Lokomotiv Moscow hosts Atletico Madrid

The surprising leader in Group D Lokomotiv Moscow hosts Atletico Madrid in a match from the second round of the group phase of the Champions League. The Russian side celebrated a win in Leverkusen two weeks ago, but now they have a different beast against them. Let’s take a look in our Champions League predictions.

To win against a German team on a German soil is always a big achievement. Lokomotiv Moscow did exactly this two weeks ago, when they visited the BayArena to face Bayer Leverkusen. Benedikt Howedes had the bad luck to score himself an own goal, but his teammates did the job for him. Grzegorz Krychowiak and Dmitri Barinov put the ball behind Lucas Hradecky, allowing Lokomotiv to celebrate a very important win in this group.

There’s no doubt that Juventus and Atletico Madrid are the big favourites for the first two places in this group. And if we accept that Bayer Leverkusen and Lokomotiv Moscow will fight for the third spot in the group, the Russians already took a good advantage.

Two weeks ago Atletico Madrid hosted Juventus in the Spanish capital and barely escaped losing. Hector Herrera saved Los Colchoneros from losing, scoring an equalising goal in the injury time for a 2-2 draw. The centre back Stefan Savic scored the other goal for Atletico in the game.

This is something like a transition season for Atletico. In the summer the club said goodbye to big figures like Godin, Griezmann, Rodri and Juanfran, so now the manager Diego Simeone is trying to build something new at the Wanda Metropolitano. Qualifying for the knockout phase of the Champions League is going to be the minimum Atletico will strive for.

On paper Atletico Madrid are favourites against Lokomotiv Moscow, but in our Champions League predictions we are going to advice you to be careful with this one. Playing in the Russian capital is always a big challenge for everyone.