The key facts

  • Lokomotiv lost to Rubin 0:1 in Round 14 of the RPL, with the only goal scored by Yegor Teslenko in the 71st minute
  • After the defeat, head coach Mikhail Galaktionov left his post
  • Olga Smorodskaya called the situation at the club 'awful' and said the problem is not the coach

Defeat and resignation

Moscow Lokomotiv lost to Kazan Rubin 0:1 in the home match of Round 14 of the Russian Premier League. The only goal was scored by Kazan player Yegor Teslenko in the 71st minute. After this defeat, the team's head coach Mikhail Galaktionov left his post. In the RPL standings, Lokomotiv sits in 15th place with 11 points.

Smorodskaya's reaction

Former Lokomotiv president Olga Smorodskaya, in a comment cited by Championship, called the situation at the club terrible: 'The team is joyless, with dead eyes, believing in nothing. The team understands that it is not about Galaktionov. Simply awful! My heart is bleeding.' Thus, in her assessment, the causes of the crisis lie deeper than the personality of the coach, who left the club after the match against Rubin.

Context

Earlier, Galaktionov's departure from Lokomotiv was described as an urgent necessity. The team's results at the time of his resignation — 15th place and 11 points after 14 rounds — confirm that the club was in a zone close to the bottom of the table, and the defeat to Rubin became the immediate trigger for the personnel decision.