against Chertanovo (2:1), Strogino (0:0) and CSKA (1:3); in the Super League - against Chertanovo (1:1); in the 1/16 of the Russian Cup - against WFC Strogino (11:1).

Dynamo's balance of victories and defeats under refereeing Varfolomeeva: 5 matches - 2 wins, 2 draws, one defeat, goal difference 15-6.