On Thursday, starting at 16:00, Lokomotiv Moscow – Nice will play in the Europa League’s 16th European Championship finals. We anticipate a balanced match with a small advantage on the side of the guests.

Jo, 18:00: Lokomotiv Moscow – Nice

The hosts managed to get into the tour of Nice but certainly was not worth it. The decisive factor of that party was certainly the red card won by Coly in the 67th minute to 2-1 for Nice. Since then, the French have entered the siege, as they have been able to. If in the first round Nice was clear, the ratio of 6-2 (here referring to the big occasions ended with a stitch on the gate). In the second it seemed that ends in a victory for the French to a difference maybe higher, but after the reaction stupid of Coly, the Russians came to attack without further fear of retribution and came to have 65% possession and mark twice. However, it is quite obvious that the differences between the two teams are not in their favor. Lokomotiv ranks first in 8 Zenit points after 20 rounds of championship. Even if the next title seems to be heading to them, the team does not excel. In their friendly matches they lost with teams like Luzern and Ferencvaros. For the return match, we will probably see Ari in the face of the Russians’ attack, probably the second match after he played for the first time this season even on the tour. The only injured is Mykhalyk while Corluka has been replaced in the turnoff, and he is not doing so this season and is likely not to see him again.

On the other side, Nice is in the 9th championship and the chances of winning a European Cup are infinite. Thus, they did not force the victory with Nantes, the 5th place, Ciprian Tatarusanu’s team and the game ended 1-1. The fact that Racine Coly is suspended for the return is not necessarily a bad thing, especially considering the fact that the team lost on his own ground due to him. Nice also will miss Souquet, Marchand, Bihan, Jallet, and we will probably not see Santos either. However, none of them is such an important part of the game and can be replaced relatively easily. The only real problem with Nice is that due to the suspension of Coly and Santos’s problems, they are somehow forced to play with young Perraud on the left.

Lokomotiv Moscow: Guilherme-Ignatjev, Kverkvelia, Pejcinovic, Denisov- Miranchuk, Denisov, Fernandes, Farfan- Miranchuk- Ari.

Nice: Benitez-Perraud, Sarr, Dante, Burner-Seri, Cyprien, Lees-Melou-Plea, Balotelli, Saint-Maximin.

Finally, we consider this game to be similar to the tournament, but we only refer to the first 66 minutes of the first hand. Nice should go to attack to force the qualification and this could cost them, so again there should be many goals at both gates.

PREDICTION: Both teams to score / YES @ 1.72